It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

Florenceem

newlywed - depends on time of year of the Birthday.
We could do a barbecue party for a DD with an August Birthday but not for a March DS.

newlywed

I popped to Lidl yesterday morning and managed to bag an £8 pork loin joint with 60% off. So that’s nicely tucked in the freezer.

I too am addicted to chocolate @manaman and daren’t try and add it up!

this month the eBay and Online purchases should be curbed by needing to pay £300+ for nhs dentist appointment (crown) and a replacement car tyre 

hopefully that will be all unexpected expenditure until end of July! Thankful we have no debt, I have a job, and we had a bit of a cushion put aside.  Tho it will be pretty much wiped out.

euronorris

newlywed said:

Picnic and games in a local park not enough? 

Great if the weathers good, but what do you do if it's pouring with rain? Believe me, I've considered all of the options.

Siebrie

Buy a beamer and show films on a blank wall or light curtains at home? Serve popcorn and fizzy pop. Beamers sell from around €45, Disney+ or Netflix are around €8/month (we have Netflix membership for 1 vacation and then Disney for another; as a reward for good report grades).

euronorris

There isn't the space at home to host more than 2 or 3 friends. It's just not suitable for a party. We live in a newbuild 'coach house', so the living room is tiny and the bedrooms aren't much better. So this is the last 'party' for her, and next year it's just a few close friends doing something together (which will be cheaper and easier).

It wasn't this expensive just a couple years ago by the way, or even last year. But all of the prices have gone up and up. And some places have stopped letting you bring in birthday cake/food etc if you haven't specifically booked a birthday party with them. Last year, I paid for them all to go to a softplay after school when it's a reduced price and brought in pizzas and birthday cake - but they no longer allow you to bring your own food in or birthday cake and if you want a birthday party there it's £19.95 per child, with a minimum of 10 children! It does include food for them, but that is still extortionate.

Is a beamer a projector?

Siebrie

A beamer is a projector connected to your laptop, tablet or smartphone.

YorksLass

A better day weather-wise today - much brighter and fresher - that I was glad of as I had to collect my new glasses and it's a long walk there and back so I didn't want any rain.    Glasses duly collected and boy, are they going to take some getting used to!  First pair of distance glasses - everything's so much clearer but I'm finding it quite disorientating.  I'll just have to persevere with them.

I took the CS donations with me in the wally trolley to the Hospice shop, really pleased they've left the house so I can start on the next batch of unwanteds.  Despite my best efforts, I did come back with a couple of things - a birthday card for 50p (will be used next month), a s/sleeve top in a lovely eau de nil colour and a summer dress in green/white, both in excellent condition.  Total spend £7.98 that came from my "Me" pot.

Then I popped into the M&S food hall for a couple of bits - x2 cod fillets, x6 sausage rolls, x2 avocados and a squeezy bottle of black treacle for the baking cupboard.  This last was £1.65 for 680g whereas the branded one is £1.75 for 454g so I'm happy with that - any savings are always welcome.  

My offspring are now in their 40s so the days of birthday parties are long gone but I can remember even back then it was always an effort to keep the cost down to an affordable and sensible level.  It must be so much harder now.

euronorris

I thought that opting for hiring a 'forest school' type area, basically in woodlands with benches and some shelter (if it rained), would be a cheaper option. I was wrong. Over £300. Eye watering. Anyway, I shall be busy making lots of ham, cheese and jam rolls tomorrow night lol.

Am due to get my salary review letter tomorrow, and they've just told us that we are all getting one at least. So I'm grateful for that. Just hoping it's a decent amount now *fingers crossed*

Bluegreen143

I agree that kids’ parties are extortionate now. I’d LOVE to do the picnic in a park option but both mine have December birthdays and it’s just not guaranteed to be appropriate weather.

We are fortunate that, while our house is not huge, we have enough room to hold a small party with 10-12 kids or so, so we always hold them at home. They are generally fairly unstructured so the kids run between the playroom upstairs (our second bedroom, which is a double - rather than have their own rooms my two have bunkbeds & wardrobe in the tiny third bedroom and this frees up the bigger room for a playroom) as well as the downstairs and out in the garden. We have been lucky that the weather has always allowed for an outdoor treasure hunt and piñata for their parties but if it was pouring we’d need to do these indoors. 

It still costs us about £120 a time between food, balloons & any decor, pinyata etc. But this is definitely cheaper than the £300+ to book somewhere. 

It’s worth checking community centres too. The one near us is £100 to book out including use of a giant bouncy castle and sound system. You have to book super in advance as the party slots understandably fill up quick. 

You can also book pool parties at a pool near me which is super cheap for the swimming part, a friend did that recently, but then you pay extra for a room afterwards to do food & cake etc. But you could potentially go to your house or to a park or something after the swimming. 

Bluegreen143

Oh I was pleased with my budget party bags this year. 

DS (7) had a Lego theme. Plastic cones filled with random Lego from his collection, along with (free) printed out Lego challenge cards. Also sweets from the pinata. 

DD (4) had tubs with HM playdough, feathers, beads and sequins along with (free) printed silhouette people (the idea being you use the materials to “dress” the paper person). And again pinata sweets. 

Cost = virtually nothing 🙈 but eco friendly and I got lots of compliments on them.