Hi there! I’m Chelsea and I blog over at The Contented Wife Blog. I’m so excited to be taking over Charlee’s blog today to share with you how I planned my son’s first birthday party on a budget. We threw a nice birthday party without breaking the bank and you can too!
© jfunk / Dollar Photo Club
Of course, one of my first places to get ideas for his birthday party (or anything, really) is Pinterest. I pinned several different ideas and found some that I thought would be relatively easy to do. We are a one income family, so throwing the party on a budget was definitely of importance.
Cost of the Party
I’ll try to break down for you what we spent our money on, but there may be a few areas where you could say I cheated. I’ll explain those at the end of the post. Also, these figures are estimates. It’s really hard to say exactly how much each food item cost since some ingredients we already had, some we have leftover to use in the future, and some were split between dishes. Please know I tried my best to give you the most accurate figure.
Food:
- Ham and Smoked Brisket: Free – The ham was gifted to us when LB was born and has been in our freezer ever since. The brisket was also gifted to us because my husband’s wonderful grandparents give us 1/2 a beef each year.
- Homemade Rolls – $5.00
- Green Bean Casserole – $5.50
- Snicker Salad – $10.00
- Deviled Eggs – My husband’s aunt brought
- Baked Beans – $6.50
- Macaroni and Cheese – $4.00
- Homemade Ice Cream – $6.00
- Birthday Cake – $10.00
- Chips and Dip – $5.00
Paper Products:
- Plates – $7.00 – I realize we can buy a big package of Hefty plates at Walmart for about three bucks, but my husband is a bit snooty when it comes to paper plates. He wants the good kind. 🙂
- Plasticware – $3.00
Decorations:
- Red, White, and Blue paper fans – Less than $2.00 on clearance at Hobby Lobby
- Paper to make bunting – $5.00
- Posterboards (2) – $1.19 each
- Printed Signs from Kinkos – $1.27
- Tablecloth – $2.00 (Already had two, bought the other on clearance from Hobby Lobby)
- Balloons – $1.50 on clearance from Hobby Lobby
- Cake Boards – $6.50 (A package of six, so I still have some leftover for future cakes)
Total: $80.46
How to Throw an Affordable First Birthday Party
1. Make your own cake.
2. Don’t fix a full meal.
3. Keep decorations in check.
4. Have the party at your house.
5. Determine what is really important.
I appreciate Chelsea for working so hard to figure out how much her baby’s birthday cost! She had some great tips, don’t you think?
Would you add any other money saving tips for a one year old’s birthday party?
Linked to: SHINE Bloghop, Thrifty Thursday, and Frugal Friday
Great tips! I’m trying to think of more but I actually believed you covered it pretty well!
Thank you Ana! I’m glad you found it helpful! 🙂
Thanks so much for the awesome breakdown, Chelsea! I wish I could have kept the budget this low for Char’s first birthday, but I’m definitely going to be a bit more conscious for the second party. 😉 I think I’ll definitely be going with a few light snacks for party number two. Thank you so much for sharing with the #SHINEbloghop!
Glad you found it helpful, Kristy! 🙂 With our meat being provided that really helped keep the food budget down. It’s really easy to get carried away though!
Can I just say..lol my husband is a total snooty cat about paper plates too? It’s insane! We have to go to Costco and get these ridiculously large cardboard plates that we can never fill and if we did, we’d be bigger than a house. But no, he NEEDS them. Sigh.
That is too funny! I am glad you said that! What’s up with them? I would much rather spend money on something other than paper plates, but he will not back down on it. LOL. I know what you mean about the ridiculously large cardboard plates! 🙂