We have 3 kids so we try to stick to ~$500 per party but even that is tight and we often go over and spend closer to $600-700. This is for basic play place, rent a park pavilion, nature center, etc. type parties.

I just don’t know how to feed and entertain a group of kids for less than that. We aren’t as over the top as the bubble and crepe people, but do stuff like hiring a character, renting a bounce house (those can be $400+ easily), plus pizza. We don’t even do the whole class, usually just the same gender kids or set a cap and let our DCs pick that number (like 12-15 kids). It’s a lot of money, I know plenty of people can’t afford this.

Just do cupcakes at the playground. 1:30-3:30. No meal provided. If you want to take it to the next level, add some chips and juice boxes.

I did a party like this and I had parents thanking me afterwards for blazing a trail to simplicity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please do more home and playground parties! We enjoy them just as much. Do some organized games. With that many kids you could have teams even!

As I said, just the taco truck we had at our backyard party was $1,000. When we had a playground party the permit was $120, $400 for the bubble man, over $2,000 for the crepe truck (entitling each party guest to one savory and one sweet crepe), etc.

Paying $400 for bubbles and $2K for crepes is bougie and not typical. You could have done a park party without those things and brought your own food and the kids would have had a blast and blown their own bubbles.

I'm not complaining about how much we spend on parties. I'm simply answering the question OP asked, which was how much are you spending. We're happy with how our parties come together.

Was maybe $2500 last time. But, we only did 2 big parties ever. Every year would be crazy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please do more home and playground parties! We enjoy them just as much. Do some organized games. With that many kids you could have teams even!

As I said, just the taco truck we had at our backyard party was $1,000. When we had a playground party the permit was $120, $400 for the bubble man, over $2,000 for the crepe truck (entitling each party guest to one savory and one sweet crepe), etc.

Paying $400 for bubbles and $2K for crepes is bougie and not typical. You could have done a park party without those things and brought your own food and the kids would have had a blast and blown their own bubbles.

I done a couple hundred for a few parties over the years with 3 kids. Most years I try to keep it more moderate.

Anonymous wrote:Please do more home and playground parties! We enjoy them just as much. Do some organized games. With that many kids you could have teams even!

As I said, just the taco truck we had at our backyard party was $1,000. When we had a playground party the permit was $120, $400 for the bubble man, over $2,000 for the crepe truck (entitling each party guest to one savory and one sweet crepe), etc.

OP here.

ClimbZone out in Laurel is $36 per kid, so if you have 20+ kids, thats easily close to $1k without food.

Almost every other place I've called is about that much and I'm just flabbergasted. We haven't had a birthday party with 20+ kids ever, and we had such few birthday parties during the pandemic and I think I'm just so surprised.

Yeah we're typically spending around that even if we have it at home because we'll hire entertainment and still need to get food, drinks, cake, etc. Both my kids have winter birthdays so playground parties are not an option and I dont really like playground parties to begin with.

We had a birthday party in our back garden this past fall, and just having the taco truck was $1,000, never mind the decorations, the ice cream truck, party favors, or the animal entertainment.

Please do more home and playground parties! We enjoy them just as much. Do some organized games. With that many kids you could have teams even!

SAVE MONEY AND DON'T DO GOODIE BAGS

So many of these places are charging $1000 without food. I don’t know how anyone affords this.

Sadly yes.. and I don't even think we are going too over the top. Even when we do home parties and factor in food, goodie bags, activities it still ends up somewhere in that range.

But of course you can do cheaper.. go to a park, have it in the afternoon so there is no meal served and have some activities for kids like stomp rockets, chalk, soccer ball, etc.

Honestly our kids seem to have just as much fun at those parties...

My DD's school has a practice of inviting all the kids in the class so we're having to budget for 25 kids and nearly every place I've reached out to is charging around $1000 for a party (sometimes a lot more). Is this normal? Is everyone spending this much money on birthdays now?!