Category Archives: DIY

Part of the bunting flag banner I am making for little mans b-day... Clip Art fire truck was purchased from Canstock Photo

Little Man’s big 3rd birthday is coming up. It’s so easy to go crazy at birthday time. I have been to parties with bouncy huts, ponies, at expensive kids activity centers. But what if you are a family like us and on a strict budget?

Well, I started planning the party last month. I made a meal plan so I could coupon and buy things on sale. I came up with a theme so I could start making all the banners and corresponding favors with the same and I started gathering supplies for games.

1. Hand Deliver or Call in person and invite

Postage and printed invitations are expensive. Even if you print them on your computer yourself, you are still paying for the ink, paper and then postage. Plus, when you send them out, you are always running the risk of people just throwing them on the counter and you will have to call them to remind them or find out if they are coming anyways. If you want to give a paper invitation, hand deliver it. Usually the person will look at it right away and let you know if something is going on that day. Worried if you don’t give a paper invitation, someone may forget? Then follow up with an email or facebook invite.

Cost Savings: For a party with 40 invitations, you will save about $17 in postage and probably about $10 for paper/printing costs if you print your own.

2. Make Your Own Party Supplies & Favors

You can make a really cool bunting, banner, or signs with just some paper and imagination. If you have a program like Photoshop Elements or GIMP (free software) that works with layers, you can download FREE background paper from places like Pugly Pixels, The Coffeeshop Blog, or any free digital scrapbooking site and add lettering. If you don’t have access to a program like that, just get scrapbook paper and cut into shapes. Punch holes in the top and string it. You can also make the signs, centerpieces, and party favor bags using the same patterns. Don’t pay $30 for a pinata – did you know you can make your own with old newspapers??? Google it. If you start early, you can do all of these things little by little. It’s not like their birthday is a surprise. It comes the same time every year!

Cost Savings: If you make all of the party supplies instead of buying you can save anywhere from $20 – hundreds depending on how elaborate you get

3. Use your imagination for Kids games

Kids don’t need all the expensive bells and whistles. They love doing art projects and science experiments. I just saw a pin on Pinterest on how to make Ice Cream from putting a small Ziploc Bag with milk (or cream), sugar and vanilla inside a larger ziploc bag with ice and salt. How cool would that be for the kiddos? Look at most of the party supplies – pin the tail on the donkey? Pinatas? They can be handmade pretty easily. Plus then you get to use your creativity! Having a fire truck party like us – Why not pin the ladder on the fire truck?

4. Plan your meal ahead & Make it from Scratch

It seems like a pain especially since there are a lot of other things going on, however, did you ever look at the markup on catered food? A tray of Stuffed Shells/pasta/mac and cheese can cost up to $20 (or more) from a caterer.. You can make it yourself for half of that price or less if you coupon and get ingredients when on sale. Make things the day before and just cook the day of. It will take the pressure off.

Cakes have a huge markup, too. Try and make your own or even better - why not try cupcakes instead? Cupcakes are the latest craze now! You can make really cute cupcake toppers to spice them up a bit.

5. Have the party at your house (or a relatives) if possible

Your house is free:) If it’s not possible, instead of going the activity center route, see if you can rent a social hall – like a fire company or church. It will probably be way less expensive than hosting it at an activity center.

6. Don’t forget to coupon!

If you do need to go to the party supply store, make sure you check on their website to see if they have any coupons. Most do. Also, before you head to the craft store to pick up your supplies, print off coupons, too. Michaels, AC Moore and Hobby Lobby are all that usually have coupons in the paper or available on their websites. Anything that you need to buy, see if there is a coupon for. The quick/easy way to look for grocery store coupons (for the food, paper products, etc) is to check a coupon database like the one at www.weusecoupons.com. You can type in a generic term like paper plates or plastic cups to see where you can print/get the coupon from.

The best parties I had as a kid were in our garage with all my family there and running around in our backyard. I always had a homemade cake and not a lot of decorations and I still remember those memories fondly. You don’t have to spend a ton of money to have fun… Just plan ahead and scour the internet for ideas… I find a wealth of information on Pinterest and a lot of the DIY blogs.

P.S. Stay tuned. I am going to be sharing the printable buntings, cake toppers and cupcake wrappers that I am using for little mans fire truck party. I am still waiting on permission to share from some of the sources I used for backgrounds/templates, then I’ll post on the blog! you can see a sneak peak above