Cheap Party Favors - Recycling, Minimal & Pretty

Birthday season is coming around again - which means I'm a crazy lunatic planning and plotting the perfect birthday party for a bunch of 7 year-olds.  I can be a little anal when it comes to birthday parties but it's fun, so I don't care.  Here, I'll show you how create cheap party favors that incorporate some of my latest passions.

Birthday Party Crackers!

Items Needed & Cost:

Empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls  (Free!  Save them as you go through them!)

1 package of tissue paper ($1 at the Dollar Tree)

Ribbon (I have a storage bin of curling and fabric ribbon.  If you don't, you can buy some at the Dollar Tree for $1)

Scotch Tape (I had this - Dollar Tree sells it for a $1)

3 bags of candy ($3 at the Dollar Tree)

Total Cost for me:  $4.  I made 24 of them, so it cost a whopping 17 cents each. 

Quick How To:

Gather your supplies.  If you have paper towel rolls, you'd probably want to cut them in half to make them about the same size as the toilet paper rolls.  

Take your package of tissue paper and cut it in half.  

Put your candy or whatever you want in the toilet paper roll.  Then, take 2 sheets of tissue paper.  Tape it to the roll and roll up the roll with the tissue paper.  Tape the tissue paper to keep it secure.  Double knot the ends with some curling ribbon.  

Use your scissors to curl the ribbon ends, and voila - you have a cheap, homemake party favor.  

Why I like these?

Cheap - These are cheap to make.  You could put whatever you want in them - but I chose non-chocolate candy.  So of course I picked up my loot at the Dollar Tree.  When you go to the Dollar Tree, you have to remember that not all candy is created equal.  Some of the candy they sell is so cheap because the bags are so small.  So when filling things like these or pinatas, I go for what gives me the biggest bang for my buck.  Here is my cost analysis of best Dollar Tree candy:

 Bubble Gum Balls - 72 individually wrapped pieces per bag (1.3 cents each)

Smarties - 26 rolls per bag (3.8 cents each)

Dum Dum Pops - 26 lollipops per bag (3.8 cents each)

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!  - Instead of just tossing my toilet paper and paper towel rolls for 2 weeks, I just saved them.  Why buy plastic treat bags that are just going to end up in the garbage anyways?  Just one little thing to help the environment and all that other happy crap.  

Minimalist - Another thing I like about these things and the way I personally made them is that it teaches kids "portions" and all that other nonsense.  I did not want to put plastic crap that just gets thrown away in them.  They are pretty small so there isn't much candy in them.  Do kids really need a buttload of candy though?  Nah.  

Oh - and for the record, I'm pretty much a hypocrite because I have a piñata that is stuffed with way too much candy.  So these are just being used as a parting gift of sorts.  I'm taking baby steps with this minimalist crap.  

Do-It-Yourself Party Game: Ring Toss

I am kind of psychotic when it comes to my kids' birthday parties.  I just like planning unnecessary crap. It drives my husband crazy and I think that's why I like to do it so much.  One thing I have planned for this upcoming party is a Ring Toss Game.  The cost for me out of pocket was ZERO.  It would be pretty cheap otherwise.

We're doing a "Skylander" theme party - so we're calling this game, "Dino Rang Toss".  Dino Rang is a character on the game or something.  You can improvise based on whatever theme you choose (if you are fruity like me and do "theme" parties).  

First.  I don't drink.  So how was I going to get 48 beer bottles?  I asked friends!  Had 48 of them in a snap.  I did give one friend $2 because her husband usually turns them in for deposit.  She told me not too but whatever.  I'm too good like that sometimes.  I soaked them in soapy water and the labels all peeled off greatly and the beer smell left.  

I had a big box from Amazon that I was saving.  It was the perfect size for 48 bottles.  I reinforced it with some more packing tape.  I found a paint sample that I got for free from Valspar that was sitting, collecting dust in the basement.  So I used that to paint the box.  

We recently replaced our shower curtain rod which came with new rings.  So I saved the old, crappy, plastic rings - they work great for ring toss!  If you don't have old shower curtain rings laying around, you can pick them up cheap at the Dollar Tree or Wal-Mart (even though I hate Wal-Mart).  

I printed out the words, "Dino Rang Toss" and glued them on the box just for a little pizazz.  There you have it - a practically free and environmentally friendly party game.

Build a Geoboard for CHEAP! (What the HECK is a Geoboard?)

You might be asking yourself - "What the heck is a "geoboard", Bargain Becky?"  Well I'll tell you.  It's a mathematical manipulative used to explore basic concepts in plane geometry.  It consists of a wooden board with nails, half way driven in and rubber bands.  (I stole all of this off Wikipedia - my go to source to know EVERYTHING I need to know in life.)

The kids played with one at the Cape Cod Children's Museum over the weekend so I told my oldest I would make him one for his birthday party coming up.  We're doing some "science-y" things for the party in the backyard.  So today I made it - it's 3 feet by 3 feet (pretty darn huge) - and it cost me a whopping $4.22 out of pocket.  It will cost you more if you don't already have some of the materials.

How To Make a Geoboard?

(It took me about 2 hours in total and I had to drop $4.22 on paint and nails - already had the wood in my basement)

First, I started with a 3'x3' piece of wood I had in the basement.  This was scrap from some project we did way back when and I keep recycling it for birthday party things.  I think this is the 4th birthday party it's had use.  That's pretty good for a lonely piece of wood.

So I got my wood, the husband's drill, a pencil, and a level/ruler.  I marked every two inches on each sides and drew lines down the entire board.

You should have a huge grid.  Again, I measured 2".  

Then I drilled holes where every line intersected.  Since my board was really 35" by 37" (3'X3' is close enough) - I had 17 X 18 holes - or 306 of them.  I picked up this can of spray paint for .99 cents at Lowe's.  

I spray painted that sucker black.

I was originally going to use screws - but when I went to Lowe's - the cheapest ones they had in the size I needed were about $5.50 for 100.  I was NOT going to drop $22 on screws for this project.  So I went over to the nails and got a 1 lbs. box of Roofing Nails for $2.98.  I didn't have enough - but knew my husband had some in the basement.  There were probably about 260 nails in that 1 lbs. box.  So I nailed them in to all the holes (all 306 of them - by myself.  It was a great way to let out some aggression).

Then I got some rubber bands - and voila!  A fun and educational tool for the kids.  I'm going to pick up some misc. sizes/colors at Staples with my Staples Rewards for the son's birthday party.  

I know it sounds so simple and basic - but this thing can entertain kids like no tomorrow.  You don't have to be so extreme in making one - this one is pretty big but my motto is "Go Big or Go Home."  

Now you know what the heck a Geoboard is and you know how to make one.  Don't you feel all special now?  You can buy these too - but they are much smaller and cost a lot more.  

Host a Cheap Angry Bird Birthday Party

So I recently threw an "Angry Birds" party for my 5 year-old.  I actually kept this party pretty cheap.  Here are some cheap ideas.  Some ideas can be incorporated into other themes.  From what I gather, the kids all had a good time and they didn't realize they were in the middle of a cheap-themed party.  The cheaper, the better!

1.  Invite less kids.  I usually (or in the past, I should say) let my kids invite whoever they want to parties.  This time, due to a hectic schedule and me not wanting to do a ton of work, I told my soon-to-be 5 year-old he could invite any 4 people he wanted plus their siblings.  So he chose 4 and that was that.  I have to say, having less kids around was a lot less stressful.  I'm not really a "kid person" - so it doesn't take much for me to get rattled when it comes to kids.  It was just less chaotic with less kids and more fun for me.  My son didn't realize the difference of having 8 kids vs. 20 kids here.  

2.  Cheap Bowling.  We dug out our Little Tykes bowling set that we got many moons ago.  We're missing a pin, so I just saved a soda bottle to incorporate.  We did this at the end of our driveway.  We threw down duct tape to show where the pins go and where the bowler stands.  That way, we adults could kind of be like, "Yeah, just do it yourself kid!"  This worked.  

3.  "Guessing Game".  We played "Guess How Many Angry Bird Eggs Are in Here?"  I bought a bag of beans at the Dollar Tree.  I took an old Rubbermaid container and just rubber banded it for extra support.  I guess I could have made it look "prettier" but that's what I did.  I printed out a picture in color.  That wasn't really "cheap" as color ink is expensive - but for my boy, I gave in to a little luxury.

I even made my kids do the "dirty" work - I had my little guy make piles of 5 beans and my bigger guy make piles of 10 beans.  So they essentially counted out the "eggs" for me.  

4.  Made a Life-sized Angry Bird Game - FOR FREE!  This was probably the biggest hit of the party.  The kids (ages 3-6) loved having 60 boxes to build and destroy over 2 hours.  I got some boxes at the grocery store and some at BJ's.  And I just kept boxes from the previous few weeks before the party.  After the party, I made my mother break them all down and threw them in the recycling pile on garbage day.

5.  Found someone (my father) who had baby chickens as entertainment.  My father had some baby chickens (or real life Angry Birds, if you will) so he brought them over and the kids could pet them and hold them gently.  For the most part, the kids were entertained by them for 3 minutes and then moved on to other things.  

6.  Fun with hubcaps!  This isn't a good picture - but I forgot to get one up close.  Last week, we threw a WHITE TRASH PARTY and I saved the 2 hubcaps that I found laying on the streets for my son's birthday party.  We hung them on trees in my yard.  Classy, right?  I printed out 2 Angry Piggies or whatever they are called and taped them to the center of the hubcaps.  I gave the kids frisbees to throw at the piggies.  This could work for any themed party.

7.  Made Angry Bird Bean Bags.  I initially had a game of "throw a bird at a pig" with buckets out.  I think the kids just turned this into "chuck the Angry Birds at each other."  Whatever works.  My picture is on it's side and I'm too lazy to fix it.

Making Angry Bird bean bags is simple - go to Michaels and buy some felt.  Felt is .29 cents a sheet and you only need 6-10 sheets depending on how many birds you want to make.  I just printed out some pictures of each bird and used that as a pattern.  I filled them with beans (the same Dollar Tree beans that we used for the guessing game).  We glued googley eyes, beaks and eye brows on them.  Then I hand sewed up the bottom where the beans went, and voila - I had 12 Angry Bird Bean Bags.  The Googley Eyes were probably the most expensive part of this project - I think I dropped just under $2 on them.  So it was probably just under $4 to make these.

8.  Have a "Make Your Own Pizza" Station.  My little guy loves going to Pizzeria Uno to do the "Make Your Own Pizza" meal.  So we brought that to his party.  This is really a pretty cheap thing to do.  You can buy an 8 pack of individual pizza crusts and sauce for $8.99.  Then you just pick up some cheese (I probably dropped about $5 worth of cheese on this shindig) and some pepperoni.  Probably $2 worth of Pepperoni.  The kids had a blast, it was easy, and it was cheap.

9.  When time is money, opt for a BJ's cake.  I just did not have time this week to do anything crazy with desserts.  Sometimes homemaking ain't easy - so we have to rely on store bought cakes.  I got this huge cake at BJ's for $12.99.  Had I made a cake, it would have easily cost me $6 in ingredients and you can't put a price on clean up and time when you're in a hurry.  So $13 was a deal for me.  The picture didn't come until after the first cut and someone said "Oops, I didn't get a picture of the cake yet!".  Why we really needed one is beyond me but that's what we do.

10.  Get creatively cheap with your goody bags.  I made individual piñata goody bags - WHICH YOU CAN READ ABOUT HERE.  I did these 4 weeks before the party when life wasn't so hectic.  The kids loved them.  

So there you have it.  Some cheap ways to entertain a bunch of kids for 2-3 hours, Angry Bird style.  A lot of these cheap ideas can be turned into other themes if so desired.  I want to be a White Trash Party Planner.  

Homemade Individual Piñata Goody Bags

For my 2nd son's birthday, I thought, "How can I set the bar higher than any Homemaker has gone before?"  It was like I was on a mission to be a really obnoxious homemaker.  The answer was simple:  Individual Piñata Goody Bags.

We got to work and we made 10 circular pinatas.  The theme was "Angry Birds" - so this was relatively simple.  If you need help on homemade pinatas, well I wrote about that.  CLICK HERE to get directions and all my wise wisdom.

After I had three layers of piñata - I painted them with acrylic paint from Michaels.  I did 5 birds and 5 pigs.

My husband is the true artist in the family - so I made him paint faces on them. 

Before long, we had 10 Angry Bird themed pinatas.

I cut two small holes in each of them at the top - about 2 inches from the center.

I then cut out a rectangular portion of each of them with a sharp razor blade.

I then put a pipe cleaner in my little holes near the top.

I tied each end of the pipe cleaner to make a handle of sorts on each of them.

I reinforced my knots with a little hot glue - then you can see that you can hold them and they would be secure.

Here is my stash of "goody bags" ready to fill.  They aren't perfect, but it worked.  Life isn't perfect so that's okay.

And there you have 10 homemade Angry Bird piñata goody bags.  

We actually tied them to my clothes line outside - to make them part of the decoration of the party.  They were a big hit with the kids and adults alike.  Actually, I think most adults were like, "Are you f(*^*(& serious?  What the heck is wrong with just traditional goody bags?"  Whatever.  I'm a homemaker.  It's what we do.