How to Throw a Child's Birthday Party On a Budget

Celebrating your child's birthday with a party can be fun and exciting, but also expensive. There are several ways, however, to throw your child a birthday party on a budget.

Things You'll Need

• balloons
• hand-made invitations
• plain disposable diningwear

Instructions

1. Plan a time. Throwing your child's birthday party at a time of day when no meal will be expected will save you a lot of money on food. A birthday party from two to four in the afternoon is too late for lunch and too early for dinner.

2. Keep snacks simple and inexpensive. Snacks such as popcorn, pretzels, or chips are favorites for kids and serving something like Kool-Aid to drink is easy on your budget.

3. Keep decorations minimal. Balloons you blow up yourself are inexpensive, as are signs made of poster board (you can have your children help decorate them). You do not need to break the bank buying matching plates, tablecloths, and cups either because this is not something children will notice and plain varieties are cheaper.

4. Send the invites. If possible use an electronic invitation service (like e-vite.com) to send invitations to your child's friends' parents. This will save you money on invitations and postage. If you do not want to go the technical route, have your child make birthday party invitations by hand and hand-deliver them if you can.

5. Keep it small. The fewer the kids you have show up the less money you will have to spend.

6. Forego the favors. While party favors are a nice touch, they are not necessary. If you would like to send your child's friends home with something, individually wrapped cupcakes or small bottles of bubbles will be enough.

7. Make the cake yourself. However, if you have a tendency to want to make it fancy with decorations and frosting then purchasing a cake from your local grocery store may actually be less expensive.

Tips & Warnings

• Regardless of how small or cheap your child's birthday party is, it is important to have him write thank-you notes to everyone who attended.