Party food for children on a very tight budget

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I am having a birthday party in a couple of weeks, it will be a joint party for both my children and i am on a very tight budget. We have free room hire so all i need to provide is the food. There will be between 40 and 50 children and i need to spend as little as possible. I cant afford to feed parents\siblings - am i expected to? There will be a bar so they will be able to get a drink though. Any tips or ideas most welcome.

sorry to be rude but that's a lot of children to feed if your budget is tight!!

I would cut back the children....

do them a 'party bag' with the food inside. A sandwich, a small sausage roll, drink, some grapes and a mini roll. That way you will not have alot left over.

15 of the children are family (I am one of 7 so big family!) And then there are a few friends from each of their classes, friends from beavers, children of my friends. It why we decided to do it as a joint party instead of doing it twice over. I'm thinking basic party food, nothing fancy and maybe costing about £40 or am i just dreaming?

shop about for cheap frozen party sausage rolls and asda do huge bumper packs of buns for sarnies make just cheap sarnies like cheese carrot and onion and plain cheese and maybe some wafer thin ham!

make your own quiches and pies and things like that its always cheaper doing as much as you can yourself are there any close friends going couldnt you ask them if they mind bringing something?

Oooh - like the bag idea - but not grapes. Chiking hazard at the best of times - before you chuck in kids charging around overexcited.

Party bags sounds like a good idea, although they would probably moan about who got ham\cheese etc. I'm planning on doing big jugs of squash with paper cups to drink. I know it must seem like a lot but i don't get christmas with my kids this year (exh turn) and can't afford a holiday so this is my chance to give them a memorable, enjoyable day iyswim.

if you are going to go with the party bag idea why not send out menus and get the kids to fill them and send them back before you do the food i.e. a choice of sarnie, flavour of crisps fruit etc. that way there will be moaning about not liking cheese etc.

I would do hot dogs. Sausages and buns.

Ice cream for afters.

asda do mini boxes of raisins very cheap ... is it essential to do a 'balanced meal'.

If it's mid afternoon ish, you could prob get away with bowls of cheapy crisps, jug of squash, toast (cut into shapes?), cheese cubes if you think protein is a 'must'.

You can get fairy cakes very cheap in 'value' ranges, and put a bit of icing on top to make it more festive.

Alternatively - with that many - it might actually be more cost efficient to make of a catering sized vat of bean chillin or spag bol.

Do half ham, half cheese and ask them. Loads of kids like cheese, or ask their parents before so you know what to do. Carrot sticks are easy. Do you know anyone with a Costco card? Sausage rolls are easy, buy a big bag of frozen ones and cook them before. You can also buy big packs of fairy cakes.

Kif. Grapes are good if they are all sitting down

I went to a big joint(40+) party a while ago

They had boxes a colour coded sticker

Red: was ham sandwich
Yellow: Cheese sandwich
Pink: Chocolate spread sandwich

Child was given choice as to what they wanted.

Inside was a plastic bag with cucumber/carrot stick
Mini muffin (you can get a big box from supermarkets IIRC)
2 mini cooked sausages

Drink was squash/water served in paper cups

It worked really well

I would pre-allocate the food onto plates so you know exactly how much you will need, with a few extra plates in case. Rather than having a massive buffet where people help themselves as you will probably find that the adults will start munching and you will have stuff left over.

Although the hot dog idea is excellent, the rolls are cheap and very filling

Make buscuits and use cutters to make them different shapes. Could put lollipop sticks in them to make them into lollipops.

Chocolate mousse is very cheap to make an actually works better with cheap (lower % cocoa solids) chocolate. Sainsbury's basics is 25p for 100g.

You could make a cake using merangues adn fill with your choice of fruits?

Fairy cakes, you can ice any colour adn add decoration with your own kids.

Party bags
You can make your own playdough to give away, use food colouriing to make different colours. You can add glitter to make it more special.

Get a sheet of MDF and cut out star shapes, drill a hole in the top and thread a ribbon through. This is a door hanger they can paint/decorate at home.

All great ideas thank you. Love the hot dog idea but they would be cold as we would have to cook them at home and bring them with us. Not overly bothered about how 'balanced' it is (shoot me now ) its mid afternoon so am thinking more of a snack rather than it being a main meal. I like the idea of making individual plates (hopefully people will rsvp) will a seperate plate of cheese/ham rolls that they can add themselves to save worrying about who likes what?

Hot dogs don't need to be cooked - just reheated.

I think you could get the quite palatable if you put them in a slow cooker on 'High' with boiling water from the kettle for half an hour. Else an electric steamer would prob work too - or an electric rice cooker - depending on what gadgets you have in your kitchen. Do a test run - but I don;t see why it wouldn;t work.

I honestly and truthfully do not think that kids need food at a party!

so shoot me!

what time is the party?

Most will have had lunch and will get tea at home.

do big jugs of squash with plastic cups and big bowls of crisps and quavers and things. A few packets of biscuits and they will be more than happy.

spend what you would have spent on food on prizes and sweets for the games!

I would leave out crisps and juice maybe a few sweets then near the end of the party feed them ice cream and jelly.

Homemade mini pizzas.
Sandwiches - tuna, ham, cheese.
Melon pieces.
If there is a microwave, you can buy the meatballs from Ikea (or cook them at home wrap the bowl up in first tinfoil and then newspapers. That is what we did) - plus maybe bring some ketchup.
Grapes.
Cucumber sticks.
Carrot sticks.
Birthday cake/s.
Get big block of cheese and cut them in to squares.

Really, dont do food.

My best party ever was one in which we got our own box of food each - a folded cake box. It was probably done to be cheap, but to me it was really exciting!

Don't get people to reply with menu choices though, tht is far too much hassle. Have ham or cheese and make up more than half each, parents can nibble on the leftovers.

If you need to do party bags, how about a tiny pot each filled with soil and a packet of seeds (sunflower or similar). You could paint the child's name on the pot.