Rasha
09-05-2010, 11:24 AM
Found via: http://moneysmartlife.com/cheap-kids-birthday-party-tips/
Birthday Party Location
1) Don’t Pay to Party:
We knew we didn’t want to host the birthday party at our house so we could keep it clean, however, the cost of renting a place to have a party was more than we wanted to pay. We ended up going to a local park, keeping the messy kids fingers off the furniture & windows but not having to pay to rent a birthday spot.
One thing to keep in mind if you have birthday party at the park is to pick a park or a spot in the park that’s close to cover in case it rains and has some nice trees to shade the kids and parents from the hot sun. Another plus is a spot that’s close to a parking area so you don’t have to lug your stuff too far.
Birthday Party Food
2) Don’t Buy a Cake
The birthday cake is usually at the center of a child’s birthday, what’s a party without cake & icing right? However, the cost of cake can also eat up a big part of your kid’s birthday budget. Baking your own cake can save you some money, it’s definitely cheaper than buying it from the store. If your kid wants a fancy themed cake that’s beyond your icing skill level, one option is to buy some themed decorations from a site like Etsy and use those on top of the cake.
3) Celebrate with Cupcakes
Another tip that can save you a little more is to make birthday cupcakes instead of a full cake. This means you don’t have to buy plates and utensils for the kids since they can just eat the cupcakes with their hands. We did this since we were going to be at the park and it meant less stuff to carry, but it also saved us some money as well.
4) Serve Snacks, Not a Meal
our food costs will also be impacted by the timing of your child’s birthday party. If you schedule the party for dinner time you’ll spend a lot more on pizza, burgers, or whatever you buy or cook up. Set the party for after lunch and before dinner time and you’ll save money on birthday party food.
5) Buy Food in Bulk
When you’re buying for a big group you can usually save money if you buy in bulk. We used our Costco membership discount to buy water, soda, and Capri Sun’s for drinks and a variety of snack foods.
Birthday Party Supplies
6) Save on Balloons
For our boy’s birthday party, it wasn’t really a party in his mind until there were balloons. If you buy the themed balloons (with their favorite Disney character) those can get pretty expensive. Instead, we stuck with solid colors and let him pick the colors of the balloons he wanted.
We decided he could get as many balloons as years he was old; four big helium balloons from the supermarket flower store only set us back $5. If you don’t want to spend the money on helium balloons, for the same price you could also buy several packages of regular balloons and blow them up yourself.
7) Avoid Party Store Prices
Another way you can save on birthday party decorations is to buy them from other crafty parents instead of party stores. We found some cool and cheap star wars decorations for his party on Etsy.
Birthday Party Games
8 ) Make Your Own Party Games
Rather than buying games to keep the kids busy you can come up with your own birthday party games. For example, instead of spending money on the classic “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”, my wife made her own “Pin the Light Saber on Yoda” game.
Neither of us are great artists but she found instructions online on how to draw Yoda, a character from the Star Wars movies. Trying to draw something like that from scratch probably wouldn’t have turned out very well but the website she found gave detailed step-by-step instructions on how to draw each part of little Jedi.
She got out a big blank piece of paper and after about 15–20 minutes she had drawn a life-sized Yoda. Then we cut light sabers from green construction paper, one for each kid.
Yoda was was taller than all the kids at the party, we taped him to the top of a card table, leaned it up against a tree, and the kids played “Pin the Light Saber on Yoda”.
Birthday Party Favors
9) Make Your Own Party Gifts
We spent money on putting together birthday gift bags for the kids but it turns out we didn’t really need to thanks to a cool Star Wars party gift idea my wife found on the web.
We bought foam noodles, cut them in half, wrapped the bottom in duct tape and each kid had their own foam light saber. There were several different colors to pick from, each kid got to choose which color they wanted and we wrote their name on it with marker.
The light sabers were a huge hit, they kept the kids entertained the whole party, chasing each other all around the park.
Not only that the kids got to take them home to play with after the party; we later found out that one little girl liked it so much she wanted to take her light saber to bed with her that night.
10) Make Your Own Thank You Card
You don’t have to buy thank you cards to send out after the birthday party. We had our son make the cards himself, not only did it cost less it was a little more personal. He can’t write yet so he just colored on some paper and my wife wrote a little note on the inside.
Saving money on a birthday party doesn’t mean that it won’t be fun for your kid. It might be a little more work for you but they’ll have just as much fun and you’ll have a smaller credit card bill. Obviously some of these tips will save more than others but all together they can save you a lot of money on your kids birthday party. Enjoy the party!
Birthday Party Location
1) Don’t Pay to Party:
We knew we didn’t want to host the birthday party at our house so we could keep it clean, however, the cost of renting a place to have a party was more than we wanted to pay. We ended up going to a local park, keeping the messy kids fingers off the furniture & windows but not having to pay to rent a birthday spot.
One thing to keep in mind if you have birthday party at the park is to pick a park or a spot in the park that’s close to cover in case it rains and has some nice trees to shade the kids and parents from the hot sun. Another plus is a spot that’s close to a parking area so you don’t have to lug your stuff too far.
Birthday Party Food
2) Don’t Buy a Cake
The birthday cake is usually at the center of a child’s birthday, what’s a party without cake & icing right? However, the cost of cake can also eat up a big part of your kid’s birthday budget. Baking your own cake can save you some money, it’s definitely cheaper than buying it from the store. If your kid wants a fancy themed cake that’s beyond your icing skill level, one option is to buy some themed decorations from a site like Etsy and use those on top of the cake.
3) Celebrate with Cupcakes
Another tip that can save you a little more is to make birthday cupcakes instead of a full cake. This means you don’t have to buy plates and utensils for the kids since they can just eat the cupcakes with their hands. We did this since we were going to be at the park and it meant less stuff to carry, but it also saved us some money as well.
4) Serve Snacks, Not a Meal
our food costs will also be impacted by the timing of your child’s birthday party. If you schedule the party for dinner time you’ll spend a lot more on pizza, burgers, or whatever you buy or cook up. Set the party for after lunch and before dinner time and you’ll save money on birthday party food.
5) Buy Food in Bulk
When you’re buying for a big group you can usually save money if you buy in bulk. We used our Costco membership discount to buy water, soda, and Capri Sun’s for drinks and a variety of snack foods.
Birthday Party Supplies
6) Save on Balloons
For our boy’s birthday party, it wasn’t really a party in his mind until there were balloons. If you buy the themed balloons (with their favorite Disney character) those can get pretty expensive. Instead, we stuck with solid colors and let him pick the colors of the balloons he wanted.
We decided he could get as many balloons as years he was old; four big helium balloons from the supermarket flower store only set us back $5. If you don’t want to spend the money on helium balloons, for the same price you could also buy several packages of regular balloons and blow them up yourself.
7) Avoid Party Store Prices
Another way you can save on birthday party decorations is to buy them from other crafty parents instead of party stores. We found some cool and cheap star wars decorations for his party on Etsy.
Birthday Party Games
8 ) Make Your Own Party Games
Rather than buying games to keep the kids busy you can come up with your own birthday party games. For example, instead of spending money on the classic “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”, my wife made her own “Pin the Light Saber on Yoda” game.
Neither of us are great artists but she found instructions online on how to draw Yoda, a character from the Star Wars movies. Trying to draw something like that from scratch probably wouldn’t have turned out very well but the website she found gave detailed step-by-step instructions on how to draw each part of little Jedi.
She got out a big blank piece of paper and after about 15–20 minutes she had drawn a life-sized Yoda. Then we cut light sabers from green construction paper, one for each kid.
Yoda was was taller than all the kids at the party, we taped him to the top of a card table, leaned it up against a tree, and the kids played “Pin the Light Saber on Yoda”.
Birthday Party Favors
9) Make Your Own Party Gifts
We spent money on putting together birthday gift bags for the kids but it turns out we didn’t really need to thanks to a cool Star Wars party gift idea my wife found on the web.
We bought foam noodles, cut them in half, wrapped the bottom in duct tape and each kid had their own foam light saber. There were several different colors to pick from, each kid got to choose which color they wanted and we wrote their name on it with marker.
The light sabers were a huge hit, they kept the kids entertained the whole party, chasing each other all around the park.
Not only that the kids got to take them home to play with after the party; we later found out that one little girl liked it so much she wanted to take her light saber to bed with her that night.
10) Make Your Own Thank You Card
You don’t have to buy thank you cards to send out after the birthday party. We had our son make the cards himself, not only did it cost less it was a little more personal. He can’t write yet so he just colored on some paper and my wife wrote a little note on the inside.
Saving money on a birthday party doesn’t mean that it won’t be fun for your kid. It might be a little more work for you but they’ll have just as much fun and you’ll have a smaller credit card bill. Obviously some of these tips will save more than others but all together they can save you a lot of money on your kids birthday party. Enjoy the party!