Another birthday is around the corner for my little one. I am planning now so we can make it another frugal celebration.

What are your best affordable party tips?

 

Home made cakes are so much cheaper than store bought ones, Babs

I agree with babs.  Stick to homemade food items.

Also, even if you do a theme, limit the number of theme items you purchase.  If you do a Barbie party, have Barbie plates and napkins, but keep everything else neutral.  Have one or two really nice, stand-out items, but keep the rest simple so that the price stays lower.

 Hi brandy you can have a themed b-day party for her center piece be a homemade cake when dad b-day comes I make a chocolet and lemon cake just don't him I bake I get enough garbage about my cooking the way it is..

1.home made cake

2.to enterain make playdo or do finger painting since you home school the daughter if she likes crafts among friends let them get the paints out finger paint

3.run to kaboose.com you can do home made invites

4.and keep it in the afternoon maybe you donnot have to serve lunch just cake icecream and maybe punch or something

5. if doing games keep it kid orented adults like to get in the middle of things like a party or a kids game.

6. and last but not least and a good luck open presents before the games and finger paint thing thats so things get less messy...

7. when sending the kids home make sure the person for each child arrived with that person to many weird people around

8. now sit in a corner tell everyone to leave ya alone have quiet time even if its for 5 min.

9. good luck

Any one remember the Barbie cakes made with the round pyrex bowls. Bake the cake in the bowl,  then turn out cake on a plate, you cut out the middle enough to slide a Barbie with no clothes ,  down in the hole. You frost the cake and it makes her dress. You can be fancy with the frosting or just plain, Babs

One of my niece's had a cake like that for her birthday just last month.  The other niece had a Harry Potter sorting hat.  Can you guess which one cost more?  LOL  They have simple, fun parties and the cake is their splurge item.  It was awesome!  I want one for my b-day!  LOL

When I was a kid, for one of my parties, my mom made homemade bean bag game out of scraps of fabric and of course, beans.  We played with those for several years after that.

We played a variation of pin the tail on the donkey.  You can make something up that would be fun.  (Put the party had on a picture of the birthday girl, etc.)

You can also make easy homemade pinatas with a balloon and paper mache. An old cereal box doesn't need a paper mache cover-- the cardboard can form the base although that is a little harder to "break" since it's not as brittle.  Decorate them with crepe paper ruffles and be as creative as you want.  The cardboard ones might even be a fun take-home craft if you do it at the party.

I tend to get plain colored plastic tablecloths and some decorations like a Happy Birthday banner that can be used in different ways over and over again.

Someone might have already said to always check Dollar Tree first.  You can get cute party supplies, bags and favors for a very reasonable price.  Even the Mylar ballons are just a dollar.  (Their b-day candles seem to burn really quickly though.)

I've used some of the inexpensive colorful plastic bowls from there for a lot of different parties.  You could even get a set of cheap festive plastic plates that are neutral enough to use for multiple parties.

Make cut-outs of the theme/characters or even the birthday child and guests and make those cardboard criss cross stands at the bottom where you cut a slit on the bottom of the picture and then a slit on the cardboard cross pieces and then put it together. 

My friend makes the coolest cakes from patterns she finds online.  She doesn't buy special pans.  They're made from cutting and arranging the pieces of cakes baked in normal pans.

I remember those doll cakes.  I thought those were great as a kid!  I bet you could get creative with the bowl shape in other ways too, like make a ladybug. 

Old party books from years ago had so many great ideas for homemade things.  They were so much more creative, not to mention cheaper than all of this prefab stuff now.  You might be able to find something at the library or at Google books.

If I find links to what I'm thinking of, I'll post it.

Okay, I'm not finding it.  There was a Better Homes and Gardens book, I believe, that had ideas like a backwards birthday party where everyone was supposed to wear their clothes backwards, the invitation was written backwards so that had to read it in a mirror, you had dessert first and said goodbye when they arrived and hello when they left.

They also had an idea about an "Artist's Party."  The children were supposed to bring and wear old men's shirts and big sheets of butcher paper were hung up on clothes lines outside where they could paint their masterpieces.  You could make little felt berets and do whatever else you think would fit. 

One thing I thought of too was a fair or circus theme.  You could have some dress-up items they could put on to get into character and let those who want to do their "circus acts."  If you have a tent that could work as the "Big Top" that will work in the back yard, all the better. The kids could all get tickets or play money when they come in and trade them in for bags of popcorn at one booth, homemade elephant ears or homemade funnel cakes at another, and corndogs (from Walmart) and cotton candy if you can find it.  I always seem to see it when I'm not looking for it. (Though not cheap, they sell cotton candy machines these days for about $40. Check the reviews online.  Some get wonderful reviews and others get awful reviews even for machines that are the same price and from the same company.) 

The kids could also use the tickets or play money to get a chance to play midway games like ring tosses, hit the line of rubber duckies with a squirt gun, etc.  Prizes from Dollar Tree would be inexpensive and fun.  They could practice juggling, do tumbling, walk the tight rope that you mark with a line or rope on the ground.

 For a girly party, maybe have a "spa" theme where they get face masks, paint their nails, etc.  A doll or teddy bear tea party is fun too.

For a mixed crowd, maybe some sort of mystery theme with clues and maps and other kinds of intrigue that are age appropriate. :-)

I think the main thing is to pick a theme (not necessarily a printed cartoon character that you have to get on all the paper products) and really play it up with things that you might already have on hand, can borrow, or can find cheaply. 

I hope this helps!

 We have decided on a party theme. She wants a tropical one so we are having a cook out and I bought her a small pool for summer play that the kids can splash in for fun and paid $15 for it. 

The Dollar Tree and Big Lots were great places for cheap stuff. I got a scene to attach to the carport wall that is tropical, a bag full of paper birds I can hang from the carport and stick on the house and some plastic cups to liven the table that I will put treats into. I paid $1-$2 for each didn't total up to $10 spent on it.

The most expensive thing will be food. I am going with hot dogs and some burgers, chips and punch.

 

 Ooops, forgot to add we will be serving fruit. We should have pineapple from AF for that and I'll get a melon of some sort.