Tightwad Tuesday: Birthdays on a Budget

Photo courtesy of kittisak; freedigitalphotos.net

Is anyone with me on the cost of birthday parties?  It can absolutely get out of control!  I can clearly remember having 16 kids and their parents over for my oldest daughter's 4th birthday.  The activities I planned were right out of Martha Stewart; the food was generous and cost me over $300.  I cannot even remember how much I spent on overflowing favor bags.

It's a darn good thing I wasn't serving drinks!

Has anyone else gotten caught up in this?  The feeling that you've got to entertain to the hilt...you've got to have this and that and the other thing just perfect?

Pish posh.

I remember the day I realized I was making a huge mistake.  It was probably 5 years ago or so, and I was at a birthday party with my oldest, BananaG13.  The kids played outdoor games and were having a fabulous time.  The parents picked up 2 pizzas and had cake and ice cream and the kids were thrilled. 

It seemed simple, but that just really knocked my socks off.  I thought, "Here they are, doing this simple thing, and the kids are having a great time!"  They had much more fun than they did at the party I had a few years ago, where I was trying to force them into a balloon tunnel that Martha made me create.

I recently had a birthday party for my son, BubbaB8.  I think I spent less than $30 out of pocket on the party; all of the children had a fabulous time, and so did I!

Printed these from a template in MS Word.  Cut the circles from orange paper, then had my darling love draw the lines on the circles.  I had paper and ink and a marker, so I don't have a cost for these included.

Let's break down my costs:

Sports themed paper goods - 2 packs each plates, cups, napkins, dessert plates, plus a banner and tablecloth...purchased at the dollar store:  $10

Sports themed favor bags, plus whistles and candy to go in them - bags, $1 for 20, whistles, 89 cents for 6 (bought 2), candy 1.99 for a big bag (bought 2 bags)...$6.76

2 Take-n-bake pizzas from the grocery store - $10.96

Fruit punch and lemonade - I buy sugar free packs...I probably used two pitchers, @ 33 cents per pitcher, 66 cents.

Cupcakes decorated to look like basketballs.  I made these from ingredients on hand; not sure how to estimate my costs.

It was a 3 hour party.  The boys played a ball game with my darling love for the first hour.  Then, pizza and cupcakes for some very hungry boys!  After eating, they settled down and BubbaB8 opened his gifts.  The final activity was rocket launching.  My darling love had purchased a model rocket for BubbaB8's birthday gift, and they had worked all week putting it together for a debut launch with BubbaB8's friends.

It was simple.  It was fun.  It was affordable.  It was perfect.



The rocket launch!

Balloon/Price photo; Kittisak; freedigitalphotos.net