If you’re like many parents, then you try your best to make your children feel special on their special day. Every year when their birthday rolls around, you take stock of what they like, look at what’s trendy, and put together an invite list for a birthday party.
However, there’s often one thing in your way, your budget. And you’re not alone. Despite what they show on reality television, the average American just doesn’t have the money to spend on elaborate celebrations.
Luckily for you, we have several tips on how you can use some cheap kids birthday party ideas that will actually make your kids’ parties feel a little more expensive and entertaining.
What You Can Do Yourself, Do Yourself
The first rule to saving money while throwing a child’s birthday party is to do as much as you can yourself.
Don’t spend money hiring an event planner. Don’t spend money on elaborate decorations if you have the ability to make nice decorations. And don’t hire entertainment, if you can create fun and interactive games for the children at the party to play.
While we’re on the topic of DIY, if you are an excellent baker, try making the birthday cake. Save yourself the headache and money of having to order a cake, go to a store and pick up the cake, and then check the spelling of the name written across the cake.
The Smaller the Kid the Smaller the Budget
It’s been widely accepted in the medical community that most adults don’t remember anything from their childhood before the age of three or four. So with that said, there’s no need for you to break the bank trying to throw an elaborate party for a toddler. Chances are the toddler won’t remember anyway.
Keep it simple and throw that one or two year old child a party at the house. Buy some balloons, purchase a cake, invite some friends and family over, and just have a relatively inexpensive birthday celebration.
Grab What You Find on Sale
Stores like Party City and Party Depot usually have a clearance section, and if you’re willing to do a little digging, you can usually find some good items. And we suggest you do the digging.
If you’re assuming that the only things in the clearance sections are items from recently passed holidays, that’s not a completely wrong assumption. A bulk of the clearance items will be holiday related items. However, sometimes you can be creative and shape that into your favor.
For example, if your child’s birthday is after St. Patrick’s Day, you may find a lot of green items on sale. Find those green plates, napkins, forks, cups, and streamers, and use them to decorate your party. Green is a perfectly acceptable year-round color theme.
Also, going along with this example, if your child happens to be a University of Notre Dame fan, you may be able to find some items with Leprechauns on them and get creative. You could throw a Notre Dame-themed party.
We should point out that not all items in the clearance section will be holiday related. Sometimes stores just have an overwhelming abundance of inventory and just want to clear some shelf space. So again, look in the section.
Have Interactive Activities
Most kids love going to a party where there are interactive elements to the celebration. They’d rather not just sit around watching the balloons and each other, and then eat some cake.
With that said, try planning a scavenger hunt for your child and the child guests. You can write the clues yourself, and have them attempt to find items you pull from your closet and drawers. Once the hunt is over, present the winning child or team with the inexpensive prizes of your choosing.
These riddles with answers that you create are sure to entertain the children and even adults during the scavenger hunt.
Similarly, you could plan a treasure hunt if that falls more in line with your theme. Once more, the point is to make sure your party is interactive.
Limit the Guest List
When throwing a child’s party, there is no need to invite everybody in your city or county. The more people you invite, the more individuals you have to entertain and feed. And if you are serving more than just birthday cake, that food costs can get pretty high with a long guest list.
Take Advantage of the Great Outdoors
If you have children that happen to celebrate their birthday during a time of year when it’s warm outside, then that’s a great thing. You have the ability to use the great outdoors as your venue for birthday parties.
For example, you can try going to a local park and using a picnic table. Depending on the park you may have pay for a table, but many park picnic tables are free. If the tables are free, just get to the park early because it’s probably first come first served.
Cheap Kids Birthday Party Ideas Are Endless
We’ve managed to provide you with a good start, but there is certainly no shortage of good cheap kids birthday party ideas. There are tons of other things you can do to save yourself some money.
Remember, more money poured into a party doesn’t necessarily equate it to being a better experience. With that said, the goal is to have an amazing party built on an economically cost-effective budget.
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