Ever been to a kids birthday party and it looks like something out of a magazine? It’s crazy, but here’s how you can have cute and cheap birthday parties.
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Perfect decor, cute theme, amazing balloons, cute themed food, etc. It looks amazing but ever think, ‘I could never afford spending this type of money on a birthday party’.
Well here is how you can get that adorable photo worthy themed birthday party. Find decor at the Dollar Store!
I have researched many different decor items for my daughters’ parties over the years and I hate to admit it.
I’ve spent more than I should have on decor and cute little things to have an “Instagram photo worthy” party for my toddlers!
Yes, I said it. TODDLERS!
No one other than myself or my husband would actually remember this spectacular party I threw.
Nope, my toddlers couldn’t care less what cute food themed ideas, over priced themed balloons, or the hours I spend putting together adorable banners.
It’s wasted on the young they say.
This year I decided to try something different. I decided to save the copeious amounts of money on a huge all out themed birthday party for my 4 year old and instead try a few birthday hacks!
(To see my other mom life hacks click here)
Therefore in my excitement to do this party on the cheap, I went to my local Dollar Tree Store and rummaged through the party decor section.
Now I still decide on a theme each year for my kiddos because, well, they are still kids.
I always remembered my mom would do a themed party for us growing up and I always liked that tradition. So this years party theme was Paw Patrol, my daughters favorite show!
Now with the theme in mind, I’m walked the isles and decided I could get some colored table cloths to drape over the tables to add a flare of color.
Instead of buying the table cloths with the characters faces on them for $6 a cloth. I decided to just buy plain colored ones that went with the color scheme decor because lets be honest, they are just getting thrown away at the end of the party.
I grabbed 5 pink and 5 purple table cloth because her favorite characters are Skye and Everest from the show.
These I draped these over the tables and I used some as decor and it matched my Pink/Purple Paw Patrol theme perfectly, and I only spent $ 10 as opposed to $60. SCORE!
Now for eating-ware. Plates, napkins, silverware, serveware, etc. Yes I could have gone to Party City and got the character themed dishware but why?
Yes it would look adorable but it would just end up in the trash so why waste the money. Instead I got pink and purple plates and napkins and clear silverware and serve ware to match the color scheme.
And I only spent $8 instead of $20+. Another SCORE!
I also got some poof decor items to add a little something extra for the entry way and center table piece.
I got 2 pinks and 2 purple packs, each came with 2 inside, for a total of $2 for an added pop of decor. I found these cute dog bowls to put the snacks inside to add another extra cuteness factor to the theme.
I got 6 of these for a total of $6 spent on serving bowls. And another dog treat container to hold the silverware for another $1.
As for the goodie bags for the kids, I also made these at the Dollar store and even found cups in theme to hold all the goodies.
Since we only had about 5 kids, it was easy to find what we needed all at the Dollar store. They do sell party bag kids at Target in all sort of themes as well if you have more kids.
I found Paw Patrol cups to hold all the little toys and stickers we put into the cups. So instead of wasting plastic bags, I used cups that the kiddos could use afterwards too! I spent a total of $12 on the goodie bags.
So now total I have only spent $39 and I have all the eat-ware and table cloths covered, plus the goodie bags, and extra decor.
Now on to balloons. Balloons is usually where the money starts to add up really quick.
Sometimes you can get away with getting a bag of balloons at the dollar tree store and blowing them up yourself but I am a little extra and I want themed balloons and I want them to float so they need to be filled with helium.
I noticed near the check out stand that they have all these floating character balloons!
And I noticed they had the Paw Patrol character balloons, but unfortunately they didn’t have the colors I needed (only because I’m picky) so I ended up passing on the helium filled balloons.
But I did grab a bag of pink and a bag of white balloons with 15 balloons each and used these as decor throughout the party.
Only spent $2 for 30 balloons as opposed to $20+ at other party stores for just regular latex balloons.
In full disclosure I did go to Party City for the helium filled balloons and got a prepackaged bouquet of Paw Patrol themed balloons for $15 and then a huge number 4 balloon for $10.
That was pricey but like I said I am picky with balloons and I knew these would be the center piece balloon set for the party so I splurged a bit.
But you could totally get some themed balloons at the Dollar Store for cheaper! I did also purchase the ‘Happy Birthday’ banner and cupcake rings on Amazon for $10 total ($5 for banner and $5 for 24 count rings).
So now I basically have everything I needed for a cute themed party.
But I am always looking to go that extra mile to make it extra cute and I wanted cute in-theme snacks and labels for the party.
Here is where some craftiness comes into play. I printed out some food labels with card stock and used those for the signs around the party.
Thankfully I already had the card stock paper so it didn’t cost me anything. If you don’t have card stock, you can get a whole ream of paper at Target for $13 which you can use for other projects.
(Or you could find a super cute Etsy sight that makes signs and you could order them from online too but it may be more expensive).
Now I am all set for this photo-worthy birthday party and it didn’t break the bank!
I spent $41 for table decorations, serve ware, extra decor, and goodie bags and it all turned out really cute and everyone had the best time!
Only big money spent was the center piece balloons for $30 but they are still floating around the house a week later so in my opinion, worth it.
TOTAL PARTY DECOR BREAKDOWN:
- Dollar Store: $41
- Party City balloon bouquet: $30
- Amazon: $10
So for $81 I threw a whole decorated party!
Granted this doesn’t include the food and bounce house and piñata because those are all extra options and food depends on how many guests.
But another hack, buy food in bulk at Sam’s Club or Costco and save some money if you have a ton of guests to feed!
Shop around for the best deals, a ton of stores have websites you can budget ahead like we did for food and snack items.
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