To think kids' parties are a joke

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Don’t be daft

Tenner for a celebration cake in Tesco. Buy two.
Balloons are terrible for the environment. Don't have a balloon arch.

There, brought your cost down a bit 😃

I'm starting to enjoy the competitive under-spend comments. It's like the Mumsnet chicken for birthday parties.

When dd was younger I hired a village hall for a couple of hours for about £35 and did things like party games, a craft table, face painting etc.

Kids had a brilliant time.

This. Kids really don't care about £75 cakes. This is really about the party being insta ready isn't it?

£600 before presents. No naff balloon arches

You can buy all you need for a cake, some prizes and party bags in a supermarket for £50. There is absolutely no need to spend £500 on a party in your house for a 5 year old.

WOW. That’s extremely generous and almost sounds too good to be true😳

London is so crazy that it’s ridiculous

I’m a big fan of Costco but their cakes are truly awful.

@BlackBarbies

I live in a Northern city and £10 a child gets them entry about 60-90 mins on soft play (but not exclusive use), food and an activity, like a disco or games. It also includes invitations and they'll do the party bags for an extra £2 per child.

Cheapest for a bouncy castle where I live is £140

£190 for a balloon arch for a five year old.

Okayyyyyyyy...........................

But I am wondering where people can get a bouncy castle for £50 - it’s closer to £200 in London, plus £100 at least for the hall to put it in!

I'm in London and there are two local schools who hire out halls with bouncy castles included. In one case £40 per hour and in the other £15 a head for a 90 minute party with a teenager to run activities (including the castle).

I made DS1 an R2D2 cake for his 5th birthday. In his mind he had the most amazing memory of it. I showed him a photo of it recently (he's 16 now). He couldn't believe how spectacularly amateur (bad) it was. He remembered it as the most amazing thing ever. I am NOT a good cake decorator, but none of the 5 year olds cared!!!

2 bottles 😂

Read all these replies and think how silly it is to think you can't do things cheaper. You can buy kits for balloon arches in amazon for around £20 if you really want but it's wasteful and bad for environment. At 5 years old I think they would be happier with some helium balloons and each child can take one home afterwards. Get a supermarket cake or if you have any Turkish bakers nearby they do amazing cakes, around £30 for one.

If you’re spending that much just hire the bloody soft play, get them to cater, then you don’t have to do anything!

Kids don’t care about balloon arches. Spend that money to hire a hall, get a bouncy castle or disco dome or whatever is age appropriate. Blow up as many balloons as possible and throw them around the floor, kids go mental for them. Get a few bunches of helium balloons and give those out at the end.

if you want to push the boat out because Covid, hire a face painter and/or someone along those lines. You can do so much with that £300 balloon arch money that the children will actually appreciate.

Also definitely get some Costco cakes or the m&s special order ones if you really want a fondant covered thing. if your kids are a bit older, get Dominoes delivered (or whatever brand is hot in your area)

If you want a balloon arch it's super easy and cheap to make one with a plastic support arch that you just stick the balloons in off Amazon. You can get it for about £6 all together I think.

Supermarket cake with figurines stuck on top of it (if you want to make it into a theme cake).

Ok, balloon arch kit is more like £10, but still better than £300 https://www.amazon.co.uk/balloon-arch-kit/s?k=balloon+arch+kit

Definitely get a supermarket cake! No child will care and they can look amazing if you decorate them.

Tbf, there are some pretty nice looking supermarket cakes anyway. Waitrose cakes are tasty also.

Also agree with the others on a diy balloon arch.

My DS had his 5th birthday party a couple of weeks ago. £100 for bouncy castle for 3 hours, £35 for room hire that also has a soft play. I made his cake myself for blowing out candles then separate cupcakes for the kids to take home. I also did sweetie cones for a lot less than I'd seen them to buy with cones bought from Amazon and a load of sweets from home bargains. Pinned a couple of banners and balloons to the wall and the usual kids party food.
5 year olds would absolutely destroy a balloon arch.

If I'm being honest the only thing you really need is crisps - they will completely ignore everything else if there are crisps involved.

Pass the parcel, musical statues etc (with those cheap medals on ribbons for the winner). A big cheap supermarket cake, beige supermarket food and home made ham sandwiches and crisps. And party bags.

I'm no being competitively cheap. It's what kids want.

The most we ever did was that plus a visiting magician. I can't remember what about that particular birthday made it special. But it went well.

Easy solution, blow up a few balloons yourself (air not helium) and buy a cake from Morrison's (they have a machine that prints photos!)