Home Sweet Simple Home

The cost of a birthday

I’m on a birthday thread here today- check out the previous few posts about birthdays if you’d like . . . . And now to the birthday food.

Sassafras made the food decisions. She asked her Daddy to fry a turkey and for Mama to make her yummy spoonbread. Gramma Rosie brought Sassy’s favorite Jell-O fruit salad, Nana brought a tossed salad complete with 5 different dressings, Uncle and Aunt L brought cheesy potatoes and Auntie Em brought French bread with olive oil for dipping.

Sass requested a chocolate cake with pink frosting. Another of our traditions is that Mr. Steady has made every single birthday cake since Maiden’s 2^nd birthday (that totals to 19 cakes in the last 9 years and has included a bath tub w/ rubber ducky cake, barn shaped- complete with silo and strawberry shaped with chocolate chip seeds and I must also mention the green eggs and ham cake for Mr. Conductor’s first birthday! Wowzers!).

Mr. Steady made a round two layer chocolate cake separated by a layer of strawberry jam, topped with pink frosting and pink, red and white sprinkles and edged with white frosting and a lovely white frosting 7.
Here’s a cost breakdown- out of pocket for Mr. Steady and I:

Turkey Breast: $Free (in our freezer and bought back in December with the Butterball gift certificate Mr. Steady got from his company)

Spoonbread: $2.98

Birthday Cake:  $3.57

Punch: $4.63 (2 gallons worth)

Total Spent on Birthday Party Food: $11.18

So, figuring in the cost of birthday party supplies (calculated in the post right before this one) of $33.31 that makes the total we spent on the party a whopping $44.49. That comes out to roughly $2.62 per person in attendance!
Wow! I am so excited that it came in under $100. I am simply thrilled with myself. Now, as to birthday gifts . . . . . $65.00. But not all at once mind you- I have been putting away gifts over the last few months; books from Scholastic, a $5 disposable camera, a sugar bowl from antique store, birthday outfit- top and skirt (on clearance), Jonathon Park CD and Tae Bo for Kids DVD (the last two gifts being the most costly- $37 for both). I also passed down a couple of gifts (a special necklace given to me by my grandmother and snow globe Mr. Steady gave me when we were first dating- Sass has just started collecting snow globes) and knit her a really cool belt.

So including the presents, we threw a birthday bash for just a tad bit over $100. Figure in our field trip yesterday complete with lunch and the grand total for 2 days of birthday celebrations is about $152. I am pretty tickled with that!
I’ll have to keep track for Mr. Conductor and see if we can come in under that!!!

Out of curiosity- do you throw birthday parties/bashes? Got any great frugal tips?

Untitled Comment

8:09 PM, 2007-Feb-27 .. Posted by matsmom97

If you use paper plates (big deal here since we never do). I started buying solid colors when they were on clearance. Then I simply buy 1 set of plates/napkins in their 'theme' (if we can find it, if not we just use what we have) and use the whatever plates match. I do the same w/silverware/napkins, etc.
My most frugal tip is to have children close together and just have one party!LOL My boys are 4 days apart so we just have one big party and they each have their own (homemade) cake and since it's in August, it's usually a pool party (we have a pool), grill and have whatever is in the gardena dn make our own ice cream and have a huge ice cream bar. That's where we get hit hard moneywise--those toppings aren't cheap! But ppl rave about it and since we provide everything and the guests all get a full meal, I don't think we do too badly. Usually $100 for it all for one big party for 2 of them w/over 20 ppl in attendance.

Inspired

10:30 PM, 2007-Feb-27 .. Posted by Sara

You did an awesome job on the party! I am inspired to see how I can do on my girl's parties. I have one coming up in April and again at the first of May. Not to mention other family members birthdays. I was so amazed at how special you made the day for your daughter without having to break the bank. It goes to show that it's not all about the gifts. Thanks for sharing!
Be blessed,
Sara

Parties

8:49 AM, 2007-Feb-28 .. Posted by Lynne

My girls have enjoyed the following for their birthdays. They make invitations and invite 5-6 friends over. We make pizza crusts in individual small aluminum pans. The guests then make their own pizzas with toppings we have set out for them. We mark each pizza with toothpicks so each person gets their own pizza back.
We make a homemade pinata and fill it with candy. The guests play blind-fold bash the pinata while the pizzas bake. We make, decorate, and freeze a cake the week before the birthday so it can be taken out the morning of the birthday and it still looks perfect.
Prior to the party, we check out books in the library on party games. The FAVORITE party game is flashlight tag. This is played after dark, and one blue light bulb is placed in each room. All other lights are turned off. The kids then hide, and the person who is "it" uses a flashlight to find them. This game can go on for over an hour. We usually start with other games and this is the grand finale.
This party costs less than $40 for 8 kids. The guests always love the party. We don't do a lot of decorating; just a table cloth, streamers and balloons from the dollar store. We do prepare little gift bags for the guests with purchases from the dollar store. We reuse the blue light bulbs each party. You don't need to spend a lot of money to have a fantastic party.

one more important thing....

8:54 AM, 2007-Feb-28 .. Posted by Lynne

The tradition in our house is that the first person the birthday girl invites to her party is her sister. From the time they were tiny, I have told them your sister will always be your best friend. Yes, there is some sibling rivalry, but 90% of the time they are best friends.