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The Guide To Creating Affordable Birthday Bashes

We all know the economy isn’t great right now but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice style and fun when it comes to throwing birthday parties. If you’re the designated party-thrower in your family, these tips will help keep expenses down, while still creating an event everyone will remember:

Be Creative with the Birthday Party Theme

Why not try something different, like a theme that can be implemented without breaking the bank for your guests or you? If you’re giving a children’s party, you can ask all the guests to bring inexpensive gifts suitable to give to a regional animal rescue organization or family homeless shelter. If you call the organization’s manager, you can get a list of low-cost items you can recommend to your guests. Suggest that they wrap the gifts as usual and then the entire party can meet at the organization to deliver them. Doing this would be a meaningful experience for everyone and would also give children first-hand experience with how good it feels to help others.

For adults, you can help your guests save money by having a recycling/re-gifting party. Most people can locate at least one gift they’ve received that they don’t want, so why not have them wrap them up and give them again? Make sure everyone knows who is on the guest list, though, so people don’t bring gifts they got from someone who’ll be at the party! If you’re worried about hurt feelings, people can just bring impulse purchases they made but have never used. The recycled items should be limited to a dollar amount that’s appropriate for the group, so people at all income levels can participate.

Make Your Own Birthday Party Decorations and Invitations

The Internet has a great selection of free printable party invitations. So why waste your money on invitations from a party or stationary store when printing them at home is so easy and inexpensive? There are also lots of birthday clipart options online, many of which would make great party decorations. If you can find large enough art, you can make banners or signs. If you can’t find the right kind of clip art, you have the option of decorating flower arrangements or plants with clip art cut-outs or making table place cards. If you like antiques, try printing and cutting out various vintage birthday cards and tie them with fancy ribbons to a string that forms a garland. This will create a distinctive old-time feel and make the room look great! To finish off the vintage theme, get intentionally mismatched plates, glasses and silverware at a thrift store to use in place of plastic and paper partyware.

The most important thing to remember when trying to save money on a birthday party is that you need to be creative. If you infuse style into your party plans, no one will ever know the party was actually a bargain!

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