party food on a seriously tight budget

THIRZAH

Rice crispy or cornflake crispies always went down well at my children's parties.Not too expensive either if you already have the cereal in.

Lots of crisps from the pound shop or Aldi.

Aldi have mini plum tomatoes in their super six at the moment.Tesco had celery for 50p today and carrot sticks are cheap.

Sandwiches are filling-you could go really retro and make banana sandwiches-I used to love them at parties.

What about ice cream in cones if you don't want to do jelly?

SpecialBrew_2

My daughter has a little Muslim friend who comes to all her parties. Pork seldom gets a mention, but her mum is always very insistent about gelatine and reminds me that she can't eat it every time, which means no jellies and no Haribos.

I have to be budget conscious too, so Asda smartprice chicken nuggets feature highly, as do smartprice chocolate digestives (the standard round ones or the Penguin-type bars), paste sandwiches and cheese sandwiches (both smartprice, obviously) and smartprice crisps, plus a bowl of fresh (smartprice!) grapes and satsuma segments. I think cherry tomatoes might go down well too, but I've never tried that one. I'd rather give a kid a beermat to chew on than a smartprice pizza, so I just buy the normal Asda four-cheese ones that are a quid a time from the freezer cabinet and cut them into little slices. I also buy the bags of Asda fun-size chocolate bars that are similar to Aero and come in milk and white chocolate varieties. I don't do jam sandwiches, partly because they always seem to make a mess somewhere (or on someone), but mostly because homemade jam tarts seem a lot more popular and don't take long to make. From smartprice jam, naturally

Having had four kids and survived more children's parties than I can remember, I've learnt that there's a limit to how much they care about the food anyway. It seems to matter more that it looks appealing during the initial charge towards the table, after which they generally just load up their plates with whatever is there and wander off to have fun with each other. Which is what it's all about, really. You can give visual appeal to a table full of the most mundane food with a colourful cloth, and if you use a paper one you can just bundle it up around any food spills or wrappers to make clean-up much quicker and easier.

My kids have often come home from parties saying what a good time they had and how much fun it was, but I don't think I've ever heard any of them raving about the food. It's probably the most forgettable aspect of the whole thing to kids, so don't stress out about it. Just take advantage of whatever budget range your supermarket offers, stick within your budget and enjoy the day.

I hope you all have a great time

Broomstick

One way of making sandwiches look a bit more special is to use different shaped biscuit cutters so you end up with stars, teddies, daleks or whatever. The rest of the family have to be willing to eat up all the misshapen leftover edges - including the crusts - in their packed lunches for the next day or so but a plateful of little gingerbread men marmite sarnies looks lovely!

Probably not really useful for the OP but an idea I wanted to share was something my mum used to make 50+ years ago for our parties - little pirate boats. She'd part fill individual paper bowls with a layer of jelly for the sea, sit a small half of a tinned pear in it for the boat's hull, add a cocktail stick for a mast, a rice paper triangle for a sail and a jelly baby pirate in the stern. The memory of them is still very vivid.

We use veggie jelly nowadays from Just Wholefoods. It's really easy to make and tastes lovely but costs 80-90p a packet which makes a pint so may well be too expensive for a big party.

B x

gayle1

looked into takeaway meal boxes so that it could be seperated gonna do sandwiches x4 mini yoghurt tube wee freddo cupcake and maybe a sausage.cheese roll in each what do u think be honest if anyone can find nice cheap ones please add link so i can have a wee look 1.55 for 15 plain white bags

purpleheather2810

Get the brown paper lunch bags from home bargains. They are about 60p I think for a pack of 10. I did this for my daughter's 6th birthday and decorated them. I'm not sure how to post a pic but I'll try...

MummyBobble

I used to be a children's entertainer :eek: and over the course of 9 years went to far more parties than I care to remember!

Food at parties ranged from outside caterers in a marquee (for a 4 year old ), quite a few "look what a healthy family we are" with lots of carrots, grapes, plenty other fruit and veg but not much else, what you'd think of as traditional children's party food (which is where I think yours falls), hot dogs and burgers (not an option for you), and one party which was from 2 till 4 where mum had decided they'd have had their lunch before they came and would be going home in time for tea so she didn't feed them at all!

The amount of food wasted was horrific at times so I think you're doing the right thing keeping it simple. Add a couple of bowls of crisps or similar snacks out on the table and the children will all be happy. Bottles of smartprice squash aren't expensive. If you know the mums well enough it might be worth asking them if they want to bring a sippy cup or similar for you to put drinks in (just thinking about the likelihood of spillages with 2 year olds!). Have a great time

maman

gayle1 wrote: »

no cakes seperate dont need partybags got that covered to bubbles tattoo whistle and a packet of sweets please be nice im not a wasteful person and don't appreciate comments that they would throw food they are nice kids who were brought up not dragged up

I'm sure that's true of the vast majority of children. :T for fighting their corner.

dingdongsaving

I've done several parties with "party food" but the cheapest and least wasteful have been ones where it was 'real' stuff...

Jacket potatoes cut in 1/2 with butter, grated cheese and a bowl of beans or chili.

Chili with boiled rice, nachos, grated cheese and sour cream.

Chopped up pizzas and hm wedges with sauce.

Borrowed toasters from friends and family to do beans/cheese on toast en-mass.

You can easily do enough of 1 or 2 of these options for well under £20.

krlyr

How about asking the mums of the kids with special dietary requirements to give a big list of what's OK. You can buy some of these, and then just generic food. Put all the special food onto a certain colour paper plate, and the rest just on plain white. The kids with the dietary requirements can then be told to only pick off the coloured plates - perhaps send them up first before the food gets moved around everywhere! - and then the others kids are free to eat anything else.

gayle1

ill ask for a list on monday hubby says i should just put kids with special meals in a different coloured box dont really want to do chilli/spagbols bouncy castle thats just messy but thankyou for the thought .