This has to be the downside to our children’s birthdays – The cost.

Birthday parties can be super expensive, but they don’t have to be!

Here is my quick guide on how to save money on children’s birthday parties…

Nearly 50% of parents in Britain can’t afford to give their children birthday parties.

An average birthday party can cost around £140 – That’s £2520 by the time they are 18!

Following these simple tips should help you give your child the best birthday party, without breaking the bank…

• Make a budget of what you know you can comfortably afford and stick to it
• Make your own invites. Whether you choose to do that on the computer and print them off or if you hand make them with crafts from a supermarket – you could even involve your child, they’d love to help
• Having the party at home saves you paying for venue hire
• If you can’t have the party at home, why not look around for some local halls or centres that do free or cheap venue hire? Your local council should be able to help you with this
• Instead of paying for a huge food spread, why not visit the market and pick lots of fresh fruit and have fruit platters, make jugs of juice rather than buying cartons for each child, supermarket own brand snacks and bake your own crispy cakes or cup cakes – This should set you back no more than £30 if you are savvy!
• When it comes to the birthday cake, make your own if you know what you are doing. If not and you know the whole cake will be ate that day, visit the supermarket in the morning and take a look to see if there are any yellow sticker discounts on a birthday cake because it has a ‘best before’ date of today – I see this often in supermarkets local to me
• Visit cheap shops to get decorations to decorate your home or venue hire. Poundland, Home Bargins, B&M and Card Factory are great to pick up tons of balloons and banners at very low prices
• Supermarkets and cheap shops usually do big bags of sweets at low prices. Snap some of these up and use them for party games
• When it comes to party bags, again, cheap shops are great for little knick knacks. Fill the bag with a slice of cake, a couple of sweets, a balloon and a knick knack.
• You can often buy party bag fillers on Amazon and ebay at good prices too
• A treasure hunt or a craft activity for the children is a great alternative to paying for entertainers
• If anyone in your family is good at art, maybe they could become a face painter for the day in return for a slice of cake?
• If you have children who would rather go out for their birthday, why not check out your local cinema? Most cinemas usually have kids screenings on weekend mornings from only £1 a child – plus theres no tidying up!