Every year when the girls birthdays roll around, I try to figure out how to do it economically but still keep it fun. This year was an “off” year for my 6 year old which meant it was a small at home party. But you know me, I don’t do small super well when it comes to entertaining… So, we came up with an affordable birthday party and invited some neighbors over for some birthday fun. Here’s how we partied and how you can throw an affordable birthday party for under $250 too!
SQUISHMALLOW PARTY SUPPLIES
First, pick a theme and keep it simple. While our theme did end up being a little off the beaten path, Six-Mallow, we were still able to keep it simple with what we ended up doing for the party. So, our theme was Six-Mallow Squishmallow themed, and we adopted Squishmallows! The theme helps you set the tone for the day and planning!
PARTY ANIMALS BIRTHDAY
Next, set up your plan! What will you do? What time will it be? Where will it be? And how many you’ll invite?! If you are trying to do it on a budget, home is the best place to start – so long as you have the room – and less is more! Keeping it simple keeps it a more affordable birthday party!
Once you’ve got your plan, it’s time to prepare! Make sure to create a quick invitation that you can text out to your guests! I use Canva always and it’s easy! Create/design your own or use one that they’ve already prepped in there!
For this one we did adoption of Squishmallows so we needed 10 Squishmallows for guests, boxes to be their “homes,” supplies to make collars, and we used our bounce house in the backyard! If you have things around that the kids like utilize them! You don’t have to go all crazy for the kids to still have fun!
Remember that it’s only a couple hours so don’t fill it with too much! We basically played, ate, played, did cake and ice cream, and presents… and after all that we had about 10 min to spare and they played some more!
Here’s the breakdown of our affordable birthday party on a budget:
Squishmallow Prints $12
* I DIY’d these by creating them on Canva and printed them out at OfficeMax. If you do it online, you can usually find a coupon via Honey or Rakuten. Plus, if you order via Rakuten then you get cash back! These prints cost me about $12 to print and I had a few extras in there too. I had hats for a game printed, flyers for stations,
Squishmallow Poster $15
* I created a poster for Pin The Hat on the Squishmallow via Canva too. I will say, I had this printed at Walgreens and they gave me a hard time about printing it but I checked with Canva and they said to make sure to have the licensing agreement if they get lippy again! Plus, when you order these online they are sometimes even 50% off!
JAPANESE THEMED 10TH BIRTHDAY
Invitations FREE
*I created this invitation in Canva and you can use them too! The design can be edited by you if you’d like to have a Six-Mallow party too!
Frames $3.75
*I needed three white frames to hold the little station identifiers. Grabbed 3 8×10 white frames for this at Dollar Tree.
Beads & Pipe Cleaners $10
* I grabbed all this stuff at the craft store at 50% off so in total we had 3 kinds of beads and a multi pack of pipe cleaners to make collars for the squishmallows.
Squishmallows $75
* This was actually the main reason why we went this route. You can get small Squishmallows at Five Below for $5.95 each. I figured this would be the perfect thing to “adopt” and would make a perfectly priced favor for your party guests! It worked out so well! We got 12, but you could keep your invite list down to 8 and it would be even more affordable!
Boxes $12
*Grabbed these for .99 cents each at Hobby Lobby. They are perfect because they can decorate them flat if you like, or pop them out. I used the white so they could put stickers and use markers to decorate.
Cakes, Cupcakes, Icing $15
*For this birthday we used box mix and made a chocolate cake and marble cupcakes… Do it yourself does save a bit! Or, you can buy a premade one for around $20 too!
Balloons $40
* This is totally optional… I grabbed a number 6 which was $15 itself and then a few stars at dollar tree and a couple others at Party City.
PINK PUMPKIN BIRTHDAY PARTY
Bounce House – FREE!
*If you don’t have one, ask a neighbor or use something else you have at home!
Food $50
* For food we wanted to keep it simple because the kids usually don’t eat much! So we did fresh strawberries and raspberries, Capri Sun, popcorn snack mixes, chicken nuggets, mini corn dogs, carrots and dip
Plates $15
* DONT FORGET THE PLATES & Silverware — Keep it simple and cheap, grab these at the dollar store too!
Location – FREE!
* At our house! But if you don’t have room, think about meeting at a local park!
In total we ended up at $247.75!
All in all it was a pretty affordable party and I think it was all a hit!
And I think I threw most of it together in about a week!
Sometimes I work better under pressure, but I’m really happy with how it all turned out!
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