Birthday parties are so fun, aren’t they? There’s the family, the friends, the community, the fun, the laughter, and the CAKE! But the cost can add up quickly if you aren’t careful. Even when you are it can still be costly. It doesn’t have to be though!
When my daughter turned ONE, I don’t even know how much I spent on her party. WAY too much I’m quite sure. I wanted everything to be perfect and I wanted my little princess to have EVERYTHING. Y’all she was ONE. She doesn’t remember the party, she was grouchy most of the time because of teething and she hadn’t slept well…I’m not saying you can’t or shouldn’t go all out if you want to and have the funds to do so, but if you don’t have the funds, I don’t feel like you should go into debt just to throw a one year old’s birthday party or any birthday party for that matter. That is just my personal opinion. Now, when we had my daughter, I thought she would be our only child. We had a struggle with fertility, had seen a fertility doctor, did treatments, and we were still unable to get pregnant. Then, just before we started an in-vitro trial, I found out I was pregnant. I NEVER wanted to go through all the treatments and disappointments again so I had made peace with her being my only baby. And she would be my princess! I would do everything I could to give my little princess pretty much everything.
Surprise!
Then…Surprise! I was pregnant with Baby #2. It was a surprise, I was in disbelief (most of the pregnancy), and I didn’t know what I would do with 2 kids. More on ALL the feels in a different post. Now we had 2 babes. As we got closer to his first birthday, I wondered what I would do. How would I make his birthday as special as my daughter’s? I still spent too much money, but I did lower my expectations and the budget. We still did separate birthday parties for each kiddo. I don’t remember what we did for my daughter on her 2nd birthday. For my daughter’s 3rd birthday and my son’s 2nd birthday we did a combined Minnie/Mickey Mouse Birthday party. I spent a little less, but honestly, not much. I still went all out and wanted the kids to feel important and well loved (because a ridiculous party does that, right?!!?). Somehow I have ZERO pictures from their party, the cakes, or the decorations. By this point though, I had discovered the good things of Dollar Tree. I got most of the decorations form Dollar Tree, but still made decorations, bought candy, party favors, snacks, made the cakes, made the cupcakes…Had wine for the adults and drinks for the kids. But it was a little less money. It of course rained the morning of their party so we had to make some last minute changes as everything was planned for outside.
Baby #3
Then came our surprise Baby #3! On his 1st birthday we did a joint birthday party for the kids at a local swimming pool. It was great because I didn’t have to clean my house, I didn’t have to worry about cleaning up after. Great! The pool also has a couple of different sections: 1 section is a splash pad area (great for a 1 year old), a medium size pool with some water guns and other fun toys for a little older (perfect for a 3 year old and quite honestly even older), another pool area perfect for swimming, a deeper area with a diving board (my soon to be 5 year old LOVED that area), and an area with water slides (perfect for older kids). We would be able to invite all of our friends and those that are important to our kiddos but have older kids! The adults would like it too! We got up the morning of their birthday party we got up to thunder, lightening, and rain. Rain-not such a big deal when you will be getting wet anyway. The thunder and lightening posed a real issue though! I had 100 cupcakes plus 3 cakes for my kiddos. I had goldfish out the wazoo and punch out the wazoo. If it continued to lightening, there would be no pool party. So we tried to brainstorm other ideas. We headed to the pool. Luckily the lightening and thunder held off. We just had to wait 30 minutes at the start of the party before getting into the pool. We just changed the order of things and did cake first! For their joint 1, 3, 5 year old party we spent a total off about $600. For 3 birthdays, not too bad! The pool was the most expensive part. As I mentioned, I made their cakes and cupcakes. Then I just did goldfish for snacks and had punch or water. On their actual birthdays we just do a family birthday. Nothing fancy. Cake and a present or 2.
This year the plan has changed. We went back to a party at the house because of COVID-19. We didn’t know if the pools would be open. My kids have begged for another swimming pool party. It is so hot in Texas in the summer so water HAS to be a big part of it. So I decided on several small kiddie pools, water sprinklers, water balloons, sidewalk chalk, and bubbles. I asked the kids if they wanted a cake, ice cream, or snow cones. My 2 oldest request snow cones! Y’all that is SO much easier than cakes/cupcakes! I bought a large pack of snow cone flavors and cups. Then COVID made it’s comeback and new executive orders were put into place. We decided the responsible thing to do was to change it to a “drive by” party. A lot of people have been doing the birthday parades. That is pretty much what ours will be, except we did not set a specific time for a parade. We gave a window of when people can come by and wish the kids a happy birthday. We will still have snow cones and the kids will still have pool play and bubbles (things I already bought) and will just be the only ones enjoying those things. I spent $12 for each of the larger kiddie pools (purchased 3 of them), $9 on each of the 3 smaller pools, $25 on water balloons (we will still use them just not on the day of their party), $8 on 8 bubble guns, $8 on bubble wands, $65 on the large pack of snow cone flavors, straws, cups, and tops for the syrups, and $4 on decoration, and $60 on balloons. I don’t have to worry about snacks as it will just be us! So our total this year is $208. The kids will LOVE it and our budget will love it! The only thing that would have changed if we had an in home party would be the cost of snacks. I would have gone with goldfish, grapes, and drinks. That wouldn’t add that much to the cost so it still would have been budget friendly! At the end of the day all that matters is that your kids have a great time!
Birthdays don’t have to be expensive. They can be fun and still budget friendly. Find ways to save money. Find discount stores, look for discounts, look for sales, etc. on the things you want for the party. Look early and look often! Then enjoy the day without thinking about all the money you spent!
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