I have a £20 decorating budget for my niece's 13th birthday party - any ideas?

[BigYin]

My brother has suggested I do the decorating instead of getting my niece a typical gift for her birthday. He doesn't like me going over this budget as he feels he needs to reciprocate for my daughter so the £20 is pretty strict.

He said she'd like the living room and her bedroom decorated lightly for her sleepover party. Any ideas?

I already have 4x smallish generic 'birthday girl' wall banners I keep by and put up every year for my daughter's birthday but think I'd need to get some large ones.

She'd like foil helium balloons but am struggling to find prices online. I can see small deflated ones - a number 1 and number 3 - for around £2 each on Card Factory website but how much will they charge to blow them up? They also offer a delivery of three balloons inflated but I think that's really expensive at £15 - or is that normal?

Wish i just bunged £20 in a card now and didn't bother texting my brother for ideas! Thanks for any help. Just don't want to disappoint and have my niece feel deflated .

Don't buy the balloons, they're an environmental nightmare. How about a 13th birthday photo booth set? I'm assuming get they all have phones!

Can't you get out to any shops?
Primark sell battery operated fairy lights for £1.50, and they really can make a room look magical. Card Factory will sort you out in store, and are cheap as chips. Have a look on FB and Gumtree for people giving away party decs for free.
Your brother sounds like a skinflint. I would decorate the room as an extra, and it wouldn't occur to me to make it my child's present

Poundland is also good for stuff, including the photo booth sets.

www.argos.co.uk/product/2754756 that’s enough for a whole bunch of balloons and if you get cheap latex balloons to fill it’s more or less within budget, but if you wanted foil balloons you might blow the budget

I agree that fairy lights will be good.

Just get the self inflate ones if you want them. Not helium but you can tie them up high.

This places is extensive so pick a theme or colours and have a browse:
www.partydelights.co.uk/

Agree with dieu Poundland is great and they do party decorations packs including DIY photobooth props packs!

Can you get a cheap photo frame and do something like the attached photo for her mates to sign?

Lots of balloons on the floor, fairy lights, streamers?!

What is the room like already? A cheap white shower curtain can be good as photo background if needed. But I agree it sounds like a stupid lazy present idea from your brother and I would prob tell him actually you found something else you want to get her. (Even if the something is a 20 pound note )

13yo girls will probably love a photo booth with silly props. Fairy lights are always good.

Check out Poundland, b&m, home bargains - they'll all have cheap party stuff.

Tissue paper pom poms are fairly cheap and can be stuck to the ceiling or made into a photo backdrop.

Home Bargains have some inflatable foil balloons atm for something like 79p (not helium -you blow them up with a straw then they self seal after you remove it).

I got a unicorn and selfie frame for dd2's birthday, and PARTY and HAPPY BIRTHDAY letters for dd1's 13th this month. (Think Happy Birthday was slightly more expensive).

They also had packs of diy tassley things to string on ribbon that look pretty. They were cheap too. Well worth a look :)

I would go for something that has a bit of a eow factor as a photo backdrops- can you buy a bunch of reduced Christmas or funky fairy lights and make a wall of lights? Photo booth props are a good idea, if you are crafty you could easily make them to save budget for elsewhere.

Ask on FB if you can borrow some fairy lights and you will return next week.....

Make some paper chains.....tea lights.....a balloon.

Job done ✅

If you have a flying tiger store near you it could be worth looking in there. I got inflatable HAPPY BIRTHDAY letters in there for I think £3 and they come out at least three times a year.

Fairy lights she can keep forever are a good idea. Or pom pom garlands?

Two colours of crepe paper twisted and hung across the room looks good, better in the lounge. I used black and white for chequed flag/racing theme once and it looked great.
Also Card Factory foil balloons are usually filled for free in the store - the price on the balloon is the price you pay filled.
Also re. the strict budget, how would your brother know exactly how much you spend? If he doesn’t ask for receipts then I wouldn’t stress over his budget just think about your own.

If you can sew..£10. An make a lot of bunting
I made loads of it..polka dotted..in all colours for my 60 th birthday party and then bought loads of polka dot balloons
The yacht club was already lit with fairy lights and the balloons and bunting made it look amazing.
The only sewing I did was stitching the triangles into tape. I used shearing scissors so they wouldn’t fray
I picked material where the right side and the wrong side were almost identical
It didn’t take long

I'd ask on a local Facebook group to see if anyone had any birthday decorations or fairy lights going spare first. People often give away entire sets of birthday decorations/balloons after their children's parties.

Crepe paper streamers are good, and really cheap.