How to throw a kid's birthday party for $100

I have one son and I am also an only child. With us its a family tradition, to have all the family over( I have a huge one)and we cook and have a good time playing games with the kids. The party bags are the stuff you get out of the pinatas and the kids are happy with that.

I am so with you on this one! Birthday parties can get over the top. In fact, my 3 YO has never had a party and my 7 YO had his biggest this year -- and it was on the cheap... but I did two for him.

We like to get Pizza -- either from Costco - very yummy and they feed a crowd (plus you can get the salads and stuff) or we have a few places that have $5 pizza's -- cheese or pepperoni (and they will deliver) so that keeps the cost down.

Most of ours are play dates at the house instead of going to a big venue. We did take 4 kids bowling this year, but we did the "lunch and bowl" option on Friday afternoons. We had a meal for each kid, 2 games of bowling and shoe rental for $7 each.

I agree about the goody bags too! I went to a party once and the "goody bag" was a $3 gift card to the ice cream shop down the road. My kid of goody bag!

GREAT ideas! I myself am hosting a "Rock Star" party for my 7 and 10 year-olds (their birthdays are 2 days apart) and will bake the cupcakes, make the favors for the goodie bags, string up white lights (Christmas lights) in the garage for a concert effect, have 2 or 3 friends give music lessons to the kids, and everyone, including adults, can come dressed as their favorite rock star ~ I'm hoping Elvis will show! The kids are excited and it won't cost a bundle.

Last year, one of my daughter's has a summer birthday. Our local pool only costs 75 cents per person with a park near by, so I made a cookie cake and decorated it, had chips, Ice cream, and sodas at the park, and then paid for the kids to go swimming afterwards. I took small ziplock bags decorated with princess stickers and put dollar store candy in it for treat bags. Both the kids and adults had a good time.

I agree totally. All my kids parties were at home with fun activities, games and sometimes paid entertainment (ie. magicians are great) You can get tons of great ideas searching on the web. And goody bags - son't get me started! So many are tossed aside when the kid gets home and the poor hostess spent time and money putting them together. Many of my kids parties had a craft activity resulting in a keepsake item that they took home. I felt that took the place of a goody bag.

I have 3 kids and first we don't have their first party with "Friends" until they are 4 years old and we don't attend "friend" parties until they are 4 years old. Also, I think the party should be decided upon the age of the child as to what you should do and not do. Anyway, we typically have parties at home too.

Parties we have had:
1. pool parties, with a bbq, homemade cake and pinatas; and
2.Guy's Night (with boys you can't call it a sleepover!) with ice cream sundaes and gummie worms, chili dogs, chips n dip, pinata and video games.
3. Parties just at a park where the kids can play and run themselves out! Relay races, cake and pinatas are great at the park.

We have spent money on parties going to Main Event, Bowling and Burger King, but I think the minimum I have spent doing any of these is $150. And I know this sounds bad, sometimes I'll offer my child (the oldest is 14 years old) either a b-day party or cash that I would have spent on the party. That worked for a few years, last year we did the Main Event for $200--ouch!

My daughters b-day party is in a week. We always have it at home. I always provide lots of snacks, cheese, fruit & veggies. I am making her cake this year - guitar shaped. I bought the pan at the local crafts store. I agree that parties are getting out of hand! In an effort this year to be more earth friendly - I have made the decorations. I bought a yard of felt and cut out triangle shapes that I then decorated and glued onto a ribbon - happy birthday banner - that I will use several times over! For the goody bags I found little cotton tote bags and bought a pack of fabric markers - the kids can decorate the bags themselves and take them home at the end of the party.

This was the best. I am so anti-party because of the competetive nature of parents to prove how much they "love" their children. I only hav two parties for my olest son. My second child had no parties and I dod not think my third son will have any parties. We just christened him without his godparents to avoid an after party

What great tips!

I think the $100 spending limit is reasonable, even for a hardworking single Mom such as myself. Homemade cake is the way to go, you just have to get creative. Finger foods are a great idea, I mean, who needs all that heavy food anyway? Also, I don't think that goody bags are an absolute necessity. But, I do believe that entertainment is needed such as a pinata or pin the tail on the donkey.

We had a combined birthday party for my 2 granddaughters (sisters). The youngest turned 1 and the older one turned 7 so we had a wide range of ages. We decided to have the party at a local park with a covered picnic area that had tables.

My daughter decided to splurge on the cake (Tinkerbell Cupcakes design ($30.00)) but everything else was all us. My husband and I bought a tank of helium which came with ballons and ribbon for about $20. We purchased 2 metallic balloons, 1 Tinkerbell and 1 Disney Princesses. As there were 4 tables in the covered area, we used one for the presents, 1 for the refreshments, the Cupcakes, Ice Cream, Punch & Lemonade, and some fresh vegetables and ranch dip. We cut up the vegetables ourselves which saved money as well. Picked up the Tinkerbell paper plates, napkins and cups at the Dollar Store.

The other 2 tables were used for the 2 girls and their friends to sit at. Zera (7) and her friends had the Tinkerbell Balloon fastened to the center of their table and Dannika (1) had the Disney Princess balloon fastened to the center of the table for her and her daycare friends.

My daughter also purchased prizes for the winners of the games at the Dollar Store as well as goodie bags and items for the goodie bags. She also picked up the crepe paper streamer rolls there.

Total cost for he party $74.68. Oh yes, there were 10 children that attended and all had a great time.

I don't think I've ever spent as much as $100 on a kid's birthday, even if you include gifts. My son's b-day was the other day. I bought 3 helium balloons (for the three kids coming), printed construction equipment coloring pages (free from the internet) on yellow paper and taped them up, and made his cake- chocolate with chocolate frosting and a die cast toy excavator (which doubled as a present) "digging" up the cake with a few yellow and brown frosted decorations on the cake. I usually do dinner but this time I didn't. Even if I do dinner it's maybe $10 or less for the main dish with others bringing salad and side dishes. We typically have 10 people or so. I have made homemade pizza, pasta with pesto, roast, and lasagna as main dishes (not all at the same party).

I don't do goody bags but if it is a kid party I will usually have a simple craft and they can take that home. If it's kids I will often do simple snacks like string cheese, cut up apples, etc, along with the cake.

I will say I think a cake decorating set and a cake decorating class are well worth the money. My mom took the class when I was a baby and then taught me how to decorate when I grew up. You can typically take classes at fabric stores. Now I can make fancy cakes for my kids with whatever they are into. Then I don't ever have to buy a cake. I always make my cakes from scratch and make icing with real butter so it will taste as good as it looks.

Instead of gifts or goody bags, our neighborhood (with about 20 kids under the age of 8) has agreed to have everyone bring a wrapped book to birthday parties, instead of a present. At the end of the party, everyone goes home with a great book, including the birthday boy or girl. The kids love it, as do the adults.

I agree I invite fewer kids than I did for my older children--recently held a three year old boy party for my nephew and let him invite 3 friends--we did have a clown come that delighted the children and adults alike..As far as goody bags I a suggestion--sometimes goodwill stores and second hand stores have brand new items cheap--I got $12.00 stuffed dog animals with the tags on new for $1.00 a piece and the kids were thrilled...The dollar stores are the way to go for any paper products...

I have 6 children and the thought of spending a lot of money on their birthdays is ridiculous. We had some great fun at our parties, though. I would choose a theme the children were especially enjoying at that time and plan games and relay races the kids already liked and make up names for the games that fit the theme. One of our best parties was a dog party. Every child who came got a dog tag (paper price tag on a string)and had to choose a doggy name to write on the tag. We drew whiskers on their faces with black makeup pencil. I had made dog ears out of felt and a little waistband elastic. Games included 'chase-the-cat', where each 'dog' had a small stuffed animal (ours from around the house) tied to their backsides with a string. They crawled around on all fours trying to catch each others cats, a sniff game with scented cotton balls, and a game where they searched the yard for purchased colored dog biscuits. Different colored biscuits got different point values.(we played with teams so there could be more winners.) The cake was a basic dog shape (I'm not really good at cake decorating, but this one was really easy: two round cakes; cut ears out of the second cake, the remnant looks like a bowtie.) I did send home 'doggie bags': a paper lunch sack full of 'kibble' (chocolate cereal) and dog bone-shaped cookies. (you can buy cookie cutters that look like a dog bone.)

The best part of these parties was involving the children in the planning. My older children really enjoyed helping make the decorations and come up with the ideas for the games. The kids who were the right age for the party really enjoyed using their imaginations and pretending to be dogs or pirates or whatever the theme of the party was.

I know we never spent $100.00 on a birthday party. It was stressful planning these parties, but go figure, I already had 6 kids. Inviting any more kids to my house was a stressful thing to do. Sometimes I invited a friend to come help me.

I'm lucky to have a group of like minded friends, so there is no competitive party throwing. We all appreciate efforts to save. I have two boys and started having parties with friends when they were 3. All of our parties have been "Birthday Party" themed. I don't see the need for any other type of theme. A birthday is pretty special, so we go with that.
For a pinata, I stuffed a medium sized box with leftover toys, notebooks and other such goodies (I was a K teacher before and have assorted treasure box junk waiting for a place to go). I used spray adhesive to firmly attach wrapping paper to the box and wrapped it like a present. A bit of curling ribbon around it served to decorate and make a hanger. This was surprizingly sturdy and could be used for a group much older than the 6 year old's that bashed away at it here. For a younger group, look for a less durable box.
For games, we've enjoyed Freeze Dance, Pass the Present (Hot Potato but with a present), Duck,Duck, Goose, Pin the Flame on the Candle (using flame shapes cut out from post it notes and a cake with a candle drawn on poster board).
We also schedule parties for between meal times and just have munchies along with cake and ice cream. (home made cake, of course)
The boys are always as thrilled as can be to have had a birthday party. I think they most enjoy playing with their friends.

I like the idea of a homemade cake, and finger foods. But I think goodie bags should be used. People expect them at parties, and if you don't give them, people will know you have a budget.

I took my daughter to a party today. The mother took 8 girls to the local ice skating rink for $40.00. After the party we went back to the birthday girls house her mother had made spaghetti w/meat sauce, garlic bread, fresh fruit, ice tea and a nice cake. All home made. They sang happy birthday and 30 minutes later parents were ringing the bell. She said the party was well under $100.00. My daughter said she had a ball. She gave gift bags away also. The bag had fingernail polish, lip gloss and a free pamphlet about US Constitution. Oh she had about 10 candy kiss in the bag too. I think it was nice.

We have six children, so we alternate who gets a "big" party (2 each year, spaced apart). We don't start parties until age 5, except the family get-togethers with the grandparents, aunt, uncle & cousins that we do for all family birthdays. Even those celebrations we have started doing just once each month for whoever has a birthday that month since our family is getting so large. A "big" party for us means we go out for it, somewhere like Chuck E Cheese, Incredible Pizza Co, ice/roller skating, Michael's, etc. I have been setting a $150 limit because we usually have quite a few guests, including our own children. I think we could probably cut that back to $100, though. My older kids (age 10 & up) are getting to where they prefer to have their friends sleep over and watch movies, play video games, and stay up late having fun instead of going out for a party. Last year my 12yo daughter invited two friends to sleep over and I took them out for ice cream and a late movie. My kids would probably jump all over the chance to have the $ instead, but we haven't gone there yet! The younger kids would be happy with just about anything in the way of a home party, as long as it involves balloons! Playing outside in the water is always a big hit, too. For parties at home I have been making an ice cream sandwich cake. I'm not very artistic and feel inept at cake decorating, so this is perfect for me! I buy a box of 12 ice cream sandwiches and make a two-layer cake: 6 sandwiches on the bottom, covered with half a tub of Cool Whip, then drizzled with Magic Shell and sprinkled with mini M&M's. Repeat for 2nd layer. It's so bright and colorful, and tastes even better than it looks. It's been a big hit. We usually have a pinata, why did it never occur to me that those goodies are all they need for their goodie bag? Thanks for that suggestion.

Another thing you can do for a cheap goody-bag gift is to burn a cd with your child's favorite tunes for each of the guests. Blank cds aren't too much, and you can let your child personalize the cases with a pack of permanent markers. I received this at a b-day party last month, and I was greateful to the mom for not giving my kid a bag of candy and junk that just ends up all over my house anyway. We listen to the cd in the car all the time. Much better.