Birthday Parties on a Budget

I am so excited and honored to have Jenny from A Mother's Heritage here with us today! She has some great ideas to make your little princess' birthday perfect without breaking the bank!! 

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We have all been to them. They are the birthday parties where everything has a theme. There are lavish amounts of party favors. Gourmet food special ordered. The pony rides have been rented and the play equipment is blown up in the backyard from the local carnival company.

Then your children come home and have stories and stories to tell of the best party they have ever been to! Mama, can we have one JUST like it!

It is then you want to melt into a puddle of tears as you think of the dollar signs, sheer amount of hours of exhaustion and then multiply that times the amount of children that you have!

Today I would like to encourage you that you can give your children lovely birthday parties without lots of exhaustion, and with very little money! 

First a few points:

• Keep it simple
• Keep it fun
• Use what you have already
• Get Creative
Here are two examples of little girl's birthday parties that involved very little money and lots of fun.

Birthday Tea Party

 

 *Have your little girl's friend come dressed up for a Tea Party in their church type clothes, or let them dress up when they get to your house using dress up clothes, big hats, gloves, whatever you can dig up. 

 *Pull out your best dishes (you know the ones that maybe you haven't used because you are afraid they will break--use them!) Even if you do not have good dishes you can make a pretty table with what you have. 

 *Put out a cloth tablecloth and candles, any pretty embeleshments you have around the house...the sky is the limit. 

 *You do not need to have fancy cakes and food. Yes, my dear friend did make wedding cookies, etc, but that is because she wanted to. Use simple recipes! One of the hits of our party were the white boxed Little Debbie cakes that we cut up and put on a fancy plate. Even PB & J can turn into a special occasion! With very little money you can have a special day for your little lady through this Tea Birthday Party.   

Pajama Birthday Party

 

 *Our family has a policy that we do not normally do sleepovers, so for my 6 year old's birthday this year, we had the next best thing! A Pajama Party, with all the elements of a sleepover, only they were picked up at bedtime. Again very little expense. 

*Have each little girl come dressed in their favorite pajamas with their favorite, doll, stuffed animal or blanket. 

 *Pick a special little girl movie for them all to watch on a big blanket with lots of pillows on the floor. (We watch Shirley Temple's Heidi). 

 *Buy Little Caesar's 5$ pizzas, pop microwave popcorn, and serve cake and ice cream during the movie. *After the movie open present and then gather around for storytime with Mom. We read God's Wisdom for Little Girls. 

 *Have a great big pillow fight!! Provide them with lots of pillows and let the giggles roll. :) 

*Finally, let the children free play until their mothers come and get them. Happy, tired girls will leave with fond memories in their head that did not cost very much! I hope I have encouraged you to think outside the box, get creative and find your children's birthdays to be an opportunity to have fun, enjoy each other and create memories in a way that has little stress and is thrifty during these tough financial times!

Jenny is an ordinary mom with an extraordinary God. Following a beautiful courtship, she has been married to her best friend for over 16 years. Jenny homeschools her 7 children (ages 14-10 mo). This means everything from teaching basic phonics, to assisting her oldest through CollegePlus! When she is not teaching, playing with her children, or changing diapers, she loves to sing, write, blog and clean...yes, clean.

As a recovering OCD perfectionist and "neat freak" she still has unmatched socks, messy closets and is allergic to mornings. Jenny is also the author of the ebook Embracing the Mess. Come and be refreshed, blessed and challenged in your high calling as a wife and mother over at A Mother's Heritage. You may also follow her on Facebook, or Twitter.

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