Birthday party expenses are outrageous

[Anonymous]

$0 - gather at the very nice park down the street, where there is play equipment. Plan for a few party games as well (races, pin the tail on the donkey).
$20 - paper plates, cups, napkins. I use old table cloths from home. No need for hanging decorations,

$5=10 - cake, made by me
$25-$50, depending on how all-out I want to go - sandwiches, made by me; chips; cut-up fruit and assorted snacks.

Birthday presents from us will be another $50 or so.

You do have choices, OP.

[Anonymous]

I don't like cheap birthdays either. They look and feel cheap.

I wanted something in the middle. Fun, but not overly expensive.

[Anonymous]

Is OP talking about buying birthday presents for her kid or party favor for the guests?

[Anonymous]

We usually have parties at home. For whatever reason, they are not cheaper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$0 - gather at the very nice park down the street, where there is play equipment. Plan for a few party games as well (races, pin the tail on the donkey).
$20 - paper plates, cups, napkins. I use old table cloths from home. No need for hanging decorations,

$5=10 - cake, made by me
$25-$50, depending on how all-out I want to go - sandwiches, made by me; chips; cut-up fruit and assorted snacks.

Birthday presents from us will be another $50 or so.

You do have choices, OP.

Unless you are using a box mix and canned frosting it costs more than 5-10 bucks to make a cake. Butter is 4-8 bucks a pound depending what brand you use. It takes me at least 2-3 pounds for the cake and icing.

And that doesn't count the cost of your time, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$0 - gather at the very nice park down the street, where there is play equipment. Plan for a few party games as well (races, pin the tail on the donkey).
$20 - paper plates, cups, napkins. I use old table cloths from home. No need for hanging decorations,

$5=10 - cake, made by me
$25-$50, depending on how all-out I want to go - sandwiches, made by me; chips; cut-up fruit and assorted snacks.

Birthday presents from us will be another $50 or so.

You do have choices, OP.

Unless you are using a box mix and canned frosting it costs more than 5-10 bucks to make a cake. Butter is 4-8 bucks a pound depending what brand you use. It takes me at least 2-3 pounds for the cake and icing.

And that doesn't count the cost of your time, etc.

+1

I was just about to call BS on this, too. I always make my kids' cakes, and even a relatively "cheap" from scratch cake is going to be $$ because you need things like butter, eggs, oil, cocoa or chocolate, etc.

Sure, a box mix is cheaper, but I would rather spend a little more (like $25) making a really good homemade cake than using a $2 box mix. For which you'll need eggs and oil and stuff anyway, so even a freaking box mix would be way more than $5!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$0 - gather at the very nice park down the street, where there is play equipment. Plan for a few party games as well (races, pin the tail on the donkey).
$20 - paper plates, cups, napkins. I use old table cloths from home. No need for hanging decorations,

$5=10 - cake, made by me
$25-$50, depending on how all-out I want to go - sandwiches, made by me; chips; cut-up fruit and assorted snacks.

Birthday presents from us will be another $50 or so.

You do have choices, OP.

Is this fruit you've picked from your personal orchard? And like bologna sandwiches? Because I fail to see how you could feed like 10 kids on $25. And I have under 5s, so I'm feeding 10-20 adults, too.

[Anonymous]

At home parties are not necessarily cheaper. I had 12 girls over for a sleepover(still spent over $300)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is OP talking about buying birthday presents for her kid or party favor for the guests?

For the kid

Party favors are another expense.

I did a party at our home last year. It turned out costing us about the same.

[Anonymous]

We have home parties and have never spent that much.

We don't decorate other than a table cloth. A cake is $35 at Giant or less at Costco. I serve food for everyone - last year I did a salad, a baked ham and homemade mac and cheese. I put out chips and dip and cheese and crackers and fruit and veg trays. We did a craft, a scavanger hunt, and a pinata. Craft, scavanger hunt finds and pinata stuffings were the goody bags. We got our daughter a small Lego set for $35. She had enough new things between the party and other relatives anyway.

[Anonymous]

I've never spent less than maybe $300 on my DD's parties. Admittedly however I do like for them to be very personalized and with a lot of little special touches. It makes me feel good to do it. I enjoy the whole process. And it feels celebratory. The part that gets me is the sky high rental fees. The rest is a result of my own choices. Even at a park don't you still have to pay for a permit?

[Anonymous]

You're spending more on paper plates and decorations than you need to. Buy the paper plates, napkins, forks, etc. at Costco. They don't go bad, and you'll use the rest eventually.

Spend less on the kid's birthday present. A six year old can be perfectly happy with a $10-20 gift from you.

$250 for a three hour pool party is a GREAT price.

[Anonymous]

She wanted to have a Frozen theme.

So I'm buying Frozen paper plates. Trying coordinate generic table covers and hanging decorations to match the Frozen theme. But it's costing a fortune.

I plan to save them and re-use them, but still...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$0 - gather at the very nice park down the street, where there is play equipment. Plan for a few party games as well (races, pin the tail on the donkey).
$20 - paper plates, cups, napkins. I use old table cloths from home. No need for hanging decorations,

$5=10 - cake, made by me
$25-$50, depending on how all-out I want to go - sandwiches, made by me; chips; cut-up fruit and assorted snacks.

Birthday presents from us will be another $50 or so.

You do have choices, OP.

Unless you are using a box mix and canned frosting it costs more than 5-10 bucks to make a cake. Butter is 4-8 bucks a pound depending what brand you use. It takes me at least 2-3 pounds for the cake and icing.

And that doesn't count the cost of your time, etc.

2-3 lbs of butter in the cake and icing??? how big is your cake?

[Anonymous]

That sounds about right. DS is now 7 and I am yet to pay less than $500 for his party. No matter where I held it, at home or at some facility. But then again, I only have one kid so I am willing to splurge