Frugal Birthday How-to

How to have a frugal birthday and have everyone not know. Even your little one!

I am a very frugal mama I love a deal. Going to thrift stores and finding name brand clothing at a steal. I love making my child’s special day, special without breaking the bank. For years this wasn’t a choice but a necessity due to our financial situation. Now it’s just a labor of love that I enjoy doing.

I have paid for birthday parties at bounce parks and museums which the convenience itself is worth the money. I still enjoy making my girl’s day special with touches of the thing that they are most into at this moment.

What Makes it Frugal…? DIY!

Almost all of the frugal birthday party materials I make on my Cricut. This was the whole reason why I actually bought a Cricut was to make frugal birthday party materials. Without one it took me 4 months to be able to create and print and cut out all the stuff. I talk about this as well in my daughter’s birthday post from last year.

By saying this though you are only making a big purchase once and it virtually pays for itself. With the amount of money, you save on buying birthday party supplies.

If you would like to purchase the bundle of products I have made for my daughter’s birthdays head on over to my Etsy page. If you would like to try to figure out how to make your own I will walk you through how I make a frugal birthday party.

The first thing I do is decide on a theme. I usually do this by picking what my girls have been into for the past year. Sometimes they overlap, they love Elmo for years it seems. But it’s always something that they enjoy or like playing with.

Then I map out all the things I am going to make for the party.

• 15 invitations
• 15 cupcake toppers
• Batch of confetti
• Birthday girl shirt
• 15 goodie bags

I sometimes make food tents but, I haven’t recently because I find it to be too much of a hassle. Unless I can come up with clever titles. I did that with My oldest second birthday which was Curious George. We had Charky Chips and Farmer Renkins Veggies. I haven’t had anything like that though with the past couple of birthdays they have had. 

Paper Goods

All of my plates, napkins, table cloths are all bought from the dollar store. They have a nice range of colors and sometimes they have themed ones. I do not usually buy those anywhere else because they are needlessly expensive. The colors I choose already fit my theme and if I really want to I can dress them up with a printed and cut image.

For my cupcake toppers, I use white card stock and lollipop sticks from the bakery or craft aisle. I use whatever shape fits with my child’s theme, my example was from my oldest giraffe birthday. Cardstock is what I use for my invitations as well. I also use colored card stock for the confetti. Unless I am doing a character in which case I would use white card stock.

For the goodie bags I usually get white ones from Walmart but this year I am going to be ordering them from Amazon. Because they don’t have the color I want to fit my Abby Cadabby theme. Depending on what you want you will be able to get a good deal as long as you are buying blank solid colors.

Birthday Shirt

I have only started making shirts for my girls since getting my Cricut. You can buy a personalized shirt on Etsy for an arm and a leg. I also have gotten generic ones from Carter’s or Walmart. It is not an essential item for a birthday but I think it makes your little one feel special all day not just on their part.

Cake!

IFor the cake or cupcakes making your own is always the more frugal option. You can be fancy and make it from scratch which requires some skill. Or you can buy a box version and whip it up. Either way, it will be cheaper than buying them in the bakery section of the supermarket. However, it can get expensive if you start getting into the cake decorating. If you want to truly be frugal leave out the fondant and cake molds. In my unicorn cake, I did buy the paper cut-outs.

Throw your frugal birthday!

That’s it! Now you can throw a frugal birthday party. Get those creative juices flowing, grab your crafty scissors and make it happen! Map out the stuff you want to make and how many, decide on a theme, and then find patterns and pictures that you love online. You will never go wrong with homemade from the heart crafts.

For all the materials I am going to use for my Abby Cadabby Birthday, check in next week where I will be giving a freebie of the Abby Cabby Birthday in a Box and showing off all the stuff you can make on your Cricut. So make sure you don’t miss that post by subscribing to my blog. I always send great content and never spam!