Spend Less for a Memorable Birthday For Your Kid's or Baby's Party

He or she is another year older. And his or her time of the year is just around the corner – they all said that some of these over the top parties are tons of fun — but of course they also cost tons of money! (otherwise you gonna have to spend your own time and energy for the preparation). Should you choose to hire a party planner to do the whole thing, it must have costs you a bomb. And believe me, one-stop-centre will never do right with a tight budget. What about planning it your own, and finding your own resources to help you out? You have your own idea to throw in and will work with the team you personally asses and assign. Sounds interesting, kan? Well, let see from afar first. 

How Many Guest Am I Inviting?

Important issue that most of us tend to forget is to count on the number of attendees, not the number of invitation made. For example if you are inviting En. Ahmad, is he coming with his whole family? If yes, how many of them are coming? How many of adults and how many of kids or babies? Kenapa penting? Because of the following considerations:

• space (indoor, outdoor, home, a rented venue?)

• food and beverages (you don't want serving some kind of delivery pizza for some unlucky guests before the party ends)

• party pack (just imagine you don't have anything for Donny of Puan Liza, your boss' son, who came with a latest, fancy-imported toy for your kid)

• activities (do you have privacy space for parents to breastfeed or solat? and some space for your closest family member to wind down and get together? space for the kids to play?)

Food For Thought

Instead of catered fabulousness (remember, we’re writing this from our experiences in KL, respectively – catering for kids parties is not unusual!) you can go for simple, crowd pleasing fare. If you have the time and energy, you can make hamburger patties yourself (instead of, as some of us calls them, ‘the cheap, gross pre-made ones’), hotdogs, corn on the cob, fried chicken, pasta, potato chips and home made cupcakes, they are much healthier for your beloved ones to chew on. It might seem obvious, but you wouldn’t believe some of the pressure out there to serve fancy fare and keep up with Joneses! Otherwise, you can always look up from my own family-altered recipes such as nasi daging and nasi uzbekistan which i would like to share with everybody who is always interested in 'cooking with love'... and believe me, both kids and adults would love them. 

You can always be wise on the food, because you also do not want to waste. Remember, Allah bencikan mereka yang melakukan pembaziran. If your total guests (adults and kids) are 200, just order from the catered food for half of it – you may add up with your own preferred place or person to prepare for some of the food you are serving. Maybe you can just order your dessert from a colleague of yours who is known for her best carrot cake you ever had, or get some fresh fruits from the hypermarket and slice it nicely, and serve it with some chocolate dip, whipped cream, ice creams, and crunches of nuts. Dapat guests be in their own fantasies sekejap... it's fun for everybody, believe me!

 99 Cent Store Decor

You can blow up some balloons, bought a cheap pinata (you can also easily make one!), fill up your kiddie splashing pool and blow up your own bounce house (not a rented one, but the one that can be bought at some hypermarket & it can be used all of the time-for about RM150)! That was ‘it’. Which is, of course, is a lot effort and energy– but not a lot of money!

Oh, and speaking of pinatas, if you live in an apartment and just don’t have room to do a traditional one, try our take on the “urban pinata’ – just hide candy or small grab bag toys around the house and let the kids go on a scavenger hunt for them – what they find they get to keep!

Do Yourself A Favor

In what seems like a bit of kid party heresy, you can decide to try out NO party favors this year!  Seriously, I am sure we’ve all been there where you blow a couple hundred bucks on useless little things the kids (or parents) just throw out anyway!  I was wondering if the other moms and kids were horrified, but I swear no one even noticed!  After attending one too many extravagant parties (pony rides in the yard, over a hundred 5 years olds at a 4 star hotel, a firetruck that makes pizzas), she hit her limit when, at one party, the hosts gave out full sized Tonka trucks worth RM50 …as party favors!

Old-Fashioned Fun

You may also swear (at least at this younger age) that old sack races and treasure hunt still hold up with full force fun. The crazy thing is, since no one really does it anymore, you may seem like the cool family who tried out the exotic new games!
We also went to one great party where the activity – and the favor – which was also dessert – was decorating your own cupcakes – great, cheap fun and delicious too! A lot of time these big parties are much more about the adults – and not that there’s anything wrong with that – but not all of us having that kind of dough to blow!

Take the Cake

Every taman has their fancy go-to bakeries.  Last year I made a Sponge Bob cake for a friend's son as his first birthday treat... and it was awesome!  I actually made two of them – for a total of maybe RM60? As opposed to the at least RM60 the specialty bakery near you would have charged for one? Done and YUM!

The Genius of Jaja

A couple years back, my friend Jaja had one of the most fun kids parties of all time in her backyard.  It was a totally D.I.Y. home grown fiesta – and those kids had a BLAST!  She strung doughnuts up by a rope and had a hands-free doughnut eating content! Then in another corner of the yard the kids were filling up water balloons and hurling them against a wall.  Again, not reinventing the wheel, but sometimes we have to remind ourselves that getting back to basics actually works!

Just do not feel shy and nervous that people would think your Fab & Fru party plan was lame – but no one did! It reminded us of our childhoods and was actually retro and cool.  As we all know by now, being frugal is chic – not cheap- when you get creative! And believe us, your kids won’t be judging you on how much you spent on their party – only on how much fun they have!


So, have fun planning for your own kid's birthday party, bunnies!

with thoughts,
mummy danial