My Financial Implosion: Frugal Birthdays for Kids
‘œThere are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents…and only one for birthday presents, you know.’ ‘“ Lewis Carroll
In just a bit less than three weeks, our daughter will celebrate her 14th birthday. As usual, she’s hoping for a fun party and a pile of gifts. In years past, we’ve managed to put together some nice, though not terribly extravagant, parties. This year, our budget is much smaller since my wife hasn’t had a full time gig since the end of March, she’s retraining for a new career, and we are trying to avoid debt.
For the past three years, we’ve typically taken a small group of our daughter’s friends and family out for dinner for a moderately-priced meal. One year, we went to a kid-friendly pizza restaurant filled with coin-operated games. Another year, we took a group out to our daughter’s favorite Italian restaurant. Last year, we took a small group out on an overnight camping trip. We paid for everyone’s campground reservations and for most of the food.
This year, even a camping trip for family only is outside of our budget, so we are looking to cut costs in the following ways:
- Hold the party at a free venue. We live an area where the weather will likely remain pleasant through early October. As a result, we could hold the party at one of a number of local parks that offer free picnic areas. We are also considering our own back yard, as we have a BBQ grill, sun shade, and plenty of outdoor chairs.
- Cut back on decorations. Although helium-filled mylar balloons, matching invitations, tableware and decorations are fun, they add to the cost of the party. We’ll probably end up skipping most of these trappings, as we’ve managed to have plenty of fun parties with no decorations at all.
- Bake our own cake. Since my wife and I started stocking our larder and doing more cooking from scratch, we’ve learned how to bake very nice-tasting cakes from scratch. Granted, they might not be as pretty as a store-bought cake, but they certainly will taste just as nice.
- Eat in. This year, instead of treating a bunch of people to a restaurant meal, we will cook at home. Likely, we’ll be looking at a relatively inexpensive meal of grilled hot dogs or hamburgers, but even if our daughter wants something a little more upscale, we can still manage.
- Combine parties. My wife’s birthday falls just a week after our daughter’s. This year, instead of planning two parties, we will consolidate and plan only one.
- Make our own entertainment instead of hiring it. Instead of paying for a venue that offers entertainment, we are going to look at ways to create our own fun. We have a variety of board games and other activities that don’t cost anything at all.
- Limit the number of gifts. We’ve tended to go a little hog wild on gifts, buying a large number of relatively cheap items. Every year, despite our best intentions, the cost has added up. This year, we’ll be focusing on a smaller number of higher-quality gifts, which we hope will result in a lower overall cost. We’re definitely not going to give in to her request for one of those elaborate smartphones, but we might cave a little and give her a T-Mobile simple phone just for emergencies.
This year, we’ll also be paying careful attention to our list of invitees, being sure to invite people who are known to be fun in groups. This way, we’ll be more likely to enjoy our company, since we won’t have the distraction of expensive activities.
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Great ideas, Alex. I love that you’re going to bake your own cake. And since you’re combining parties, you only have to do the work once. Have fun with the party!
good advice!
i like getting party supplies at thrift stores: you’d be surprised what they have!
there’s usually everything from invitations to decorations to plastic wine glasses, often in unopened packages. sometimes a store will even make a deal, if you want to get all of one or two items (eg. streamers and balloons). depending on the size of the event, you may need to go to several shops, but the savings can be worth it.
I second the homemade cake…they always taste better…and not just because of the love baked in.
At 14 though I “think” (but I’m a guy so what do I know }:~>) that your daughter and her friends are on the edge where they wants to be seen as more adult so maybe something more along the lines of an adult style party.
Set up for a sort of semi-formal dinner…the Italian type is fairly cheap with soup, salad, pasta, homemade breadsticks and only the sauce maybe being a little more expensive….though there are many wonderful ones that are inexpensive too.
You can give the cake an Italian flair by making it with a Hazelnut cream filling and some toasted hazelnuts on top with some dark chocolate shavings (75 cent bar of Hersheys Special Dark shaved along the edge with a veggie peeler).
While it will involve a little more work because of dishwashing afterwards it would also mean not having to rely on disposables for dishes…and drag out cloth napkins if you have them.
In any case I hope you all have a wonderful time.
Wonderful ideas, and not just for those who have financially imploded. It seems like many parents go too far over the top for kids’ parties, even for young kids. Gotta save something special for the milestone birthdays, graduations, and weddings, I say, and not set too high a standard too soon, especially for kids young enough not to care about more than the wrapping paper and the frosting.
Feral Geographer mentioned thrift stores. Not sure if she meant what we call “dollar stores” around here–Dollar Tree, The Dollar Store, The 99 Cent Store, etc., but they often have cheap party goods. Not all are character themed, which could be an issue if your kid is into that, but I’ve bought plain colored plates and napkins to match the character and then a single themed centerpiece or banner at a place like Target, e.g., red and blue plates and a Spiderman centerpiece.
Sometimes as kids get older, they want to enjoy the trappings of childhood. My daughter just had her sweet 16 at home. 20 kids, 10 adults.
We had veggies and dip, then pizza, a cookie monster pinata, roasted marshmallows over the fire-pit, the kids played badminton, ate a “mix” chocolate cake with a filling of fresh strawberries mixed in cool whip (surprisingly not gross). Then the kids played foosball on our “freecycle” foosball table. The biggest hit was the 5 minute slide show of her from baby to now thrown together in i-movie-projected with a borrowed projector onto painting canvas on the side of the garage- outdoor movie style. Oh, and chocolate fondue with cut up apples on cheap bamboo skewers, and s’mores. We got balloons at the dollar store, and had pleanty of old flashlights on hand for man-hunt too.
The party was our gift, and we also gave her a pretty silk scarf. We live in the land of 10,000 dollar country club sweet sixteens, but my daughter’s party was a huge success. And both my kids had a great time draping our trees with white Christmas lights for atmosphere.
The one thing the guests spent the most time doing was the cheapest- bulletin board paper on the table under the fondue, and a few paper cups with crayons. It had too much spillage to save, but my daughter photographed the silly masterpiece at the end of the night. Next time I may buy a roll of canvas, and put out some brushes and inexpensive acrylics. (I am an artist, and typically have these things.)
Our total party budget was 300 dollars, and the kids liked it just as much/or more than the high-pressure-have-to-buy-a-dress-and expensive-gift festivities that are the norm around here.
If I had a super small budget- the one thing I wold buy or make is a fire pit. It has been the centerpiece activity of all our parties since we got it years ago. Great bang for the buck.
Oh, and I agree with frugal zen- forgo the decorated plates and trappings. A waste of money.
My kids always get a birthday dinner of their choice with cake and grandparents over. They always pick ordered out pizza– we will get one big ordered out pizza and hubby will make two smaller ones homemade to augment the meal. And salad…
As for the older children (age 6 and up), we give them the 3 choice route (I’ve posted about this before I think). They can have a big party with lots of friends and a small present from us–OR– one or two friends with a medium sized present from us–OR–a big present or shopping spree ( with limit on funding). It helps them understand the idea of a budget at some level. Each of my older two has picked each option; this year they both picked the big present option.
As for my littler ones- my 2 year old just gets the family party w/ pizza. My 4 year old started pre-K this year and birthday parties and such are now very important to her. She will have her first “real” party in the spring. We will invite 5 friends of her choosing; too many makes it utter chaos.
I love the idea of a home made cake. You could also bake cup-cakes instead and pile them in a nice arrangement =)
As Dana pointed out, I wasn’t very clear in my earlier comment: Yes, I suppose Dollar Stores have good party supplies too, but I was actually referring to second hand stores/charity shops/op shops.
It seems that a lot of folks buy party supplies that they never use, and then donate them along with more typical second hand offering such as clothing. Recently, my friends’ wedding involved a champagne toast midway along a romantic bike ride (from ceremony to reception), and they were concerned about the cost of obtaining enough glasses for all the guests. I spent an hour visiting 4 second hand stores in the downtown of my city, and came out with enough plastic stemware for 60 people, all for less than $10.
(Thanks, Dana, for catching this!)
Years ago my Dad was very ill and out of work my Mom worked at the local 5&10 store so you know money was tight.Well along comes Christmas and things are getting worse so one day they say they want to speak with me and tell me because things were really tight (this I already knew)they could only afford presents for my younger sister&brother cause they still believed in Santa I knew hard times were taking there toll and said to them don’t worry it’s okay I love you. Well when they told some very close friends about this conversation because they were so proud of me their friends went out without my parents knowing and purchased me more presents than I knew what to do with. I am still thankful anyway what I am getting at is maybe you should just talk to your daughter about the situation you might be surprised.