Thursday, August 5, 2010

Birthday Party Recap!

I promised a recap of my daughter's birthday party, so here it is!

As I blogged before, I was trying to keep this party as inexpensive as possible. Here are some pictures of the party and some notes of things I did to keep costs down.

This was the main table - I made the banner at Scrapbooks Etc. in Mesa at Lindsey & University. The supplies cost me 1.67. The framed photos were pretty inexpensive too. I had a friend take the pictures and give me the CD (which was so nice of her, by the way). I had 5 of the prints enlarged at Costco which cost me 3.33. I already had the frames, so no out of pocket cost there. 

The cake and cupcakes were made by my cousin who is in college and is super talented - obviously! She does wedding cakes too! I was so excited to see what she came up with and she honestly went above & beyond. It was all so tasty and so beautiful! Thanks Britt!
And here is the Candy Buffet for guests to take home a bag of sweet treats...
This candy would have been super expensive had it not been for last week's Fry's mega sale and competitor coupons. The retail cost of all the candy was 13.29, but after all the coupons and discounts, I paid under a dollar for my entire transaction. So, I am calling this candy free. I had 2 of the glass jars and the plastic bags, and borrowed a third jar. So no out of pocket for the candy buffet either.

The expensive part was the pizza. I knew it would be, so no shocker there. Luckily, my mother in law had some coupons we could use and we ended up paying $50 for 6 large pizzas. This may not sound like a great deal, but for this local pizzeria (which is a family favorite) that is super cheap. One large pizza there usually runs about $20. So, although it was a big expense, I am super happy with the deal we ended up with. Other things on the menu included: green salad and dressing (all free from my stockpile), fruit salad (donated by my mother in law), and soda (6 free 2 liter bottles from my stockpile).

So, everything combined, Maddie's second birthday party cost exactly $55. Not bad for feeding an entire houseful of family. We had lots of fun and I got to include everything on a budget.

What have you done to keep costs down for your kids' birthday parties?

6 comments:

  1. That cake is beautiful! I want to learn how to make cakes like that. Great job on the candy. I always end up paying alot for mine. My daughter's birthday is in November, so I am able to get some candy from the Halloween sales.

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  2. Why does it say that the Marcal paper towel are free, the coupon expired in July?

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  3. So Inspired- Thanks for the comment! I am so jealous that you get to take advantage of Halloween candy deals. That is great!

    Anon- Thanks for catching that! For some reason, I thought those coupons expired at the end of August, but you are right! I had already used all my Marcal coupons, so I didn't have them to reference. I pulled that item down off the free list. Thanks again!

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  4. You did a great job on your daughter's party!! And all for $55! Very impressive! :)

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  5. Wow! That was a super inexpensive party! Great job! Here's a link to my post on the frugal party I threw for my son in July. http://itscrazycheap.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-do-you-throw-birthday-party-for.html

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  6. Love the cake! I love the sign too.... I seriously doubt my attempt would come across so profressional, I am a clutz with crafts! Quinn's b-day is in septemper (the big 3!!) so I need to come up with a few cute ideas to make it special on a budget!

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