How to Throw a Fun Filled Party Without Blowing Your Budget.
It’s easily done; you start out planning a small and simple party and before you know it, it’s snowballed into something which requires a degree in project management and a budget fit for London Fashion Week. So, my best advice is to plan ahead and set a budget (and stick to it). You can then purchase supplies in advance, as and when you see them on offer and make sure you don’t go off list! If your child is quite young, there’s really no need to go overboard, as they will be super happy with something very simple (and they are unlikely to remember it…).
The Guest List
The one sure things that’s bound to blow any budget is when the guest list gets out of hand. So, it’s certainly worth keeping the guest list under control. While it’s a nice gesture, there’s no obligation to invite the whole class, just be thoughtful about how you hand out the invitations, so the children not invited don’t feel left out. And if you are not inviting the whole class, I’d recommend just inviting a handful, or at least less than 50% of the class and not just leave out the odd one or two.
Invitations
These days, there is really no need to spend any money at all – a simple WhatsApp message or an email will do the trick. If you want to be a little more creative, you can design electronic invites for free with paperless post or you could make paper invites yourself, or get your children to make them. If you have a little time on your hands, you may even want to create a free website for your party.
Venue
If you have space at home, then your living room or garden is clearly the cheapest option! However, it wouldn’t be my first choice to have a lot of children fired up on sugar and adrenaline charging round my house. Alternatively, if the weather is likely to be ok, then your local park would be good – many parks let you have gatherings of up to 30 people without having to request permission, although it’s best to check with the park management before you send out the invites! You can find out more in my blog about throwing Children’s Parties in Public Parks and Open Spaces.
You can also hire venues within our community, such as your local church hall or scout hut for a pretty reasonable amount.
Tableware
It’s worthwhile making a little upfront investment and purchasing some reusable plates, cutlery and cups etc. If you buy the IKEA Kalas range, it isn’t even that much more expensive than buying disposable and in the long run it will save you money and will also be good to the environment.
If you decide to invest in reusable tableware and decorations, you could consider then starting up your own Party Kit and hiring it out to other local mums for their parties. This way you could make back the money you paid to buy everything in the first place. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, then I would suggest you read the guest blog The Party Kit Network – Hiring Party Tableware and Decorations and check out The Party Kit Network.
Decorations
If you host the party outside, then you can probably get away without any decorations, which is a win for your bank balance and the environment.
Alternatively, you can often find some great secondhand decorations on Facebook marketplace and there’s also a Facebook group dedicated to passing on children’s party items.
You could also consider hiring some decorations from your local party kit, which can be found on the Party Kit Network. If you are feeling creative, there are lots of ideas for handmade decorations in my blog on Children’s Eco-friendly Birthday Parties. Or you could invest in some colourful generic reusable decorations that you can use again for future birthday parties, such as fabric bunting or felt garlands.
Party Bags
You could of course choose not to do party bags, which is fast becoming a popular choice in order to be kinder to our planet and it handily also cuts the cost of a birthday party. However, if you’d like the children to go home with something, then the party activity could be based around making something that the children can take home with them (thus killing two birds with one stone), such as decorating cookies, or making something crafty. A book and a slice of cake is also becoming a popular choice, particularly when you can buy bundles of books from places like The Works; 10 for £10. Or you could gift secondhand books or ask the children to each bring a book that they no longer want and do a book swap. You can also get your hands on pretty cheap party bag fillers, from places like Pound Toy. Alternatively, you could make party bag fillers, I’ve got lots of ideas on my blogs; Handmade Party Bag Fillers and Children’s Edible Party Bag Fillers.
If you are hosting a girlie afternoon tea party, you could buy tea cups and saucers from a charity shop for the tea party and then each girl can take a set home as her party bag gift.
Recruit Help
Many hands make light work and can also help keep your costs down. Recruit friends and family to help; perhaps your sister is a great baker and can whip up a birthday cake or maybe you have an artistic friend who could try their hand at face painting or make a fancy dress costume!
Catering
Baking your own cake can be really fun, but if you dont want to try your hand at baking, then most supermarkets do a fantastic range of birthday cakes, so you can find some great cakes at very affordable prices. If you feel like being a little creative, without the baking, then you could buy a plain cake and just do the decorating, which is really the fun bit anyway. Alternatively, you could also make decorating birthday cupcakes or cookies as the party activity and then the children can take them home as their party bag gift.
Picnics are a good option and using little paper lunch bags means you can organise it all in advance and know that there’s the right amount of food for each child and hopefully avoid too much waste. This is also a good way to manage food if there are any children with food allergies, they can have their own ‘safe’ lunch bag. I don’t think there’s any need to worry about sweets and desserts if you have a birthday cake, as this will be more than enough for a sugar fix!
If you host the party mid morning or mid afternoon, so not directly over a meal time, then you could keep the food to some simple snacks, rather than a full meal. NB. it’s always good to be clear on the invites what food will be served so that the parents know whether to feed their kids before they come.
Party Games and Activities
Going to the park for a teddy bears picnic or to do some kite flying can keep costs down. A picnic lunch and/or a cheap kite each for the children to fly, which they can then take home as their party bag gift.
There a lots of fun games you can play outside, perhaps you could turn it into a sports day. Check out the party games in my blogs Outdoor Party Games for Children.
If you are at home in the garden you could set up some carnival type games (like hook the duck, magnetic fishing etc) or if the weathers really good you could have a water fight.
Movie nights and sleepovers could be a good option. Or if you are feeling creative, you can get lots of free crafts and colouring sheets from mr.printables. If you want to be in the great outdoors, you could create a scavenger hunt; you can find scavenger hunts and escape rooms that you can download from Paper Adventures. You can also find a good variety of Escape rooms for under £20 on Etsy.
If you are feeling brave, you could give your child a ‘yes’ day. As long as you set out some basic guidelines, such as a limit on costs and distance, it needn’t cost very much, you just need a little imagination…
Joint Parties
You could also consider hosting a joint birthday party with one of your child’s friends who has a birthday at a similar time, this way you can share the costs (and the workload!).
Fancy Dress Costumes
You can’t beat a homemade costume and you can find a few ideas on my blog Handmade Fancy Dress Costumes for Children. But if you dont have the time or the creativity then you can find really great secondhand costumers on Facebook Marketplace and on Vinted.
It is also a good idea to start planning well in advance so you can start to buy bits a pieces for the party as and when you see them on offer, or at least give yourself plenty of time to do lots of research online to work out where best to purchase.
