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How to Host a Terrific Kid’s Birthday Party on a Budget

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As exciting as celebrating the birth of your child is, a slight dread may creep up too at the thought of emptying your wallet on the festivities.  Don’t despair.  There are plenty of ways to trim costs across the board.  Even if your son is dead-set on having a Super Mario party, here are a few tips on how to save without compromising on throwing a fun and memorable birthday party.

 

Tips for Hosting a Kid's Birthday Party for Cheap

  • Make your own invitations.  Printers these days are fully equipped with photo quality, color graphics that enable you to produce your own, creative invites.
  • Schedule in the afternoon to minimize the amount of food you’ll need to provide.  If the party has a 2 or 3 o’clock starting time, parents will feed their kids lunch before coming over.  You should have cake, ice cream, drinks and something salty like pretzels or peanuts.
  • Unless your child has specifically requested a character theme party, browse online and at party favor stores for discount decorations.  Sometimes one color in particular will go on sale and you can capitalize on it by using that for 90% of the flair and buy 10% more elaborate or theme specific decorations.  Make your own signs out of poster board and glitter too.
  • Every kid’s birthday party has to have party favors, but they don’t have to be elaborate to be awesome.  Head to the dollar store and bake a batch of cookies.  These items don’t have to be fancy, just fun for a day or two.
  • Inexpensive activities for the party sort of depend on the weather.  For summer parties, all you need is a sprinkler and/or a slip-and-slide.  Winter parties might be more video game or movie-viewing focused.  You can even make a simple craft together like a picture frame out of popsicle sticks using paint, glue and knick-knacks from the party favor bags.  Then take photos during the party and print them out at the end so that each kiddo has a picture for their new frame.

However you decide to cut corners when it comes to throwing your kid’s party, remember that the more creative you’re willing to be the more money you'll save in the long run.  Your kid is going to be excited as long as they feel like they’re getting a little extra special attention and everyone is having a good time.

Melissa @ Mommy Living the Life of Riley: I'm a former 7th grade Science teacher turned stay-at-home mom that lives in Houston, Texas. I am married to my college sweetheart and have a beautiful daughter named Riley, that definitely keeps me on my toes! I am also involved in starting a small business which would both manufacture and sell an invention that I've patented, called Toothpaste 2 Go. I love interacting with my readers and hope to learn as much about you as you learn about me!

View Comments (7)

  • Nice ones :D. Maybe we can ask the children to make the invitation cards with their handwriting and pictures (people might think its cute), I mean if its not a surprise party.

    • That's a great idea! Actually, that's what we're doing with my daughter's birthday invitations for her party next month. She's too young yet to write anything legibly, but she's decorating the envelopes with pictures and special "abstracts". :)

  • Birthday parties can be a lot of fun but they can be a very stressful time too! I know at our son's last birthday we were still working on things up until the minute of his party. Don't get me wrong it was worth it but the stress level is incredible for these things in today's modern world. Whatever happened to the days of a simple birthday cake and some presents....sigh...

    Aaron :)

    • You're right...we're already stressing over the little things to make my daughter's party just perfect and it's still a month away! Aarrgghh...the things we do to be good parents and show our kids we love them! :)

  • My son has a fall birthday, so I stock up now on clearance school supplies for party favors! Cute stuff, like character erasers, little soccer-ball pencil sharpeners, and crayons, not protractors, I promise!

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