Planning a Party for under $20.

Start with the invitations. Make your own or print some from a website. For my daughters last birthday we did a Rock theme! I found a website to create my own concert tickets with all the information! For my nephew I printed pop up cards from playhousedisney.com/celebrationcenter
they came out great!

Next think about the Food: Simple food is always better look through your cabinets before buying anything. Hot dogs and buns, burgers, chilli and nachos all feed alot and are very inexpensive!

For the Decorations: print out pictures of your theme and hang them from streamers bought at the dollar store! I also bought die cut letters in an alphbet pack at the $ store and made a happy birthday banner! get 2 or 3 brightly colored plastic table cloths (also the $) I use them to decorate all kinds of areas! Make party hats out of construction paper.

Activities: play games that dont require alot leave out blocks play a version of Duck Duck Goose (mouse mouse mickey, Miley Miley Hannah, abby abby cadaby) limbo, art projects all can be done for no cost!

Goodie bags: My goodie bags are always fun and cheap! My daughters first birthday we bought 12 shovels and pails on from oriental trading for $5! add a tube and some sand toys from the same sight and voila! Once kids get older it gets a little more difficult this yr for my 6 yo we made CDs we gave out blow up instruments and microphones and I had inexpensive t-shirts made. For my nephew this year I made magnets and printed themed coloring pages along with a 4 crayons from a large pack and some party blowers both from the $ store I threw in some animal crackers and Im done!

alot more time and effort goes into a cheaper party. The dollar ($) store is my best friend. Decorating and cooking take more time than buying pizza! In the end though its always worth it!