Ultra Cheap Birthday Ideas please........

[QueenOfQuotes]

Right I've decided there's no way I'm going to let DS1 have his 5th birthday with "No" party at all (his birthday is on saturday . I'm thinking of inviting over 2 of his friends that we still see from nursery and perhaps a couple of his 'new' friends from school.

I can make cakes, so I'll make some fairy cakes and a sponge cake for his birthday cake, I can also do flapjack and biscuits. I can't afford to do anything fancy. But I think I've talked DH into a budget of £20 and eek.

What can I do that cheap and will be enjoyed by about 7 or 8 4/5yr olds?

QoQ - I think most 4-5 year olds are easily impressed so you should be fine! And most of them don't actually eat that much which is a bonus!!!

Jelly - v. cheap
Fruit kebabs with some melted chocolate for dipping in
Sandwiches cut out with a biscuit cutter into interesting shapes.
Slices of pizza

HTH

a pirate party!

make black sugar paper eye patches
draw them each a treasure map to colour for a prize

buy some choc coins and hide them around garden for a treasure hunt

play pin the eye patch on the pirate

pass the parcel , with bag of sweets inside

Do you mean food or games/ prizes?

Food - you could make potato wedges, pizzas or little cheese pies, I think kids will go for sweet stuff at parties mainly.

Games/Prizes, there is a website somewhere that does really cheap party bags, think Cod did a link to it, hang on.....

Add a few different kinds of crisps, some potato wedges and some veggie sticks with a dip and that would be more than enough, with your cakes, biccies etc. You should be able to do all of that for less than £20.

Hope ds has a good birthday

What "Games" could we play - we only have a small living room (well I could push one of the chair back a bit to create a little more space).

I can only think of Musical Statues and Musical Bumps and Pass the Parcel (what do I put in - that's cheap - for the present?)

oh - no party bags - all they'll get in their little bag is a piece of birthday and a balloon (the latter if I'm feeling generous )

You can get quite a lot of party food with £20 - just make cheese and ham sanwiches, buy crisps and biscuits and make a cake. Or use the £20 to take one adult and 3 children to the cinema

old thread here with some ideas for games

Think it was Baker Ross for party bags?

I meant party prizes etc, not bags. Things like 10p yo-yos, puzzles etc.

Do you have any of the "£1 shops" near you? I know people on here shout down 'plastic rubbish' but you can actually get some decent packs of party favour type things in those shops. I saw at weekend packs of ten holographic pencils with fancy toppers on, packs of 3 recorders, and packs of 3 boxes ofcrayons with a small colouring book, all for £1 each. IMO kids love that kind of thing.

Balloons never fail to impress kids and are cheap to put in party bags. Bubbles?

Also, have a look in Asda, they have a range of party toys, favours that always look very reasonable.

Thanks everyone - plenty to work with there - now need to get it organised - his birthday is on Saturday

How about making popcorn as well? You could even give a bag of that going home. I have a recipe for a toffee sauce (disgustingly sweet) to use with it if you want. Ds1 was at a fourth birthday party recently where they did just sausages, pizza and chips for food and the mother said they ate the lot. (Yoiu can also feel virtuous about not giving any sweets/crisps then!)

Oh yes the perate party theme sounds really good and a treasure hunt would keep them occupied for ages too. They can make pirate hats from the sugar paper too and they can dress in old clothes (the other parents will LOVE you for that too).

I wouldn't feed them as such it only goes to waste. have the party from 2-4 when they'll have had their lunch and not be ready for any hot food or sandwiches. Instead buy or make if you're up to it fairy cakes and make up soem icicng and let them decorate them and some sweets on plates. Pin the taul on the donkey always goes down well. Draw a big picture of whatever and tie a scarf round their head and spin them round they love it. Have as prizes small sweets. the fact that you're playing games with them they'll love. I also got dressing up outfits out once and wrote a story very basic about all the characters I had outfits for and got them to do some actions repeated them over and over they love that too and it takes ages. Good luck

My DS is having a little party on Friday for his 4th birthday. I am putting on a little buffet spread, keeping it simple. Then I'm going to print off Bob the Builder/Thomas etc designs from the web and get them to do colouring for half an hour, then a few rounds of pass the parcel and a bit of musical bumps and statues and a dancing competition (yes the boys do love this too!) then time for pick up hopefully. Drag out teatime if you have to with some singing and blowing out the candles!

Have fun and your child will not know or care what you have spent - he will love you for the effort you've made!

A game we played at my DD's party last year which went down a storm - I just told a simple story about different animals. Everyone picked an animal and when I mentioned that animal they had to make the noise! It was hilarious, especially the little girl who could make the trumpeting noise of an elephant.

Right - just been to the 99p shop and Wilkinsons' and got the first few essentials - the most important being the invites LOL.

Mind you had a sinking feeling on the way home, I have a sneaky suspicion that the only girl which DS1 has mentioned from school is one of triplets - so I guesss there'll be an extra 2 coming LOL.

A cheap tennis ball 33p each was the best party bag idea we had and a pencil from a pack from woollies

Hope you have a deffo brill time

My DS can't wait for his party, it's his first where he's inviting "his" friends rather than me inviting my friends kids IYKWIM and he's so excited! How did my baby get to be 4 though?

Enjoy your party too QoQ. What sort of cake is he having? My DS wants a Bob the Builder cake (not THOMAS I said - shock horror but he insists Bob is the man!). So I'm making the cake and my clever mate is decorating it ala Bob for me!

ooh RTKM, on that theme we got a frisbee in a party bag once (50p from tesco's I think) and it was a deffo brill holiday toy. Must remember to tell the mum!

Suspicions confirmed - I've got triplets coming to the party on Saturday .

Wasn't the little girl, but one of the boys - he's got 2 indentical sisters who I also invited

(and DS got his first birthday invite too - as it turns out the triplets are having their party on Sunday so they've invited him!)

KB - he's having a sponge cake with blue icing and 5 candles

Dancing competitions always go down very well. Sleeping Lions for after they've eaten .

jelly and spray cream from a can - let then spray their own - mucho fun. bad of frozen sausage rolls - they are cheap from iceland. pizza. thats enough savoury - they will only go for your cakes anyway.

hay you can bake the fairy cakes and get tehm to decorate them with icing and dolly mixtures. they will all go home mucky from icing

and they can fight over who gets the bowl beore it all goes hard

For prizes and party bags the supermarkets have stationery reduced, split packs of gel pens, pencils, rubbers and note books. At the party section they have 4 note books for 1.47ish and packs of yo-yos for about the same.
I used paper cups instead of bags 50p for about 12 in poundstrechers but I had cellophane in the house to finish them with I suppose you could do similar with crepe or tissue which comes in decent sized packs. Or cones if you do have cellophane. Just like the ones I make