Birthday for 1 Yr Old Son on a Budget

My suggestion is to make the party a potluck, and you make the cake. That way there is plenty of food for everyone, but it is not too expensive for you, and everyone can enjoy each other's company.

W.

This year for my 2-year old daughter, I'm going with Sponge Bob. (I know it's an odd theme for a girl, but he's her fave right now!) I'm making her cake by decorating a simple sheet cake with yellow icing and putting his face on it. I will print pictures of Sponge Bob and his friends on the computer to put up for decoration. For the older kids, I have bought some yellow cleaning sponges from the Dollar store (10/$1) and a pack of markers so they can make their own Sponge Bob. I'm buying a big can of nacho cheese (from Wal-Mart) and some chips to snack on. For punch, I am buying one bottle of Blue Hawaiian punch and mixing it with 2 bottles of the Sprite-like drink from the dollar store. With some gummy snax from the 2/$1 shelf and a pack of yellow balloons, I'm out ALMOST $20 for the whole thing!!!!!!! (And if you can splurge a few extra dollars, go for grilling hamburgers and serve them "crabby patties!!!"

Good luck!!!

I would suggest a potluck. For a 1 yr old, you don't really have to provide any entertainment, and food and opening presents are enough entertainment for everyone else. If you feel weird about asking friends to bring food (I personally, would love to contribute something besides a gift to a party - it makes a person feel good and more inclined to socialize with everyone else), then maybe just your relatives and in-laws can help out.

And if you want ideas for cute and cheap decorations, www.orientaltrading.com has the best deals, or make your own with ideas from Parents, Parenting, or Family Fun magazines.

Good luck and God bless!

M. B

If you have a YMCA near by then that would be a great place to hold the party. We had our son's 1st birthday party at a place around here called The Jones Center for Families....it is basically a YMCA with some perks. We used a Veggie Tales theme because you can make pretty much everything you need for decorations...the only thing we had to buy was balloons. I went to the local Christian book stores and asked if they had any left over posters of Veggie Tales I could have....I got about three or four...then I printed some coloring pages off and colored them with markers for the remaining decorations. I also used a coloring page for the invitation and just typed the words under the picture. For gift bags I used plain yellow paper sacks and put a Veggie Tales sticker in the center of each one (I got the stickers for free when I got the posters) and tied it with green balloon ribbon, and in them I put 2 of the mini play dough containers, and some dum-dum suckers, and a fun size bag of M&M's(I got the Play Dough on clearance after Halloween, but they have them in the toy section for like 10 for 2 dollars or something like that). We were having about 20 people coming so I didn't have anything to cook for that, so I made a veggie tray and just made a homemade dip for it....it goes with the theme and the parents will love you for not feeding their children a bunch of sugar and nothing healthy. For the cake I baked and decorated it myself, I used a Soccer Ball cake pan and decorated it to look like Bob the Tomato, but a regular round cake pan would do the trick to. And for the little guests I made cupcakes and decorated them to look like the French peas (green icing, and brown eyes and mouth). If you have it at a YMCA there is a chance you could have swimming, sp they could work all the sugar off before they went home....plus, who doesn't like swimming. Sorry this was so long, but I hope it helps.

What I've done in the past (we're ALWAYS on a budget) is ask close friends and family members to help with the food... bring a dish or some drinks or whatnot. If this is for your 1 year old keep in mind that it's not necessary to go nuts with decorations, games, or favors since he won't remember this and wouldn't know anything is missing. Have your other kids and husband help you make some decorations (construction paper chains, drawn pictures, etc...) You could probably find some really good ideas for homemade decorations on the web... just google homemade party decorations and see what happens. The cake is really the focus of most first birthday parties... if you can't afford to spring for a pre-made cake from wal-mart or somewhere like that, homemade cakes add a personal touch and usually taste even better! If your son has a cartoon charactor he seems to like or a type of object you can also use google to find some neat cake designs (my daughter's Blue's Clues cake came out adorable!). Invitations can also be homemade...either on the computer or once again ask the other kids to help out and make them super cute and personal. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful party and always remember that the true key to a great party is the people...the rest usually falls into place... have fun and good luck!

First of all, I don't think you should feel the need to feed everyone an entire meal. The most fun about 1st birthdays is the blowing out of candles and watching your child dig through their first cake and getting it everywhere! I am in the same situation, however, we have a niece who shares the same birthday as our son and her mother wants to have an expensive party at Chuck E Cheese, which we are not inclined to participate in. I think a simple family party at a park or somewhere wide open with a small cake for the birthday girl/boy and a larger one to serve with ice cream and punch. Then, maybe a few gifts. If there are other kids in your family, then they can feel free to play about on the playground equipment. It's cheap, easy, and fun for the whole family!

I always have to do tight budget birthdays for all three of my children. The parties are always small but the kids love them. I fix their favorite food for their "birthday" meal. It has become a tradition in my family since I was little. It makes them feel special and important. I buy them perhaps 1 or two gifts and bake them a cake. I get some pretty good decorating deals through an outlet shop here in town, perhaps there is one near you. Mine is called Paper Source or something along those lines. Then I invite a couple of thier friends and family over. Of course it is not like Chuck E. Cheeses but I think my children enjoy our small and very personable birthdays. I hope this helps.

you could bake 2 cakes (would only cost about $5) alot cheaper than store bought cakes from the bakery! Have you considered a potluck party? I dont think 30 people would expect you to cook that much food. Just ask them to bring there fav foods, maybe finger foods. I have 4 kids, and i always dreaded trying to make the house spotless before parties, so now I try to go to the park (if warm enough) or just outside in the yard.

Get decorations and utensils from the Dollar Tree and bake the cake yourself. If it's not enough, make two cakes and get a big tub of vanilla ice cream. I'm a single mother, and this is what I did. If you don't want to do the decorating thing too much, just blow up a bunch of balloons and let them go around the floor. When everyone is about to leave, tell everyone, kids and all to pop a balloon on the way out.

My son just had his first b-day party and if you make your own cake, much cheaper. I got a cake mold from Wal-mart and iced it by using tips from the internet. The cake turned out awesome. If you bake the cake the night before and ice it the day of the party it saves a little time. I practiced about four times before the party, but that was still a lot cheaper than buying a cake. The speghetti idea was great, i've done that before. I was thinking you could use a cajun theme for food and make a big pot of red beans and rice with a salad and a coulpe of loaves of french bread. Yum!!! We borrowed a Thomas the Train railroad track and the kids wore their Halloween costumes, it was a blast. The cake was a lion to match my sons costume.

C., go to www.birthdaypartyideas.com. This site has so many creative, fun, inexpensive and easy party ideas! Folks like us write in telling about the party they put on for their children, etc; they even give awards to the best ideas. I use the site everytime I plan a party. And remember the rule: invite one child for each year of the birthday child's age. I have always had a problem with this, but still, if you only invite 2-3 children, and your immediate family, you really shouldn't have to spend a whole lot of money on the party. Set up a hot dog station where folks can add their own condements, offer cheetos, fruit juice and soda for the kiddos and adults alike, and throw in a homemade cake with ice cream and you've got yourself a party, girl! Have fun!

Do you have a church home where you could use one of their rooms? Have some tables set up with table cloths, cake, punch, and a few games like musical chairs etc and your set. With a one year old, you don't need to go all out. She will get alot of attention and that will make her happy. My daughter is our first born and she is now 7. On her first birthday, this is what we did for her and it was a blast. There were 30 people there and everyone had a great time. We only spent money on cake, punch, tablecloths, and presents of course. Don't put alot into it. Those years will come as she gets older.

I would say to make spaghetti. The pasta is pretty cheap as well as the sauce. For games, I used these in the past. Buy some gummi worms and spread them throughout the yard. Put the children in 3 groups and ask them to look for the worms and put them in a jar. They can get kinda messy, but they have a blast. Whichever group gets the most, they all get a small treat bag. Another one is buy a big bag of Skittles, pour them into a bowl. Each kid gets a straw and 30 seconds to hold a Skittle at the end of the straw and get as many out of the bowl. The one that pulls the most out, gets a prize. Good luck.

If you are really on a tight budget, and since you have so many people coming to your son's birthday, why don't you pick a theme for the party, you make the main dish and ask everyone that comes to bring sides. Examples: "Mexican Fiesta" You make any big, one pot dish, like chili (ground meat is inexpensive) or chicken tortilla soup. You can ask people to bring: different kinds of salsa (like corn salsa, chipotle salsa) and chips, guacamole, corn on the cob (sprinkle with chili powder), mexican layered dip with chips, etc. (A good resource for inexpensive cooking that I like is: www.meals.com; You can pick any type of food to go with your theme) You can decorate with paper table cloth (different colors), balloons, paper laterns, pinatas. Great resource is Party City if you have one in your city or any dollar store. If you really want to get "fancy" you can even pick out some favours at the dollar store as well. You can do all of this for under $100 or even less. Don't think that you can do this alone; don't be afraid to ask people for help with food which will always be the bulk of the expense. You can even ask people to bring one balloon each and imagine how great your house will look for the party! (Balloons are about .99 - $3.00 each. Again, pick a theme and maybe everyone can bring like one ScoobyDoo Balloon and then you will have 15-30 ScoobyDoo Balloons for the decorations. I wish you the best of luck and happy birthday to your son.

Depending on what you are going for you can do all sorts of things that are cheap! If the weather remains nice just meet at a park with a playground and let the kids play, have a cake nature provides decorations.

If you want something more cozy or elegant have a desert party later at night. Make some brownies and cookies and serve them with coffee and the cake.

A few balloons and a banner are really all thats needed for something like baby's 1st birthday. Spend what money you do have on creating memories for yourself. Get somethings that you can put in the scrapbook or save for looking at in the future. Get disposable cameras for people to take pictures.

Like other people said if you want a few party favors to give other children dollar stores are great for that stuff. Another idea if you have a printer is just print some coloring pages off the internet and get a few boxes of crayons, let them color the decorations for you! Print out letters for happy birthday and let one child color each or glue/glitter whatever.

If most of the people are adults play some sort of game, look in baby shower stuff and adapt a game from that or make something up.

Good luck.

I suggest that you contact your friends and family. They probably know about your financial situation and would be thrilled to help out in a small way. Plan an inexpensive meal like hotdogs, chips, cookies. Then ask each family coming if they would mind bringing 1 or 2 items. That way you can keep up with who is bringing what and if everyone brings one small portion then all get fed and the burden of cost is spread out and no one is overwhelmed. For a 1 year old I would make another small suggestion. If you plan to let your angel dig into the cake, make a small investment and have a tiny one made especially for the birthday baby. I hate to see parents let the baby dig into cake then serve everyone a piece!!! As for the treats, remember that 1 year olds don't really understand what this is all about. I would buy one thing at the dollar store for the kids that come and tie a small balloon to it.(that way you can tailor the party treat to the age of the child, for a small boy maybe a hot wheels car, or a little older girl you can get journals)dollar stores have an abundance of gifts for different ages for girls and boys. On the balloon write with a permanent marker "Thanks for celebrating baby's 1st birthday". You don't need helium(use short strings) or if you want it, you can buy a disposable helium tank pretty inexpensively at Walmart and that will blow up a dozen or two balloons.(but do it right before the party starts, cheap helium is cheap helium)

Have fun and enjoy baby's first birthday!
C.

you don't even have to do a whole meal. You can have it at a time of day where people won't expect a meal and just have birthday cake and punch.

If you really want to do a meal, keep it simple. You can make sandwiches pretty inexpensive. You can even do cutouts with cookie cutters. Turkey or ham and cheese would be fine. You could make a side tray with lettuce tomatoes and such for the grown ups. Then just serve chips and dip.

the familyfun.com website has some neat party ideas that are inexpensive. Good luck.