Party like a cheapster!

Ok, the first story of the birthday party weekend is the one that was the most challenging, and taught me alot! This year for Caleb's 3rd birthday, we attempted to have his party on a budget. In the past I have spent around $100 for the kids' parties and probably as much as $200 once or twice. This year since we are attempting to "live like no one else now, so that we can live like no one else later", we set ourselves up a budget of $45.00 to throw this party on. We settled on that amount because we had $50 left in our grocery budget last month that we did not use. We set down and decided to put that $50 towards son's party. Only I felt confident that I could do it on $45 so I set that as my goal. Well, I was a little too big for my britches (oh wait, nope, in reality I wear big britches...really big britches, getting bigger all the time britches! but that's another story) and alas, I did not come in under budget ....le sigh. But never the less, I learned some important lessons in this party process. So, since several are wondering how we did this, here is how it played out. I know there are people out there far more savy than I am and probably can do far more on far less than we did,  but I wanted to share our learning experience, and hopefully I will use this as a reminder to myself when I get the urge to throw another party.

First spending trip was to the wonder that is the Dollar Tree. Below is what I was able to get using $6.60

Helium Balloon (I actually did not know Dollar Tree had heliums) , forks, 2 sets of cups, plates and napkins

LESSON #1: Always check your resources before you start buying!
I learned this by trial and error. After the party was over and I was packing things that were leftover into the "party box" in the attic, I found these same blue napkins that I had plenty of left from another party, and an entire array of different cups that would have been sufficient for the party. That mistake cost me $2.20 with tax. These oversights, however small, ended up causing me to miss my goal.Here are a few things I actually did remember to look for and by doing so saved myself some cash. These items were already around the house and waiting to be put to use.

Pantry raiding led us to having all the drinks, latex balloons, black and red dye without spending a dime

LESSON #2: Get over being too proud to ask for a bargain and don't be afraid to say no.
My second trip was to a party store in Jackson (that I dashed into while I was there taking the brother for Lasik surgery last week). There I found the perfect Spiderman tablecloth for the party. It was $4.99. This got awkward for me. I went up to the manager, asked if there were any sales, specials or discounts he could offer. He kinda...did not appreciate that question. Basically he told me no (and his look let me know I was irritating him for being a cheap-o.)  I really wanted this tablecloth but when I considered that I only had $5 to decorate with, I knew I could not spend it all on this one thing. So, I pretended to be confidant, put it back and left the store. Can I tell you that this was a little embarrassing? That is until the next day. I went to Walmart, and lo and behold they had the exact same tablecloth. Guess what? It was $2.75. That made my previous day's embarrassment totally worth it! Next to the tablecloth were these little spidey masks in a pack of 8 for $2.25. Perfect! Here are the other things I got at the Wally, that all together with tax totaled up to $12.67. Probably could have come off cheaper if I had remembered to look for cake and icing coupons before I went (which usually are not hard to find.

The spidey masks were my favorite purchase for the party

LESSON #3: Your Momma is smarter than you ever knew!
When I was growing up my Momma could whip-stitch (I am not sure that is a word, but I find myself using it often) anything out of a black garbage bag. Seriously, Momma made at least one of our Halloween costumes every year using nothing more than a garbage bag or two. The cutest costumes from garbage bags that I can remember are Zorro and Batman. Give that woman some pantyhose and eyeliner and she could fashion a Popeye costume in no time. Last week I was browsing that amazing place that is Pinterest and stumbled onto a tutorial on how to make Halloween decorations from garbage bags. And behold, there it was. A step by step for making spider webs. I was so eager to try this, but certain it would be a failure. It took me about one hour, but in that hour I made 5 large webs and one small one. Best part was, these garbage webs were full of static. Yep, they were like window clings onto my dining room walls. The perfect Spiderman party decor.  I can't tell you how excited I was to have decorations for FREE! And in doing so, appreciated my Momma for one more reason than I already did. . . and she didn't have Pinterest to steal ideas off of, she was just original.

I can't help it, I love the garbage bags hanging on my wall. I know this party was simple and cheap but we had fun!

Put one under the cake to kind of add a little something

So, after my Dollar Tree & Walmart run, I was left with $25.73. Perfect, I thought. I had called around and compared coupons for all the local pizza options. I ended up choosing Domino's because they had a special where you could get any 3 large pizzas for $7.00 each. So after tax my total was going to be $23.05. But, for some reason when they gave me my total it was $22.94. I am not sure why, but anyway, that was how it came out.

With the chips, pizza, cake, Kool-Aid and tea, we were able to feed 17 people. There was alot of confusion with this party since our party boy had gotten sick and we had to reschedule the day it was on. This led to two of his "farmer friends" not getting to come and we ended up inviting all my brothers to come. Well, my Mom and I worried that my larger brothers might eat more than the little kids we had originally planned on coming so we decided she would pick up a 'buy one get one free' pizza from Craig's Pizza the night before "just in case". We were wrong, we have pizza explosion going on in my fridge right now.

LESSON #4 - RED AND WHITE MAKE - PINK! SO PLAN FOR CATASTROPHES!
The night before the party I was diligently working on making the cake. I should say, this is not my forte`. I do not like tedious tasks. But, I was determined to make it semi-cute ~ although far from professional. Guess what I learned? If you add a bottle of red food coloring to white icing (in an attempt to get Spidey red) you will indeed get Barbie Pink! So off to the store I ran with the kids in their pajamas for yet another bottle of food coloring and some red candy sprinkles($5.63). It took a bottle and a half of food coloring to get red icing. That one thing put me over my budget. But when I finished the cake up, Caleb came into the kitchen, saw it and his mouth dropped open, "Momma, dat cake is pitty!" My little love thought my efforts were pretty. All that trouble was entirely worth it to hear his simple praise.

No work of art but this thing really tried my patience....cake making...NOT MY THING!

All totaled our party came in at $47.84
It was over budget by $2.84
If the pink disaster hadn't occurred we would have been under budget at $42.21, and if I had remembered to thoroughly check my resources, it would have shaved it down to $40.01.
Oh well, it was a fun challenge and came in very close!

If you are trying to plan a party on the cheap here is my top 7  el tightwad tips.
1. Made my own cake the simple old-fashioned way our parents did. Um, yeah, except I don't bake from scratch, so scratch that. Make if from a box.
2. Don't buy sodas or individual pre-packaged juices for the kids. Tea and kool-aid were a great, less expensive alternative for us.
3. Don't try to be like anyone else. I have been to some fabulous parties that were adorable and made me so envy people's creative skills. That said, I am not creative, and at the end of the day, I get a thrill from being frugal. So, that seems to be my thing and I am learning to revel in it.
4. Ask Yo Momma for advice. I think my Momma would say just "KISS IT". (Keep It Simple Stupid)
5. Be resourceful.
6. Don't forget it is for a kid's party and their level of expectation is probably not as high as your own.
7. We chose to forego party favors. I hope this was not rude, but it really saved on $$ and really, how many more of those little whistle blowing, mini pin ball, ring pop, candy necklace, bubble blowing favors can really fit in the floor board of my van? ;)

Last thing. I told you we have a ton of leftover pizza. So much so, that my grocery trip this week will only consist of needing milk, cereal, celery, carrots and ziploc bags. Yeah, we are eating pizza every night this week. Gonna throw some fresh veggies on the side so I can pacify the "i am a terrible mom for feeding my kids this" feeling. That should leave me with a surplus of around $60 in my grocery budget. With little Laney Kat's birthday just around the corner in February, I am looking forward to our "day of beauty" she and I will be spending together for her special day.

Up next, my little love having a ball at his party!