We recently celebrated a birthday in our family. I love to throw a great party but, of course, in frugal fashion. The key to saving money on children’s parties is to plan well in advance, make all the food (including the cake) yourself, and avoid those expensive “character themed” party supplies. Here is the method that we use when planning a birthday party for our children:
1. The birthday child chooses a theme. This year’s choice was the Disney Princesses. I looked through our collection of books and toys and gathered all those together with this theme. I also borrowed other Disney Princess theme toys from friends to be used in decorating for the party.
2. Visit the local party store. I make a quick trip to the party store (without the children)to see what party supplies are available in the chosen theme. I make note of the colors used. In the Disney Princesses the predominant colors are pink and white. I write down the prices of the individual party supplies.
3. Make a trip to the Dollar Store. I head to the dollar store and select party goods in the same colors as the theme picked. I decided that I wanted to purchase the Disney Princess napkins from the party store, so I bought all the other paper goods from the dollar store. I chose a pack of white plates, pink and white streamers, and a solid pink table cloth. I also picked up plain pink gift bags for the treat bags and an assortment of small toys to fill the goody bags. I selected items such as bubbles, sidewalk chalk, jump ropes, etc.
4. Put it all together. On the day of the party, I decorated the kitchen table with the pink table cloth and made a festive centerpiece of the Disney Princess books and toys. I fanned the Disney Princess napkins around the table and clustered the pink goody bags in one area. I prepared all the food myself including the birthday cake. I just focus on simple things like finger foods which go over well because the kids are all too geared up to sit down and eat anyway. We play fun games and have cake and ice cream. Everyone has a great time and we don’t spend a fortune for it.
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These are good tips, but I’m not sure if you should make all the food and cake yourself in order to save time and money. There are plenty of affordable restaurants and caterers that can prepare foods for you as it is their speciality.
This may not be the most amazing “frugal” birthday party idea, but we just celebrated my son’s 3rd birthday at Build-a-Bear.
If you stay away from all the accessories, its not too terribly expensive.
But the fact that they take part in the decision making of building the bear I guess has quite an effect on him.
My son takes takes of his bear like he has a child, or at least a very good friend.
I would highly reccomend it.
Great article. Many people do not realize how important bitrthday parties are to the child who is having a birthday. Children need to have a special day.
Saw and article about your site in my Goodhouse Keeping magazine and here i am. I found your site to be really helpful to me. Hopefully i’ll be able to use of lot of your suggestions. Thank you oh so much. Hope to reading more really soon..
I love this article. I’m a huge fan of buying decorations and party supplies from the dollar store. You can find tableware and other decor in almost any color, and the stuff is just as good as what they have at party supply stores.
I love the dollar store for parties too. Besides having good prices on paper goods, I am always able to find great favors for the goodie bags at a cheap price!
These are some great ideas to save some money, especially since you still used the Princess napkins, I bet the birthday girl didn’t even notice. Character theme party ware is so expensive, for my daughters last party I paid about £100 for Hello Kitty party ware that just got throw out after the party. Next year I’m sticking to just a pink and white theme!