Birthday Party on a Budget

 

Our daughter recently had her very first "friends" birthday party for her 4th birthday. I wanted her to have lots of fun yet I had to stay within a pretty tight budget. I was able to throw a fun birthday party for my daughter and her 9 guests and guess how much I spent................................................................?????

 

                                            UNDER $15 DOLLARS PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You are all probably well aware of the "pinterest" birthday parties that everyone thinks they have to replicate. Yes, I see the gorgeous birthday party table displays and start drooling over them myself. They are so fun to look at. Did you catch that? They are so fun to look at! I can't imagine trying to duplicate something like this:

 

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Or this:

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The amount of time and energy spent on something like this for a 1, 2, 3, or 4 year old just baffles me. Now, I'm not trying to shoot down anyone who has actually thrown a party like this. Some people are GREAT at throwing parties like this for their kids, they love spending the time doing it. And I applaud you! I wish I could do something like this! It looks so fun and special.

 

But you know what? I am not the best at paper-crafting 30 cupcake toppers, or coordinating matching glass gumball displays, or tying tulle to 50 yards of twine to hang as a banner. That stuff drives me nuts.

 

When I was growing up, my birthday parties were simple. They were inexpensive. I don't ever remember having any decorations up for birthday parties. I don't ever remember a table set up with all sorts of treats and candy. And we NEVER gave out birthday favors to our guests. I even have home videos to prove it.

 

What I DO remember is all the FUN I had! I remember having friends there who shared my special day with me. I remember my mom and dad were actually participating in my birthday party, helping us play simple games like musical chairs, etc. My mom was never in the kitchen busy whipping up those last dozen cake pops. She was PRESENT!

 

I have always remembered that and have wanted to make sure that I am PRESENT for my kids' birthday parties. Yes, you do have to put some effort into planning a child's birthday party. But it doesn't have to be torture! And you don't have to spend a lot of MONEY or TIME doing it!

 

 

So, let's see my suggestions for:

 

$  THROWING A BIRTHDAY PARTY ON A BUDGET  $

 

My two favorite places for buying party supplies, favors, etc. are Dollar Tree and Target. By far I get the most from Dollar Tree (or any Dollar store). 

 

My daughter wanted a princess-themed party. We bought a pack of $1 party invitations and I hand-wrote everything in plus included a little insert about what to wear (we wanted all the girls to wear princess dresses). Then we hand-delivered them to save on stamp costs.

(*Note: I made it clear that we had extra princess dresses for girls that may not have one, I didn't want anyone to have to buy one for the party. Don't require things of your guests that require them to spend money just to attend the party!)

The party was 1.5 hours long so I needed some crafts/games to entertain several girls ranging in age from 2-7 years old. The Dollar store sells packages of beads for $1 and we decorated foam crowns with glitter, stickers, and plastic jewels. All the supplies were $1 each and I only had to buy one pack of each type of supply.

See those glitter containers above? Those were only $1 from Walmart! They worked out so well!

Each girl got a princess wand as well ($1 for a pack of 12 at the dollar store).

We kept the decorations simple using $1 crepe paper (also from the dollar store, they even had a princess themed roll). While this was pretty simple to do using tape, it made a big impact, making our living room seem like a Princess Ball room. I didn't buy any balloons.

I hung up some banners I already had on hand from Target that I bought a couple years ago. I LOVE their banners in their party section. They are less than $5 and come in a variety of cute colors, prints, patterns, etc. Way easier and cheaper than making one myself too.

We wanted our Princess Guests to put on some princess jewelry when they arrived (and they could keep the jewelry and take it home). I bought a pack of bracelets, rings, and necklaces, all for $1 at the Dollar Store. Each pack included several pieces of jewelry.

I bought princess crowns for $1 and birthday sticker boxes as party favors for $1 at the Dollar Store. I originally wasn't going to do party favors since I don't think they are necessary but decided to let the kids take home some princess jewelry. Plus, what kid doesn't like stickers?

Not the most adorable display, but hey, I used what I had on hand. A hanger held the necklaces just fine so each child could choose their own color.

This felt birthday banner has become a favorite at our house. I always hang it up for birthdays. It cost $5 at Target a couple years ago, but I see it there every time I go to their party isle, in fact, it was there just last week. Get one!

To save on food costs, I decided to make home made cupcakes with home made frosting. It was simple and easy. I served apple juice with them. I only offered one kind of treat at the party so kids wouldn't over eat or waste food. It was easy and simple. Kids don't need an entire plate-full of treats and candy.

The cake stands I used to display the cupcakes I already had. The mint one was from H&M home online for under $10. The white one was an old cake stand I found at a thrift store, then came home and spray painted it. I love them!

Here's the Princess Birthday Girl!! She was so adorable in her princess costume.

We made a "throne" using a kitchen chair, our Christmas tree skirt, and an old silver bridesmaids skirt I had. It was easy to do but made a big impact. We played some fun games using this throne.

As the girls arrived at the party, we had them make crowns at the table. They loved it!

Look how cute these princesses are! None of these girls asked why I didn't have a lavish table set up, or 10 different kinds of birthday treats. They just enjoyed each other and the games we played.

The first game we played was musical chairs. I used to play this at my birthday parties all the time. Instead of taking a chair out each round though and making girls feel like they got "out", we kept all the chairs in place for each round, but if you got to sit on the "throne" when the music stopped playing, you earned a princess wand. That way each girl got to stay in the game each round, and have fun trying to sit on the throne. We had to play 2 separate times since there were twice as many girls as we had chairs. 

They like their princess wands!

Then we played "Hot Slipper" just like Hot Potato. I used one of my daughters dress up princess shoes and we started handing the slipper around the circle as music played. When the music stopped, whomever was holding the glass slipper had to sit out and watch. The last remaining person won a $1 magic princess towel from the Dollar Store.  We played 2 rounds of this game as well.

Then we opened up presents. I think it's important for kids to understand that everything's not always about them. In this case, it was my daughter's birthday so she was the one opening up presents, but if she goes to other parties or it's someone else's birthday, she needs to sit there and watch them open up presents without becoming too sad that she doesn't get anything.

We even dressed our 1 year old up in a princess dress. Here she is playing "peek-a-boo" with the other girls.

After opening presents, the princesses got to eat cupcakes and drink apple juice. I had bought $1 princess paper plates and $1 princess paper cups. The Dollar Store has party isles that are themed for your convenience. So there was a princess section among many other types of birthday themed supplies.

Our 1 year old even got in on the cupcakes!

If you follow me on Instagram you saw that I wore my old choir dress from high school (I knew I should hold on to it!). I thought it would be fun to dress up too. I tied a ribbon around my waist, and used a stretchy black head band for my choker (I had to safety pin it in the back to keep it tight). One of the girls even asked if I was Cinderella!

Once the party was over clean up was a breeze. We simply pulled the crepe paper down and pulled the plastic table cloth off the table and threw them away. Easy!

 

Here's a recap of what I spent money on for the party:

$1 invitations

$1 paper plates

$1 paper cups

$1 princess crepe paper (I already had the other colors)

$1 necklaces

$1 bracelets

$1 rings

$1 princess crowns

$1 sticker favor boxes

$1 princess wands

$1 foam crowns

$1 beads

$1 foam heart stickers

$1 plastic jewels

$1 glitter

 

= $15 total

 

Now if you cut out the party favors, jewelry, and craft items it would be $5 so it's totally up to you how much you spend depending on what games or crafts you plan on doing.

 

Be creative and see if you can use items you already have, sometimes I have even kept the cheap plastic table cloths and reused them. The throne we made was simple and easy using items we already owned, and it made a big impact.

 

Throwing a fun party for your child is doable and doesn't need to cost you a lot of money or take you a lot of time preparing for it. I was able to enjoy the party myself and be there "in the action" to witness my daughter having a fun time.

 

See more party planning ideas on a dime HERE.

 

 

 



DIY No-Sew Tent Canopy Tutorial

 

Every child (in my opinion) needs their own little space, and a tent canopy like this one does the trick! It was pretty easy to make too. My daughter already has a smaller canopy hanging over her bed from Ikea, but they no longer sell the one she has.

 

I had also seen expensive options from Pottery Barn and Land of Nod like these ones:

 

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With a price tag of $149 I thought no thank you. The tent canopy I made only cost $20. I got the idea for the look of my canopy here but changed several things about how I made my own.



SUPPLIES:
- 23" wooden embroidery hoop (bought mine at Hobby Lobby- use 40% off coupon)
- 4-5 sheer curtain panels (I got 2 for $7 on Amazon or Walmart had some cheap ones too)
- plastic drop cloths (you can buy a pair of 2 for $2 at Home Depot)
- fat round paint sponge (from Michael's or any craft store, mine was at least 2 3/4" diameter)
- Martha Stewart's gold acrylic paint
- Embellishments like ribbon, burlap, banners, etc. (See my easy Banner Tutorial at the end)

 

ASSEMBLE:

 

STEP 1:

Spread drop cloths out on flat surface and lay sheer curtain panels on top. Tape edges of curtain panel down to secure.



 

 

STEP 2:

Using gold paint and fat sponge brush, apply gold dots to sheer curtain panels. I simply eyeballed where I wanted the dots.

 

 

The paint will stick through the curtain onto the drop cloth, so make sure you let it dry all the way before removing the drop cloth underneath.

 

*Tip: wear socks while doing this so your feet don't stick to the drop cloth or curtain panel. Also, make sure you paint from top to bottom or side to side so you don't accidentally step on a dot you've just painted! I almost did that very thing.

 

 

Painting the dots was a little tedious and took some time, but I painted 4 curtain panels in about 2 hours while I watched Sherlock episodes on Netflix :) That's a win-win in my opinion.

 

STEP 3:
Once the panels are dry, slide them onto the embroidery hoop. I used 5 sheer curtain panels, 4 of which were painted (I left one plain).

STEP 4:
Add embellishments if you wish. I took pink and gold ribbon and tied them in between the curtain panels. I also whipped up an easy banner to hang from the top (see my easy Banner Tutorial at the end).

STEP 5:
You can hang the canopy to the ceiling a number of different ways, but we simply screwed in a heavy-duty screw into the ceiling first. Then I tied pieces of twine around 4 points of the embroidery hoop and tied all the ends together making a knot. I slipped the knot onto a carabeener and hooked the carabeener to the hook in the ceiling. That way we can remove the canopy easily if needed.

*Tip: the polka dot floor pillow is from TJMaxx. It's a pet pillow! It cost me less than $30. Floor pillows and floor poufs are usually over $50 so go to the pet isle and get a comfortable and cute pet pillow! No one will ever know (except you guys). The other pillow cases are from Ikea ($5 each) and the lace pillow is from a thrift store I bought a while back for $1.

I like using a large embroidery hoop like 23" because it creates a large space underneath big enough for several children or an adult and child.

The canopy is so cozy at night when we turn on a lamp. It instantly creates a little magical space.

View looking up from inside the canopy.

This canopy serves as a reading nook for my daughter, or a place to play or nap.

I like that we can spread the curtain panels open so my daughter can play with the dollhouse I made from Caravan Shoppe.

EASY NO-SEW BANNER TUTORIAL:

I whipped up this banner in about 15 minutes at midnight one night. The canopy needed a little something extra to hang from the top.

Supplies- extra fabric, twine or string, hot glue gun

Assembly- cut out pieces of scrap fabric any shape you want. Apply hot glue to a piece of twine or string in a long line, then apply the top of the fabric to the twine spaced apart how you want. That's it! I used fabric and burlap.

Then I simply draped the banner on the top of the canopy. I like that I can remove it though if I want to hang it on my mantle, across a door way, etc.

 

I'm in love with how this tent canopy turned out. It's something that will be used for years to come. We can even remove it and hang it outside if we want. There are so many uses for it. 

 



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If you don't want to make your own, this tent from Ikea is only $24. Pretty plain, but you could do a lot to it to improve on it!

Please let me know if you have any questions!