Price of 5 yo party?

[booklover164]

I am trying to set up a savings pot for my son's 5th birthday party and I have absolutely no idea where to start. We have always had small family parties at home which have totalled about £100. This year I think he'd like to invite his class and I think we'd include the following:

Hall hire at a local leisure centre or church
Bouncy castle
Food for children and maybe something for adults
Face painter
Party games

I have no idea if this is too much or too little.

We are in the East Midlands. I know the cost will vary massively up and down the country but if I could get a rough idea then I could work out where to begin with the savings.

Thanks

Soft play exclusive hire £230
Food £3 ph *40 = £120
Sweet cones x 40 £40 max
Cake £120 as will be a 2 tier with cupcakes.

No balloons etc required just a few at home on actual birthday. And i keep banners from other birthdays. So 1 or 2 packs balloon £2.50
Small shop cake on birthday as 6 days prior to party £12/15

The exclusive hire is for up to 100.
So ive said siblings welcome but they get their food from cafe.
Its not costing any more then

I hired a huge church hall with two large rooms and a big kitchen for 4 hours. Rented a bouncy castle for the same time, had a children’s entertainer for an hour, did an arts and crafts table and then party food and party bags for 35 children.

Cost just short of £500

My experience from 3 yrs ago, prices have likely increased.

Council leisure centre sports hall, they provided bouncy castle and some giant games/soft play bits - £120 for 2 hrs

Food and party bags - another £100 cold buffet we sorted ourselves
Decorations and cake £50

So around £300

Check out leisure centres, we are west kids and our hires the sport hall inc 5 bouncy castles of different design ie castle/slide etc for £150. All you need to provide is food and games

I just did a 5th birthday party for my DD

hall-£60
bouncy castle-50
food-& paper plates etc 40?
tattoos and snap bands-15
visiting character princess-50

so £215 as my husband played music and i didnt do party bags as such. I invited her whole class and about half came but the cost would have been the same.

Do a bouncy castle OR a face painter or there will be sweaty face paint all over everything and every body!

For a class party for 30, you're unlikely to get much change out of £500 ime.

About £400.

Our hall was £45 p/h- hour either side to set up and clean up needed x4 hrs

bouncy castle £90 + a side of giant lego bricks £20

face painter £60

Pizza for everyone: £70

Party Bags- fucking extortionate, cant even remember I had to do so many amazon/ebay orders everytime numbers increased. In future, a book from the works and a sweet corn will suffice

Balloons: £50 for a specific design from a local supplier

cups/plates/sweets/juice/ water / napkins

I'm organising this at the moment. I have booked an entertainer for the 2 hours which is £190 and the church hall which is £75. Other than that I will buy some food, a few decorations and a cake.

Currently helping to organise a joint 5th birthday party in the SE
Entertainer £300
Hall £68
Food £60 max
Party bags £60 (£2 per head? Probably more)
Decorations

It's a lot easier and cheaper to get a per child party package at a local soft play/trampoline/farm/pottery barn type place sometimes.

I think that's probably a bit OTT. You don't need party games or a face painter. Our youngest is turning 5 next month. So far we have:

Hall hire: £20
Bouncy castle/toy hire: £130
Food/plates/cups: probably another £50

You can get some temporary tattoos for a few quid instead of a face painter if you are really keen. Face paint and bouncy castle probably probably don't go together anyway as they may get really annoyed if anyone gets paint all over it (and they will).

Also I wouldn't worry about any food for adults, just tea/coffee (prosecco if you really want to push the boat out). Kids won't eat much and adults can eat what's leftover. I've never had adults actually eat the adult spread of food I made at any party.

Look around for venues, my local village hall only charge £5 an hour for hire so has always been great for our DC parties.
Or try pub/social club, ours have a room they hire out for parties for about £5 too.

Bouncy castle £60
Face painter would probably need 2 hours for a whole class £100
Party games are sometimes quite hard to do for a whole class so keep it simple (dancing, limbo, musical statues) with cheap prizes like sweets
Food, I wouldn't feed the adults would cost far too much. Either buffet style or make individual lunch boxes

If you planned it to be mid afternoon could you get away with just giving them a snack / birthday cake and a drink? Surely no one expects a meal between 2 and 4pm?

I would say you def need entertainment other than a bouncy castle or it’ll be a very long few hours. (Speaking from painful experience as a guest 😑)

I’ve been to two hour parties with just a bouncy castle and it’s been fine. Say it’s 2-4pm just do food about 3pm after an hours play then they go back for a last half hour or so.

People are often 10-15 minutes late arriving so once you take out food, singing and cake it’s not like they’re bouncing for two full hours.

Agreed- went to one at the weekend, 3 hrs just a bouncy castle- lots of time for tears

Honestly it was much easier and cheaper to do a soft play type party at that age. No need to replan once you know numbers, the staff keep the kids engaged, just rock up with a birthday cake. We’re now back to smaller parties at home cos the kids have an established friendship group but for the big invite everyone in the class things we outsourced.

Party we did recently:

Disco and entertainment hire -£160
Hall hire and cleaning fee -£45
Invites -£10
Balloons/lunch boxes/platters: £15
Sweet cones - £30 (£1 a head)
Buffet food - approx £30-40 spent, most eaten
Birthday cake - I made a nice small one for home, then bought 2 x big chocolate aldi cakes for about £15 that did all the children

= around £300 mark. Was pretty typical for their age range, children all loved it. Less tears at the disco or soft play ones than the bouncy castle in a hall ones I've noticed.

At 5, a bouncy castle and some quiet activities (we did colouring / sticker sheets on a table away from the music) is fine. Here's what worked for our 5 year olds:

Hire village hall (£50)
Large bouncy castle with slide (£100)
Teas / coffees and a couple of tins of naice biscuits for mums and Dads (£5)

Kids' food - lunchboxes. I bought some 'Happy Meal' style picnic boxes online (about £15 for 35) and in each one I put:

One ham & one cheese sandwich (white bread as few kids this age will eat brown, cut the sandwich into a star using a small cookie cutter which also removes crusts as no one eats them anyway)
A packet of Pombears (Aldi own brand)
A 'Frube' (also Aldi own brand)
A 'MiniRoll' (also Aldi own brand)
A box of raisins.
Carton of apple juice

Obviously adjust for dietary requirements.

I then did an 'ice cream station' which doubles up as an activity. Buy some paper ice cream cups and wooden spoons (cost a few quid). We had couple of tubs of cheap vanilla ice cream. Each child gets a scoop in their cup and then I set out a table with various sauces and toppings. Dead simple, pretty cheap and they all loved it.

For going home, slice of cake, one of those big balloons with an elastic handle that you bash around and a small sweet cone (buy the cellophane bags online and use various Aldi own brand sweets to fill - small ones like jellybeans at the bottom and some bigger ones on top to bulk it out).

For music, I just plugged my phone into the hall's PA system but a decent Bluetooth speaker would suffice.

We didn't bother with games as it gets a bit chaotic with a whole class. Too much emotion and they get bored waiting for their turn when there's 30+ of them.

Age 5 is the party it’s worth doing well if you can, as he’s getting to know his class and establishing himself as fun etc.

Round here (South East) the party you describe would cost £300-500.

Look into the village halls near u, some are £20 for a kids birthday, some are £250 just for the hall.

Bouncy castle is the most expensive bit have a google for prices near you.

A softplay party may be cheaper?

One place you can save money is food: have the party 2-4pm (or 10-12am) and just have crisps and squash available then give birthday cupcakes at end. You don’t have to provide a full meal.

Face paint is normally not allowed by bouncy castle company as the kids rub it into their inflatable and its hell to clean.

I’d suggest a hall, a bouncy castle which has a slide (this is crucial to keep them moving through it), a table on the side with pens and colouring in sheets you printed off the internet, some balloons you blow up, and then whatever else you can afford. Don’t forget some kind of party bag.

A children's DJ is often done around here. They organise games and then a bit of a disco.