Five steps for planning a party that doesn’t break the bank

Recently my baby boy had his first birthday! Unbelievable! Isn’t it crazy how fast the time flies! The first few parties that we threw for my daughter were BIG! They were stressful and they cost too much money. So, we decided after 2 years of that, that we would scale it back a bit. We invite close family and a few special friends to our house. Low-key. Inexpensive. Less stress! Birthday parties still need to be special and fun though. We still decorated and made it a family affair!

Invites

You have a few options. We used our Pampers rewards and got some free Shutterfly invites! Another option would be a text invite or email invite. I’ve found a great app called the red stamp that you can use to make great, high quality text and email invites!

Color Selection for a Budget Birthday Party

We usually pick a few colors for our parties. For this party we picked green and blue. Why do we do this? Instead of spending lots of money on character plates, napkins, etc., we are able to spend a little less on solid colored items. The great thing about this…sometimes our party colors overlap so we have leftovers from one party to the next. We did pink and green for my daughter’s first birthday. We had green balloon weights. Guess what? We have used them for every party! How is that for saving some money?!

Decorations for a Budget Birthday Party

What did we use for our low cost birthday party and how can you do it too? Take a peek!

  • Crepe paper- $1 each (we already had green!)
  • Balloons-$1 each at Kroger (we got 10)
  • Dot marker pages- FREE- I made these and you can have them for free too! My daughter had a blast helping. These are some of her favorite things to do and she felt like she was such a big helper!! She loved using dot markers!
  • Monster Birthday Banner- also FREE! You can have this for free too! I used some ribbon that I had laying around at home to make this.
  • Fabric banner- $10. I didn’t actually make this for the birthday party. It is for my classroom but I figured that since it was the same colors, I would use it!
  • Paper banner-$4. I am also planning on using this for my classroom!

  

Cake for a Budget Birthday Party

Check out this cake! It was $19 at Costco! Have you ever had a Costco cake? Pros- The cake is super delicious and inexpensive! It can feed 48 people! Cons- You can pick chocolate or vanilla. No combination. There are only a handful of designs to choose from.

Food for a budget birthday party

We kept our food choices pretty basic and kid friendly. Here is what we served…

  • Shredded chicken sandwiches
  • Chips
  • Cheese and crackers
  • Meatballs
  • Goldfish
  • Fresh fruit
  • Cake and ice cream

For past parties we have also done pizza. Most places will give you a discount if you are ordering a ton of food!

So there you have it. A few ways to throw a low cost birthday party. Grab my dot marker freebie and monster banner below!

Happy Party Planning!