The Frugal Princess Party

 

As I have mentioned recently… we just had a little princess turn 3. . . and as are all things with princesses…it had to be a royal affair. A royal affair, on a budget that is. I thought I would share with you just how we accomplished that. I LOVE to do hands-on parties for my kids, and I always hand make both the invitations and the cakes …but I have come to realize, that I can still take short cuts in making them… the most important thing…is that they are made with lots of love. Here’s how…

THE CAKE

So super easy.  I baked the cake in a round Pyrex bowl… turned it upside down and decorated it!  The total cost on the cake was $7.54… Here the breakdown on that:  97 cents Cake Mix + 97 cents Frosting + 3.99 pack of sparkly frosting paints (I splurged!) … and $1.57 for the Kelly doll that was on clearance at Target = total of $7.54

THE INVITATIONS

The invites were SO easy … and total cost on them was $3.98…thanks to Hobby Lobby (love that place!) I bought 2 packs of Princess Treasure Chest Invitations and one pack of 8 BIG diamond rings… plus used a 40% off one item coupon … for a total of $3.98. Then came home and make some cute invites on the computer, spritzed them with glitter spray…and rolled them up inside the diamond ring…(along with a note saying that attendees to the royal party would need to be wearing their ring for admission into the party, of course!) placed the  invites in the princess boxes …. and off we went to deliver …

THE PARTY

I scored some awesome party goods at the great sale from BuyCostumes that I told you about earlier. In fact… I got a whole lot of princess grab, gear and party favors for $23.50 shipped. I even scored a killer deal on wrapping paper from The Country Score deal that I posted about way back in February… these are huge, darling rolls and at 99cents a roll... that was a total score (plus I have enough for at least 5 more parties!) You can see this cute wrapping paper in the photo of the cake at the top of this post.

THE GIFTS

I was so proud of myself this year. Little sissy got some darling, quality items… and I got some great prices on them. She loved her Melissa & Doug Fold and Go Mini Dollhouse that I got on Amazon, and was able to pay for with Swagbucks…plus, I even had enough left over to almost pay for the Melissa and Doug Fold and Go Barn that I got to go with it ( these are STILL on sale, by the way … and they have free shipping…so I ended up having 16.18 out of pocket on these, and in case you were wondering … they are WONDERFUL… my kids have played with them for hours on end since she got them) … I also got her a darling rolling Pink Pony suitcase off of a daily sale at Zulily…$16.99. Love Zulily!!

THE PRINCESS

Well, the princess was priceless (of course!) … but her attire was an adorable princess dress that I scored from a Zulily sale…for $16.99!… and she looked so adorable in it! It even said PRINCESS across the front, in case there was any question as to who was the guest of honor.

Totals:

Cake: $7.54 + Invitations $3.98 + Party Supplies/Goodies $23.50 + Gifts $33.17 + Dress $16.99 = $85.18 … and most of that total includes toys that we will get use our of for years to come!

As you might know, it is really easy for birthday party expenses to get out of hand…especially if you are scrambling to put stuff together. If you can plan ahead a bit, I think that helps a lot. I also find that I spend less money when I focus more on the things that my daughter will love, like letting her help me make the cake, and focus less on the spendy little extras that really don’t mean much in the long run.

Happy Sunday, everyone!