Do you have a little one with a birthday coming up? Read this post to learn how to throw a fun birthday party on a budget! Experience all of the fun and joy without breaking the bank!
Throwing a Birthday Party on a Budget
One of the joys of parenthood is celebrating special events and milestones with our children, but thanks to the Internet, there is no shortage of cute, clever, creative… and costly ideas for celebrations.
But do birthday parties really need to ruin our budget in order for children to feel celebrated and have a memorable day? Definitely not!
Ask any frugal mom, and they’ll have dozens of doable ways to pull off unforgettable birthday parties for children without breaking the bank.
In fact, we polled our Facebook followers for ideas, and wow, did you all come through with some fantastically frugal and fun ideas for throwing a kids’ birthday party on a budget! Keep reading for dozens of amazing tips and tricks!
Frugal Birthday Party Decorations
Although it’s fun to scroll through picture-perfect parties on Pinterest and Instagram, the reality is that the costs involved with many of those are probably well beyond many of our budgets.
Before you start planning, ask your child for some of their ideas for themes, games, and things they’d enjoy having at their party. You might be surprised how simple their ideas are! One time, Silas wanted to take his friends to go do the free craft at Home Depot for his birthday. We ended up planning around that date, took them to Home Depot, and then came back for cake and ice cream. It was such a fun idea and I would have never thought of it on my own!
Here are several great ideas for birthday decor on a budget:
- Use decor you already have around your house (it doesn’t specifically need to be for birthdays).
- Hit up the dollar store — they have lots of frugal decor.
- Scope out your local thrift store ahead of time and grab some party streamers or balloons.
- Borrow from a friend who just celebrated their child’s birthday.
- Search Facebook Marketplace (you might find a full set of decor for a fraction of the price).
- Blow up your own balloons (no balloon arches required!).
- Stick with solid color plates and general “happy birthday” napkins so you can reuse extras.
- Purchase a few general “Happy Birthday” items and reuse them at every family birthday party.
- Host your party outside and let nature be the decor.
- Create a handmade birthday banner or sign (other siblings usually love helping out with this).
Kids’ Birthday Gifts for Less
Is there a way to give meaningful gifts that our kids will be excited about while also not spending outside of our budget or creating toy clutter?
Here are a few gifts that won’t put you over budget:
- Experience Gifts — Take them to a favorite attraction, movie, park, restaurant, or store (with you and/or a friend). The possibilities with experience gifts are endless.
- Gift Cards — My kids sometimes prefer gift cards over an actual gift because they find the process of shopping for a gift part of the fun!
- Want, Need, Wear, Read — This minimalist gift mindset can be a great guideline for birthdays (and Christmas, too!). It helps set our kids’ expectations and it curbs the desire to “buy all the things” for your child!
- Food Gifts — Put together a basket with their favorite snacks, candies, special treats, and drinks — maybe with a small restaurant gift card to a favorite location.
- Thoughtful Gifts — Buy them a favorite book and have multiple friends, family, teachers, neighbors, etc. write a special birthday message to them inside the book. Or make them a movie of various relatives and friends sharing a special memory together.
- IOU Gift — This is great for older kids who want to pick out their own gift — give THEM the budget and let them do the shopping!
- Giving Back — Depending on the child, you might consider asking friends and family for donations to a favorite charitable organization and giving that in the child’s name. Or you could take a group of their friends to volunteer at a local non-profit organization (and maybe go out for ice cream afterward).
- Dollar Store Gifts — Let them shop ’til they drop at your local dollar store. They can pick 10 things they want and you foot the bill!
Check out these 145 non-toy gifts for even more great ideas on a budget!
Cutting The Cake Costs
Homemade cakes often taste better than store-bought cakes and most children would love the opportunity to help you make and decorate their own cake. You’ll save money and enjoy making special memories with your kiddo. Win-win!
(Note: I do think it’s important to count the costs of the time involved in baking and decorating a cake. If your child doesn’t have any desire to help with baking and decorating and your time is limited, a simple pre-made cake at the grocery store can be a great option. Our stores sell small cakes for $8-12 — which might be worth it for the time saved, especially if you aren’t hosting a big group of people.)
Another (slightly messier) idea is to offer unfrosted cupcakes and a bunch of different frosting containers so kids can decorate their own cupcakes. This can serve as part of the entertainment, too!
Or you can skip cake altogether and do ice cream sundaes, homemade cookies, muffins and fruit, or a candy or popcorn buffet (which could double as their party favor to take home).
Budget Birthday Party Food
Picking a budget-friendly time can be really helpful in cutting costs, so that you don’t need to provide a full meal. Cake and a few finger foods/snacks are usually plenty, especially if you plan your party outside normal meal times (10 am or 2 pm, for example).
You might also consider serving a signature “birthday beverage” instead of offering individually packaged drinks, which can really add to your expenses. Making the same simple punch recipe for every birthday might be something your kids look forward to each year — and even though it might be frugal, it can still look fancy if you add some frozen fruit and serve it in a pretty container. (Here’s a great recipe that’s super easy and frugal).
If you do want to offer a full meal, consider something that can be made ahead of time and doesn’t require tons of last-minute prep work so you don’t spend the entire party in the kitchen.
Here are a few frugal recipe ideas:
- Easy Meals for 20+ People
- Cheap Meals for Large Groups
- Recipes for a Crowd of People
- 50+ Cheap Easy Dinner Ideas
Easy Entertainment Ideas
Of course, you want a party to be filled with fun and memories, but there are many ways to accomplish that without spending a lot of money.
There are so many budget-friendly options:
- Have an at-home party with a few friends and a bunch of games.
- Host a tea party for a few close friends and have simple cookies or cupcakes.
- Meet up with friends at a local park or outdoor sports facility. Bring a few birthday-themed snacks and let them burn off all the sugar while they play.
- If the weather is nice, have it in your backyard and play kickball, wiffle ball, tag, or capture the flag.
- Plan a scavenger hunt (inside or outside). The items they find could double as their party favors.
- Have a craft table set up and let their imaginations run wild.
- Create a “nail bar” and let them paint each other’s nails.
- Have a Nintendo Wii competition.
- Spray paint a football, soccer, or baseball diamond/field in your yard and invite a bunch of kids over for a game, and then cake/ice cream.
The ideas for inexpensive birthday party games and activities are virtually endless! Just do a quick Google search of “frugal party games” and you’ll find thousands.
You could even be more specific and search for “Frugal birthday party games for boys/girls, ages ______”.
Opt Out of the Party
From the time our kids had their first birthday, we’ve always had the mindset that a party is optional not expected. Some years, we’ve had a bigger party. Some years, we’ve just had immediate family or a few friends or some of our extended family. It’s just depended upon the year, the season, and the child.
This mindset of parties being optional not expected has also allowed us to talk to our kids every year and see what they would especially enjoy. And then we try to plan around that. It’s meant that there’s been a lot of variety and a lot of fun memories made!
Here are just a few ideas for non-party birthday celebrations:
- Have a parent-child date with JUST the birthday child and let them pick what you do (within reason).
- Wake them up early or let them stay up late and have a special activity planned just for them.
- Let them plan their birthday day — the meals you eat as a family, the snacks and desserts you serve, the activities you do, and the games you play. They get to “call the shots” on their special day!
- Take them shopping to pick out one gift and then out for lunch.
- Buy them their favorite drink at the grocery store or coffee place.
- Ask everyone in the family to write or say something they value or appreciate about the birthday person.
- Invite some cousins over and have a backyard campout — with a bonfire and s’mores.
- Throw a party every other year, on milestone birthdays (1, 10, 16, etc.), or on their “golden birthday” (when your age coincides with the numerical day you were born).
Check out this really fun, creative way to do birthdays on a bare bones budget and still make your child feel very special! I love this idea!
Birthday Party on a Budget: More Great Tips!
Skip formal invitations. A simple email or text to the parents of the kids you want to invite should be sufficient. You could use a free program like Canva to make a cute digital invitation and send that out with the email/text.
Planning ahead is key to sticking with your budget. The more you can do ahead of time, the better off you’ll be. If you wait until the last minute, you’ll likely spend more without even thinking about it.
A positive attitude will go a long way in planning a frugal party. You might not end up with exactly what you envisioned, but you’re sticking to a budget and your kiddos most likely don’t care how much you spent.
Another set of hands can be super helpful. Ask a friend or a mom of one of the attendants to stay and help you corral the kids, serve up the cake, etc. It will likely be more enjoyable for you, too!
Remember that change can be difficult. If your children are used to big parties and multiple gifts, it might take some time and conversations to shift to a more scaled down approach. Give it time, and give them grace — you will all be happier as a result.
Let your child do the planning. Depending on their age and personality, your child might be overjoyed to do the lion’s share of the work for their party. Let them have input into the decor, food, and party favors — this could also be a great eye-opening experience for them to realize how much some of this stuff costs! We’ve always had our kids plan their own birthday parties! You can check out Kaitlynn’s 13th birthday party that she planned a few years back, plus here’s another fun example of a Starbucks-themed birthday party a young teen planned!
There are so many ways to create lasting memories together and show our children how much we love them without blowing our budget on a fancy, over-the-top birthday party.
So we’d love to know…