In December we celebrated Maxwell's 6th Birthday party. Prior to Maxwell having his Birthday party, we saved up £120 so we could give Maxwell a full birthday party with 10 friends. After a lot of thought we decided that we could put this money to better use and perhaps use it to go on a Sun Holiday in 2018 so I spent the next week looking around for the best deal for a Birthday party that would be cheaper and would use less of our budget.
After a week of scouring the internet, I came up with a plan. We decided that we would use £17 worth of Tesco Clubcard points we had saved over the year and exchange them for £52 worth of bowling vouchers. This in turn meant we had to find £23 plus a booking fee to pay for a £75 basic weekend party at a bowling local venue for Maxwell and 5 of his friends.
Included in the £75 party package was unlimited juice and a meal for Maxwell and 5 of his friends however party bags and cake was not included in this price. This in turn lead me to try and find the cheapest deal on these.
I have always been the type of parent who can not stand the plastic items you often get in a party bag, instead I try to give less but give more quality. Over the past 2 years I have always given children books from places such as The Book People or I have gone to Poundland to get books however this time around I felt I could try and spend less and I set about trying to find something suitable that would cost less than £1. After a week of searching in local shops in my town, I struck gold when I visited our local Poundstretcher.
I first visited our local Poundstretcher to try and find some books to give out instead of party bags however I found that their range was very limited and expensive. Whilst browsing, I did notice that they did have some stationary products which were buy one get one free. Knowing I was onto a winner, I looked at all the items which were listed in the stationary offer and found sets which were suitable for 6 year old boys. We found huge Star Wars sticker packs which were full of stickers, pads and fun for just £1. Due to the buy one, get one free offer, I managed to get 6 packs in total for just £3. Not content on giving just a sticker set to Maxwell's friends I also decided to buy 12 packs of mini Haribo for £1 at our local supermarket meaning I was able to give 2 small packets of sweets with each sticker book.
Since Maxwell started having Birthday parties, we have always purchased cakes from our local bakers. We have always loved the fact that we have been able to design them and they have all been special for Maxwell to relate to however this year we felt that a £60 cake bill was not something that we needed so instead we opted for a simple Caterpillar Cake from Ocado. Not only was it £7 to start with, it was reduced to £3.50 on the week we needed it meaning we were able to provide Maxwell with a Birthday cake for just £3.50. We were worried Maxwell would be upset that the cake was not as amazing as other years however we did not need to worry as Maxwell was thrilled with our cake choice and we were thrilled that we had saved over £50.
Maxwell's full Birthday party cost us just under £35 in cash. I was thrilled that we managed to save over £85 of our original budget that we set out to use for Maxwell's Birthday party. No one but us knew how little Maxwell's party cost us however Maxwell's party was fun, helped him build lots of memories and was a party which all his friends enjoyed.
Birthday parties do not need to cost the earth. Would you opt for the type of Birthday party we held for Maxwell?
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