So it’s your birthday and it’s time to celebrate. Whether it’s your 21st or your 30th it’s nice to mark the occasion with friends and family but with the tough times at the moment, a party may seem a frivolous indulgence. However as elaborate celebrations such as the Olympics and Diamond jubilee have proven, morale in a recession is vital and small celebrations of our own can improve our wellbeing at present and in the future.
Before you start preparing your own bash consider writing a party budget. Decide on spending limits for all aspects of the party whilst considering a few things to keep the cost down.
Venue
Keep it small and have the celebration in your home as the cost of hiring a space will eat a large chunk out of the budget and will only encourage you to overspend and invite more people etc., pushing the costs up.
The Decorations
Make your own decorations or invest in some decorations you can reuse for family parties or next year. There are lots of decoration tutorials online and crepe paper bunting always works.
The Cake
Bake your own! Baking your own cake will cut the cost of the cake in half and you can bake as much or as little as you want for the number of people invited.
Cupcakes! The craze at parties is now cupcakes. If you’re not a natural baker these will be much easier to make and great for handing out to guests instead of slicing up a cake. Instead of icing the cupcakes consider a couple of bowls of flavoured butter icing and various sprinkles and let the guests do the work, can be a bit messy but your creative friends will love it!
Food
Instead of hiring a caterer or buying in bulk from the supermarket try making the party food yourself or mixing bought prepared food with your own. If you’re having alcohol buy boxes of wines from the supermarket instead of bottles, and own brand bottles of mixers instead of national brands or cans.
Music
Ask guests to bring their ipods etc, and switch throughout the evening, this will save you creating a playlist or sourcing new music and there will be no need to worry about pleasing everybody.
Prepare Early
Collect decorations, napkins, tablecloths etc when they are on sale and keep them at the back of a cupboard until it’s time to start planning the party. It may seem a bit premature at the time but it will be a saving when it comes to dividing up the party budget.
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