Birthday Party Solutions

Gone are the days of expensive birthday party celebrations. Maybe because of the economy, or maybe because of the discovery of the ridiculousness behind spending several hundred dollars just to get the chance to sing Happy Birthday to my child.

A bit more than 8 years ago my ex husband and I extravagantly celebrated with our entire friends and family network that our twin daughters were turning one. This was probably more of a celebration for ourselves, but nevertheless we spent a lot of money. Not only that but I spent many hours cutting and crafting and scrapping 50 hand made “Survivor” themed invitations. And for those friends who helped us through it all, from sitting with us in my hospital bed rest room for Survivor Island Thursday’s to those who took our infant twins for an overnighter, I made certificates of appreciation.

Even after that first celebration of birth’s the birthday party madness continued. Slowly, 8 years and a couple of kids later, I’m catching on. We’ve done it all. Chuck E Cheese, Bowling, Rent A Jumper, Bounce House Party Centers, Inflatable Water Slides, Slumber Parties, etc. The most expensive cost in the upper $400 range. How does one justify this? Easy. “They are only (insert age here) once.”

So I challenged myself recently. The twins were turning 8. What was the least amount I could spend on their birthday party? I’ll tell you the answer in a moment. In the mean time here are a few of my money savvy solutions:

*Party Sharing. Yeah I know, twins share parties anyway. But this year I threw in my niece (age 9) as well. The family was going to have to attend both parties anyway, so we just included her and shared some of the expenses.

*Home Made Cakes: My kids were a bit ticked about this one at first. They quietly pouted about wanting a Hannah Montana/High School Musical/ Camp Rock/Ashley Tisdell birthday cake, but I promised them I would make the icing their favorite colors. I’ll share some cake making ideas from my very amateur self in the future.

*Dollar Store Deals: In all we had about 12 children attend our party. In the past, Chuck E Cheese charged me $5.00 a gift bag for each of our guests. This year I hit the dollar store and bought 9 light up tiara/jewelry sets and 3 target practice toys. At a dollar each I saved a ton. While there I picked up the party supplies. Yea, granted they don’t have matching sets of everything, but be imaginative. Mix and matched birthday items are more festive than a single design anyhow.

*Be Crafty!: My 4 year old son was adamant about his twin sisters having a pin-ya-tee-a. So I caved and we began our search for a fun and affordable piñata. To my shock those things are costly. A Hannah Montana/High School Musical/ Camp Rock/Ashley Tisdell piñata costs about $25-$30 at Wal-Mart. Gasp. That was not going to happen simply because that was 100% more than what I had spent on the whole party. So we improvised. I saw a cool Spiderman piñata on clearance for $7.00. I was stoked. Yes, my girls were again devastated and sure to be traumatized if they had friends over only to see a Spiderman piñata, but they didn’t know what I had in store. With a little bit of card stock, some left over tissue paper and some cute pictures of the birthday trio I transformed our piñata into something spectacular.

*Use the family talent: My sister happens to teach 2nd grade. Her husband owns a talent center in which he also has coached my daughters in gymnastics. Therefore these two are amazing with children. Their water game creations were enough to keep the children (and the adults) in laughing mode for 2 solid hours.

The grand total of my party? $60.00

• Dollar Store Party Favors: $13.00
• Dollar Store Party Supplies: $8.00
• Home made birthday cakes: $12.00
• My part of the food and drinks:$20.00
• One revamped “pin-ya-tee-a”: $7.00

And in the end my kids were excited about their party and even gave me a shout out for having made their birthday cakes and the pin-ya-tee-a! Birthday party success.