My husband teased me because I saved the party decorations from our first child's first birthday for 2 years (starting before we were even preggo with #2) in order to not have to buy much for kid #2's first party! He discovered them in the panty a few months ago and was read the riot act for trying to use one of the Elmo plates after my carefully guarding them for over a year!
You see, before I had kids I thought buying them party decorations was silly and over-done. But once I was staring at my own little angel, bursting with pride, I just knew I couldn't help myself from throwing a FUN party, even if only for the grandparents and the memories in the scrapbook. So, I bought the party stuff as cheaply as I could. Most of this can be found at the Dollar Store. Since it was just grandparents at our daughter's party we were able to save half the party blowers, re-use almost all of the hats, and wipe down the "disposable" tablecloth and re-use it. I even had half the napkins, plates and utensils left, as well as streamers and balloons. Two parties for the price of one! The only thing I needed to buy for my son was a cake mix and frosting, cups, and those little candy letters for decoration. Since my son was having more guests at his party, I stocked up on some Bubble Tape bubblegum when they went on clearance for 25 cents each for party favors. If my husband hadn't vetoed hanging on to the same party stuff for another couple of years and if I hadn't become sick of Elmo, I might have squeezed THREE parties out of this party stuff!
Total cost estimate for party #1: $10. Which means around $5 per party not counting food! Not bad!
Memories of a celebration that my daughter declared was "SOOOOOOOO FUN!": Priceless
Great deal!
ReplyDeleteTheres NOTHING wrong with reusing either! :-D
I am ALL for it!
I did the same thing. Some stuff I bought for my 1st child's 1st birthday went through all 3 kids. It's not *just* frugal it's environmentally responsible as well. Think of all the stuff that ends up in landfill without even being used because there were more in the packet than were needed! It's insanity in my book. Well done. Your little one looks very content with their day. :-)
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