Birthday Bash for Minimal Cash: Eight Birthday Parties for $80 or Less

By Michelle Cuthrell

 
They’re not twins, but because of an eager second child who decided to break my water on his big brother’s third birthday last year, my two boys share the same birthday. One birthday, two kids, three years apart. Two cakes, two gifts and two unique children — both who want to be recognized as individuals on the same day — make me a mommy constantly on the prowl for entertaining, inspiring and, most importantly, inexpensive birthday party ideas.

If you’re looking for ways to honor Junior without borrowing from his college savings account to do it, you may want to take notes from some of these creative party planners. These military wives hosted birthday bashes for under $80 — kid pleasing and wallet friendly. And fortunately for me (and all moms of multiples), their ideas work just as well for a party for two. 

1. Create some curiosity.
   For her son’s second birthday party, Air Force wife Robyn Mihalyi of McChord Air Force Base, Wash., hosted a “Curious George Visits the Clown” party. Her friend, who is also a clown, volunteered her services, and Mihalyi decorated with bunches of balloons she tied to bananas throughout the house. She also borrowed a bouncy house from a friend for the children to jump upon out back.
   
   Party throwers could also borrow Curious George books from the library and hold story time at various points throughout the party.
   
   “I asked my friends to borrow things that they might have had from another party and it totally saved down on the cost,” Mihalyi said.
   
   Total cost: $80, including cake and food.
   
   
2. Pack a picnic.
   “Get a cheap plastic red tablecloth ($5), cut up little sandwiches ($10-$40), have chips ($5), lemonade ($5) and potato salad ($5) and kids can eat on the floor,” Army wife Audrey Sikes, who is now stationed in Germany, suggested.
   
   Other snacks could include ants on a log (peanut butter on celery with raisins -- $5) and of course, a dirt cake made with pudding, Oreos and gummy worms on top ($10 for materials).
   
   Customize the party for a girl by making ladybug invitations or a boy by making ant invitations ($10 using construction paper and cut-outs), and then hold the party at a park and let nature serve as your decor.
   
   “It was very, very fun for the preschool ages,” Sikes said.
   
   Total cost: As low as $55.
   
   
3. Do the drive-in. In your front yard.
   Cynthia Simpson, a former military wife and hobby cake baker for birthday parties and special events, once saw this executed by using the preschool-style battery powered cars and trucks.
   
   “The movie was shown on a big sheet on the garage wall or door,” she said.
   
   Children “pulled up” in their vehicles and adults served them snacks like popcorn and drinks ($10), like at the drive-in.
   
   Total cost: As low as $10 for snacks, plus the cost to rent the movie, projector or motorized cars, if party throwers don’t already own them.
   
   
4. Dress a dolly.
   When Sikes was 5, her mother invited five friends and their dolls to a doll party at their house.
   
   “My mom made a clothesline by stringing yarn ($2) between two chairs. She got some clothespins ($2) and we had a relay race to see who could hang out and then un-hang doll clothes the fastest,” she said.
   
   She made a cake from a box with an icing doll on top ($5 to $10) and cut out paper doll shapes ($5 for construction paper), which she hung around the room as decorations.
   
   “I think we also had tea at the table with my mom’s teacups,” Sikes said, which could cost from $2 to $5.
   
   Attendees could leave with matching hair bows for both the doll and the girl, Sikes suggested, at an average of $1 to $5 per bow, depending on the style.
   
   Total cost: As low as $21 for five children, plus money for doll clothes, if not already available in the home.
   
   
5. Bake a brunch.
   “For my daughter Shana's second birthday party, we literally just made a bunch of brunchy food (party was 10 to 12) and had four families over to play in the backyard,” said Army wife Heidi Hovan of Fort Richardson, Alaska. “Not spectacularly creative, but instead of having people bring gifts over, we collected food items and asked people to contribute to our local church.”
   
   Hovan also taped a large piece of paper to the door and guests wrote the birthday girl a message.
   
   Total cost: As low as $4 for two dozen eggs, $3 for a family-sized box of Bisquick and $3 for a gallon of orange juice, for a grand total as low as $10.
   
   
6. Taste tea for two. Or 12.
   In April, Army wife Rhoda McGill of Fort Lewis, Wash., hosted a tea party for her 6-year-old’s birthday.
   
   “We had someone to do hair, paint fingernails, read to the child while nails are drying, put on makeup and a dress-up station,” she said.
   
   Total cost: McGill spent less than $50, including the cake.
   
   
7. Be a beach bum.
   “Throw a beach party with lots of different swimming pools ($10 to $35 each),” Simpson said, recalling a party she had seen earlier in the year. “Have Beach Boys music blaring ($0.99 per downloaded song), beach umbrellas, lawn chairs, life guards and Slip ‘n Slides ($10 to $75).”
   
   Total: As low as $20.99 plus food and lawn chairs/umbrellas, if not available at home.
   
   
8. Do Dr. Seuss.
   After weighing all his (wallet-friendly) options, my 4-year-old ultimately decided he wanted a Dr. Seuss party for his and his little brother’s fourth and first combined birthday party. (At age 1, poor Joel didn’t exactly have the words to object.)
   
   We made the boys Thing 1 and Thing 2 T-shirts ($20 for both), prepared a lunch of green eggs and ham (less than $10 total with pancakes and orange juice, too), baked red fish and blue fish cakes from scratch ($10 total for both, including icing and food coloring) and invited the neighborhood kids to a Dr. Seuss egg-stravaganza at the local park.
   
   There, we hosted story time with Seuss’s “Happy Birthday” and “The Sneetches” (both free from the library, combined with $5 in red and blue stars we hung around the kids’ necks to remind them of the lessons of the star-bellied Sneetch), followed by a green egg hunt ($4 for plastic eggs, $10 to fill them). The kids enjoyed Cat in the Hat cupcakes ($2 for red velvet cake mix and $1.50 for white frosting that we painted in stripes like the Cat’s hat) and juice boxes ($2.50) and went home with Dr. Seuss-looking teacup hats we found on sale at the dollar bin at Target (15 for $15).
   
   Total: $80. Not bad for both Thing 1 and Thing 2 combined.