I know that this blog strictly speaking is about my non-essential spending on myself, but I thought that ideas on keeping the expense of
children's parties to a minimum might be of interest as well.
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| Our three lions for the party! |
My little girl turned 3 last Monday and so for the past month (no kidding) she has been meticulously planning her celebrations! Given her age I was hoping to get away with a little family birthday tea, and perhaps a weekend day-trip out to a farm park or somewhere similar that she would like. But no: my daughter had other ideas! I suppose that being the youngest of three she is accustomed to birthday parties, and so of course, she expects the same!
And so for the last 4 weeks or so, the topic of birthday parties has dominated our conversations... initiated by her. We (she!) sorted out who was to be invited, what games we would play and what food would be provided, the most important item being the
CHOCOLATE CAKE!
Although a proper party would not be my own choice for such a little one, we managed a very relaxed chilled-out affair *on a shoestring* which everyone seemed to enjoy. The only expense (which was optional) was the accessories - such as party hats, and themed paper plates. Party food expenses were low - jam or cheese sandwiches, chopped carrots, grapes, tomatoes and cucumber, a pack of biscuits and crisps and the all important chocolate cake. I am not a fan of party-bags and certainly don't feel pressure to conform for this age group, so instead we had a basket of sweets and stickers that the guests could choose from before they left. There were also sweets and a little gift in the pass-the-parcel, but all in all, it was a lovely homely event focused on the children having fun, rather than being sucked into the commercial whirl of party expenses which is so easy to fall into.
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| Dog in a party mood... |
