Frugal party decorations

As my regular readers know, we have THREE birthday parties for our son, the Little Guy, so that each family gets its' own party. We'll have THREE birthday parties for Baby Girl, too, but she has yet to have a birthday that didn't involve actually leaving my uterus.

Ahem....

So, with three birthday parties, I think it's important to spend money on the big things, like food and drinks, and save money on other things, like invitations and decorations.

Fortunately, it's easy to decorate big for a kid's birthday party without breaking the budget. Here's where I spent my money:

Birthday banner = $2.00. I hung it on the mantel. And this is reusable. Win!


Crepe paper = $1.99/roll. I used four colors, and with all the decorating I did, I still have plenty left for future parties. This is the entrance to the dining room from the foyer. Had I more time, I would have done this in several more doorways. The paper is just stuck to the ceiling with regular Scotch tape. Easy!

This is the wall you first see when entering the house.

I even did all the columns in crepe paper, one color for each column. As Bears household, I got a little flack from fellow Chicagoans for putting the yellow and green so close together, but we all survived.

Finally, I put regular balloons on curling ribbon and hung them off of the two balconies in the house. Balloons = $2.99 for a pack of twenty.

I did make a smart investment this year: I bought a balloon inflator for super cheap.

Balloon inflator = $2.50. Totally worth every penny.

Overall, I spent only $12.99 on decorations, and the house looked great. And I still have balloons, the banner and plenty of crepe paper left for future parties. This made for happy parties and a happy mommy who was able to stick to her happy party decoration budget.

Happy birthday, Little Guy!