Birthday Parties (Frugal Fridays)

Birthday Parties have always been special in my household.  With both sides of my famly we always have a celebatory dinner for the family member who is having a birthday.  Now that we have grown, we combine and have a monthly meal if there are multiple birthdays in one month. 

But for my little ones I am still throwing bigger shindigs! 

Invitations:  I used Evite for the majority of my invites.  Others who either did not have an email address or I did not know it received a very simple invitiation printed on resume paper and folded into a business envelope. 

Location:  For the past two years we have been blessed to have had my son's birthday at the church where I work for a very low price.  The price includes use of the sitting areas, gym, foosball table and pool table, kitchen, and BOUNCE HOUSES!!  This year we had a much larger guest list because we included our new friends from Mother's Day Out!  That made this such a frugal find since it is one price not priced per child. 

Food:  I made cupcakes instead of purchasing a cake which saved me a minimum of $10 (more since the amount of cupcakes was more than what one cake would have fed)  I prepared other inexpensive dishes from home as well; Cinnamon Rolls, cut up fruit and veggies and Goldfish.  These were great becuase any leftovers were easy to work into our menus. 

Drinks:  This was probably the most expensive item on the list.  We wanted to be sure we had plenty.  And plenty we did.  Again leftovers were great!! 

Goody Bags:  After Christmas Clearance!!  Need I say more??  I found great goodies for our guests at the Target $1 bins for 75% off!  Everyone got a small dry erase board.  Cost to me $0.25!  I also gave away Magnets & small packages of M&Ms.  Also frugal finds!  The smaller guests got board books and older guest received small planners.  Both found at Target for $0.25 each. 

Decorations:  This was very minimal.  I did have some leftover balloons from a previous party and had them blown up with helium there at the church.  Because I made cupcakes, plates and forks were really not needed.  I had a big package of napkins and a smaller package of plates and forks.  All the drinks were individual so cups were not needed.  I purchased very neutral, inexpensive paper products to keep cost down. 

All in all I spent around $100 for a party for 60+ people!