Provide cake and other inexpensive food items at your child's birthday party.
Birthday parties are the highlight of a child's year. For an entire day, the child feels like royalty, surrounded by constant smiles and given presents by family and friends. Planning a kid's birthday party can be quite expensive though, especially if the kid requests items you cannot afford. Organize a party at home to celebrate the day, and prepare foods that are cheap but tasty. Does this Spark an idea?
Cookies
Bake cookies for your kid's birthday party.
Many of us have become a bit spoiled when it comes to baking. Instead of purchasing iced cookies from the bakery or from the cookie aisle at your grocery store, make your own. Cookies are surprisingly simple and use basic ingredients like flour, sugar, butter and eggs. Use chocolate chips and sprinkles for extra pizazz, and let your kid help make them. Squishing dough could easily become the highlight of the day as she lick her fingers and tries to form the "perfect" cookie. Just watch the time. Children love to be helpful, but their inexperience can delay the task at hand.
Cake
Bake a cake and decorate it with frosting made from scratch.
Grocery stores offer boxed cake mix of all flavors for about a dollar. Let your child wander down the aisle and choose the perfect cake. Frosting can be bought or made from scratch--both costs are about the same. Before you frost, add food coloring to the icing to make it stand out. You can make your own tube of frosting if you want to write something on the cake. Grab a plastic sandwich bag and cut a small hole in its corner. Place frosting inside the bag and squeeze it through the hole to write your birthday message.
Party Snack Mix
A party snack mix is an inexpensive snack that kids love. Even better, there are no rules to what makes up the mix, allowing it to be fashioned to suit the birthday kid's favorites. Things like dried fruit, cheese crackers, cereal and chocolate chips are popular items to use, and it is a great way to put "things in the cabinet" to use. Items that have been shelved, like raisins and pretzels, are great add-ins as long as they are still fresh. When finished combining ingredients, flavor the mix. This can be done in multiple ways, but the easiest is to put the mix in a plastic container with a lid and then add the flavoring. Close the lid on the container and shake the container to evenly dispense the seasoning throughout the mix.
Hot Dogs
Feed the birthday party crowd hot dogs.
If you're looking to add something heavy to the menu, put hot dogs on the table. They are incredibly easy to make and fairly inexpensive. Just buy smart. Hot dog weenies will be the highest cost you face, so watch sales ads, especially in the summer. Ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise will also be needed, but in most cases, these condiments are already on hand. Evaluate the size of your crowd before purchasing extras. If money is extra tight, provide only ketchup.
Tags: birthday party, chocolate chips, made from, make your, your birthday