Children love counting down to their birthdays, happily marking the days off the calendar as the day draws near — anticipating a party full of cake, presents, friends, and yummy food! However, for parents, birthday parties can sometimes bring to mind the stress of another planning task. There’s a whole lot of planning that goes into a child’s birthday party; guest list, location, invitations, food, gifts, and games. No matter how hectic the planning may be, it’s something all parents willingly go through to try to make that day special for their child. These inexpensive birthday party planning tips can help! It is easy hold a cheap birthday party for your child that won’t break the bank, but will be a great experience for all who attend! Try these five frugal birthday party ideas to help keep things fun and inexpensive.
Brilliant Inexpensive Birthday Party Ideas & Planning Tips:
The problem with throwing your child a birthday party is the cost it entails, especially when the household consists of more than one child. Multiply that with every succeeding birthday year and the yearly parties can be quite a financial burden to an already tight household budget. Here is the good news- parties don’t have to be costly. With these inexpensive birthday party planning tips, you can throw a fabulous, memorable party for your child on a budget and your child will never even know.
Choosing A Location- Children’s Birthday Party Places
Think out of the box and look for children birthday party places that you can use for free. Try asking your child’s teacher if the school will allow you to throw a mini-birthday party during lunch break. The classroom or cafeteria is a great venue to throw a party for all of your child’s friends. This lessens the burden of sending out invites and accommodating parent chaperones since all of your child’s friends will already be in school that day. All you’d have to do is bring the snacks (little mini hot-dogs and burgers are fun treats to serve), and prepare a few parlor games, complete with small prizes for the winners.
Another alternative is heading out to your local park and throwing a barbeque party. Some parks may charge a fee to rent out the barbeque pit, but it’s inconsequential considering that you’ll have a wide open space to throw your party. You no longer have to worry about whether you’d be able to fit all your guests into a venue hall; and the entertainment is more or less taken care of since the children can run around the playground while the adults cook up the food.
Holding your party in your home or backyard are also fine options. Remember, kids just want to play and will have fun anywhere! A more inexpensive venue allows you to save significant amounts of money so you can better afford food, activities and decorations.
Birthday Party Invitation Ideas
Among useful birthday party planning tips to lower your expenses, is making your own birthday party invitations and getting your child involved in decorating them. They will be more personalized that way, making your guests feel a lot more special. Your child also gets a chance to be part of the party planning and will treasure the party even more when it finally arrives.
Another birthday party invitation idea if you’re internet savvy is to try evites. Almost everyone has an email address. This way, the invite won’t get lost in the mail and your guests can RSVP instantly, making it easier for you to plan the party.
Birthday Party Food
Catered food can be overpriced since catering companies have to account for overhead costs. Sit down with your child and outline a party menu that’s easy to prepare and consume. One of the best birthday party planning tips is to serve easy snacks and finger food such as pigs in a blanket, skewered hot dogs, mini burgers and fruit plates. They are great examples of kid-friendly food that you can make at home.
To avoid spending $40 on a birthday cake, simply a cake in their favorite shape. Or make bake a batch of cup cakes and ice with “Happy Birthday (insert name here)”, a letter per cupcake. Among frugal birthday party tips, making your own food is not only a money saver, it also ensures you know what is in the food for kids that may have allergies. My kids love their homemade birthday cakes.
Entertainment
Instead of hiring professional entertainers, like magicians and clowns, set-up your own entertainment area. Channel your inner party host and facilitate games such as freeze-dance, and limbo contests. Get the other adults in the party to help out by distributing the prizes and party favors.
Don’t worry about the activities too much, and forget about hiring expensive entertainment, as kids will more often than not just go off and do their own thing. If it’s warm weather, just make sure there’s plenty of outdoor toys and activities available – footballs, trampoline, paddling pool, ball games – and let ‘em loose in your back garden.
If it’s not outdoor weather, then traditional party games like musical chairs, hot potato, Simon says and pass the parcel require minimal set up and spending, can be adapted easily for your theme, and are a firm favorite for a reason! Remember to get small prizes for winners of games, such as fun-size chocolates or bouncey balls for maximum engagement and fun from the party games. Alternatively, just crank up the kids’ music or pop on a favorite film.
DIY Decorations
One of the simplest ways to save costs is to cut down on the expensive decorations, and remember that as long as kids are having fun they won’t care what the place looks like! Excessive decoration tends to be more for the competitive Mom stakes than the kids. A bunch of balloons is a great party decoration that can also serve as a party favor when the kids leave.
Making your own decorations means that you have a fun craft project to do with your child, and it gets them even more excited about their birthday (make sure they don’t consume any sugar or caffeinated beverages in the week before otherwise they’ll be bouncing off the walls!). Try making tissue paper flowers, lengths of paper chains using a pack of brightly colored paper, or zig-zag streamers by cutting a sheet of colored paper in half, and then on the long sides, cut every 1in on opposite sides, making sure you cut until there’s about a 1in gap left at the end. Then stick together and hang!
Birthday Party Favor Ideas
Keep your birthday party favors simple. Instead of stuffing gift bags with toys and other knick-knacks, fill them with candy and party pictures. Set up a Polaroid booth and take candid pictures of the guests. Stick these pictures on a photo wall and let the guests pick and choose the ones they want to bring home as a souvenir. This a more personalized birthday party favor to thank your guests.
You may also want to check the Penny Hoarder for 100 Places That Will Give You Free Stuff on Your Birthday.
Joint Birthday Party
Holding a joint party with one of your child’s close friends is a great way to halve the cost of a party for both families. As long as the birthdays are in the same month, you shouldn’t have a problem organizing the date.
It’s important that you work out a few ground rules and a budget early on to keep everyone happy. Make sure that you get together with your little ones for an extensive planning session to decide on themes, location, invites, guest list, food and decorations, and avoid doing it over the phone or internet as it makes it difficult to resolve any issues that might arise. As all parents know, kids can be pretty fickle with friendship, so make sure the two have been friends for a while and try to keep relations sweet!
Conclusion
Your child’s birthday should be a day for the family to celebrate, not a day to worry about the party bill. Remember to set a budget and stick with it. There’s really no need to splurge. Use these inexpensive birthday party ideas to save. As long as you create an environment where everyone has fun and the party ends with your child feeling special and loved, you’ve thrown a successful party that everyone will treasure in the years to come.
I hope you found these birthday party planning tips helpful. What are your favorite inexpensive birthday party ideas? Let us know your best tips for a cheap birthday party in the comments or on social media @familyfocusblog!
Related Posts:
10 Birthday Party Games for Kids