Ideas please for DD birthday tea party

twiggy100

Hi Folks

I'm hoping some you may be able to inspire me! It's my DD 8th birthday on Friday and she is so excited she is almost fit to burst. Funds are v tight for us at the moment, and she understands that she will not be receiving hugely expensive presents and she is quite happy about that. What she enjoys the most is when the extended family all gets together to celebrate and wish her well. So I am laying on a spread for her and need to cater for 12 adults and about 10 kids for a tea party. I did ask if she fancied a chilli party hoping that she would say yes as that would have worked out very cheap, but she really has her heart set on a more traditional sausage roll and jelly and icecream type affair. Does anyone have have any great money saving ideas please? We are miles and miles away from an Iceland store (only have a Sainsbury's really within easy reach!)
I reckon on having only about £25 spare including making her cake from scratch which I think can be done but the cost of food is frightening at the moment. But she really is such a good kid I would like to do her proud.
Any ideas will be very welcome

Mrs_Jojo

Sounds like you will have a lovely time! Start by getting her to help make cupcakes, dead easy and kids love making them x

mum2one

def agree r cup cakes, if you go for the basis range at sainsburys that might help stretch the budget, another suggestion explain your extending it to include adults, ask them if the could bring a item, I'm sure they wouldn't mind and that way your get a good array of different items, xx

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Nothing wrong with Sainsbury's Basics jelly. If you stir it into a can of evaporated milk whisked up, you get a frothy pudding - or just buy the basics Angel Delight. You could use a basics sponge and some basics jam, plus cheap tetrapack custard, basics tinned peaches and some real cream (only expensive bit) to make trifle.

Then you could get a roll of sausagemeat from the frozen section (about 85p ish as I remember) plus a packet of puff pastry from the freezer and make your own mini sausage rolls.

Cheap n cheerful fizz and squash is good - buying basics fizzy water and the basics squash should provide enough for everyone.

Block of cheap cheese - cut into cubes, plus pineapple, grapes, etc (don't bother with cocktail sticks)

Basics carrots - chop into sticks.

Cucumber - little half moons.

Cherry tomatoes cut in half.

Basics crisps in bowls.

Basics chicken nuggets, cook and serve cold.

Frozen sausages - far, far cheaper than the chiller ones. Cook chipolatas, chop into 3 pieces each (kids won't care)

Jam tarts are still incredibly cheap to make, just make shortcrust pastry with echo rather than butter. Try making tiny, tiny ones and not huge ones.

Basics ham sandwiches. Use the basics mayo instead of butter. Maybe some with boiled eggs or marmite (blend marmite with butter before spreading as that means you use less of both)


Oh, and the most popular activity at my DD's party was a whole bunch of cheap, cheap fairy cakes where they got to add glace icing (icing sugar and water) then stick on whatever sprinkles/smarties/fruit pastilles they wanted. And, although there were a bunch of 4 - 10 year olds there, most of them were 13-14 years old - some making cupcakes in between sneaking out for cigarettes when nobody was looking



Hope you all have a great time and some of this helps.

annie-c

Brilliant ideas above! Agree with the home made stuff from Basics ingredients.

I would just add that at that age the kids don't actually eat very much so don't spend a lot of money on making heaps of food. Most little girls will play around with 1/4 sandwich, 2 sausage on sticks and a handful of crisps untill it is time for jelly and icecream. They will be more interested in girly chatter and I expect they would LOVE to get to decorate cup cakes!

You could have a separate 'grown up' menu of bigger but plainer items, eg bigger ham sarnies with basics crisps poured into bowls. A lovely & filling but cheap adult party food I like to do is mini jacket spuds. Buy a bag of smallish white potatoes, half them and bake in the oven. Then scoop out a bit of the middle of each one, mash with butter/cheese and refill them then brown before serving. You can vary the toppings with chilli, ham, tomato, cheese, tuna etc for hot food parties, but keep it simple if you are minding a house of kids. It is just a way to 'pad' out the food for grown ups who eat more, and you can make a big tray full for about £1 of potatoes and £1 block of cheese.

mum2one

another thought re kids food, a lot pick and mix and you tend to get items left, bar last bday dd had a bowling party, the last 2 yrs we hired a sports hall, and made up the food per child, (checking vegetarians, or allergies) -
put on paper plates -
sandwiches we chopped into 4 - 1 of each quarter
egg
ham
sausage rolls
sausage on sticks
cheese + pineapple

crisps tc - put some bowls and let them help themselves

or hot food (borrowed idea from a friends party)

Value pizza added a bit more topping on,
oven chips
hotdogs

The kids loved it -


cheese

bluebag

Cut everything up into bite size too as it looks a lot and reduces waste. Tuna butties go a long way if mixed with a little vinegar, pepper and mayo.

Grated cheese on sandwiches goes further, egg is good and cheap , a small chicken stripped of it's meat and put in sandwiches with a little sage and onion stuffing. Mini sausage rolls you get about 50 in a bag.

A packet of wraps filled with a tin taco beans and a little grated cheese costs about £2 and makes 16 if you cut them in half.

Scones are cheap to make and tasty with jam. And you can get a value biscuit barrel pack of assorted biscuits for a little over a quid. Kids seem to like chicken paste butties too which are as cheap as chips.

Chicken nuggets or dippers with a home made dipping sauce, get 40 in a bag for £2.
Hope that helps/

7roland8

Love te idea of little jam tarts - perhaps some with lemon curd - all very colourful. I'd ask grown ups to perhps bring stuff for their food. Do lots of party games - more fun than the food - pass the parcel great fun - plus dressing up (we would have a huge box of eveything we could find and they all dressed in stuff - boys and girls) - we used to have a hoot with that and it cost nothing.
Why not have a sort of treasure hunt - hide little things round house (tiny wrapped eggs?) or rooms you are using - then just have a small choc bar or something as the prize.
Another fun thing we used to do was to buy plain digestives - melt choc and put over and decorate - makes a mess but they love it - have hundreds and thousand and those silver balls etc - anything really.

twiggy100

Wow ,thanks for all the ideas I really appreciate it! I think I'm getting my knickers in a twist over nothing, but we always feel like the poor country cousins in our family IYKWIM, and so am grateful for your input as I think some of the ideas are so much better than the rubbish that the supermarkets churn our as "party food", and I really would like to make her day as special as possible. I may be trying to overcompensate for the lack of pressies, but I am trying to bring her up without a material, grasping attitude, which never ceases to astound me in some other children. But I feel for her at the same time, when she is with some of her friends who have both Iphones and Ipads (yes at 7 - 8 years old!) and all the latest gear! She went to a little ones party a few months back where the birthday girl arrived in a stretch limo!

7roland8

Well think you have the right idea - its devoting time to her is the most important.

I always used to be amazed at some parties and the parents never thought to do any games with the kids. I would have it all planned out and it would be 'go' from beginning to end - tiring but worth it.

Don't worry too much about food - as long as there is jelly, ice cream and crisps kids are happy! Lots tend to get left anyway as they are so excited.

Re expensive gifts - it makes you wonder what these kids wil get for their 18th - as they've had it al already!

I've seen girls on TV who go with their mums at weekends to get their nails done etc - when really they should be out making dens and playing.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

twiggy100 wrote: »

Wow ,thanks for all the ideas I really appreciate it! I think I'm getting my knickers in a twist over nothing, but we always feel like the poor country cousins in our family IYKWIM, and so am grateful for your input as I think some of the ideas are so much better than the rubbish that the supermarkets churn our as "party food", and I really would like to make her day as special as possible. I may be trying to overcompensate for the lack of pressies, but I am trying to bring her up without a material, grasping attitude, which never ceases to astound me in some other children. But I feel for her at the same time, when she is with some of her friends who have both Iphones and Ipads (yes at 7 - 8 years old!) and all the latest gear! She went to a little ones party a few months back where the birthday girl arrived in a stretch limo!

But they aren't the girl who had a party where they decorated their own cupcakes....

(for example - was similarly worried for DD's 13th party, especially as we lived in a nasty small council flat at the time, but the fag smoking hard nuts still mention the really cool party, some 6 years later)