First Birthday Budget

[6fsn]

This might be a little like asking what your wedding budget is. It depends on at home vs going somewhere; how many people; what sort of food/cake.

[ssmjlm]

We had it at home and planned on only 20-25 people.

I probably spent $50ish on decor and invites (I'm a scrapbooker and already had a lot of stuff). And we probably spent about $150ish on food b/c I got a good chunk of it at costco already prepared.

Sugar cookie favors were $60 including shipping and her 2 cakes were $60 (which was a steal IMO).

I posted a thread with some photos, not sure if you saw or not.

[rex]

this thread makes me anxious. i need to start saving apparently!

[ssmjlm]

May 14, 2014 12:45:53 GMT -5 rex said:

this thread makes me anxious. i need to start saving apparently!

We kept it small with just family and a few close friends.  You don't have to spend a lot.  Most of the stuff I did b/c we wanted to, to celebrate the first year.

[illgetthere]

We didn't go all out. Homemade food, store bought cake, basic decorations, at home, etc.

Cake was about 30
Food (dip/chips, different pinwheels, fruit/veggies, etc) maybe 45-50
decor, plates, tableclothes, etc (we had a "balloon" theme with solid plates/napkins for 97 cents at Wal-Mart, lots of balloons, $3 bright/plastic platters and bowls from Wal-Mart) maybe 25

Edit: invite was by text, word of mouth, etc

[Purple]

Following because I'm planning ours now.

[brooklyn]

Think we're spending about $600, but I'm HCOL and I like to throw money at things instead of doing it all myself. We have about 30 people, and I'm paying for Italian catering, 3 dozen cupcakes, and renting a bar for 3 hours. I also ordered files off etsy to make decorations, and spent a fortune getting them printed on card stock since I didn't have time to fight with our home printer.

[bunch]

I probably spent 300 for 30-40 people. We had a photographer ($100), a cake made ($50) and then we smoked pork butts, made sides and dh made a keg of beer. I didn't spend much on decor. I'm hoping to spend less on dd2s

[6fsn]

May 14, 2014 12:45:53 GMT -5 rex said:

this thread makes me anxious. i need to start saving apparently!

Naw, I've never spent more than $200 on any birthday party.  That's decorations, invites, food, alcohol,  etc.  We have them at home for 30-40 people. 

[cincodemayo]

We are budgeting $500. Eeek. But we are inviting 50 people and I insisted on a $65 cotton candy machine rental and H insisted on a $75 barrel of beer. So.

[cilantro]

Ummm...probably $1300? For about 30 people. It kind of makes me sick actually. It's about $500 for the rental fee for the place. And I'm spending too much on a cake/desert table at $237. So, there's half my budget

I'm feeling very un-mmm and been beating myself up about the whole thing, actually.

[mellymel]

A shitload. I don't even want to add it up. Here's a try:

$300 cake and smash cake
$100 cake pop favors
$250 bounce house
$100 fruit and veggie trays
$150 coney dog station
$100 other food
$100 alcohol? This is prob low.
$50 party dress
$100 paper invites, banners, etc
$150 paper plates, cups, balloons, balloon tank

Eek, I don't even want to add up the rest of the little stuff.

ETA this is for 50-60 ppl

[sent]

May 14, 2014 12:57:20 GMT -5 spunbutterfly said:

May 14, 2014 12:45:53 GMT -5 rex said:

this thread makes me anxious. i need to start saving apparently!

No. You don't. As someone who spent a lot (with the help of grandparents), a lot of our big to do was cultural. And ours wasn't even nearly as much as some of the other Korean people I know spent (think 10-100 thousand for a first birthday. No, shit.)

What you make of it is your thing, not a comparison thing. Do what makes you happy and fits with your family plans and idea.

FWIW, this year, we're doing pizza (maybe even homemade to save on money), cake, presents, and family. I might be fussed enough to get my cricut out to make a happy birthday sign or not.

I want to get invited to a Korean birthday party.  

The Korean dad down the hall asked me the other day if I was interested in a playdate with his DD and wife and my DD.  I said yes and now I think I need to follow up on it.    

[shellbear09]

We did a party at home for 20 people and I spent about $250. I made the lunch and cake and did a lot of diy decor plus some etsy. I also posted some pics here.

[starlily]

$1000ish? Maybe $1250?

Catering, other food, and drinks for 50-60 made up the bulk of the budget. Invites, decorations, table/linen rentals, a new outfit for DD, and thank you cards made up the rest.

I honestly stopped keeping track because I threw it together in two weeks due to some other major crap that was happening and didn't bother to comparison shop or anything. I also outsourced everything I could.

[ilikedonuts]

Ours parents both paid for stuff, but the total spent was probably $1k. For like 65 people including a local community center rental and catering for the salad, pasta and meatballs. For DD2's 1st, it will be a joint with DD1 and we need to do a separate friends party (I'm not inviting 150 people to one party!). We'll probably spend $1500 between the two.

We do big first birthdays. But then just little close family ones for others and then a bigger friends party. I think we spent $350ish for DD1's 2nd birthday overall and that includes renting Gymboree.

[winecheery]

May 14, 2014 12:35:03 GMT -5 pennypenny said:

It will be at my parents house. Carnival theme. I know there will be a moon bounce. Definitely food. Hamburgers, hot dogs, carnival stuff. There will be alcohol, but I am not including that in the budget. It is going to be ridiculously huge. Probably close to 100 people. Tons of kids. Exhausting.

Same heeeerrrrreee!  I'm doing it vintage-esque tho.  But still.  Twinsies!

To your question, no set budget.  I'm not going to go BSC; I will be DIYing most things, etsying it up for others, and will likely be doing to bulk of the food.  But I'm not going to limit myself.

That being said, I am pretty good about this sort of thing, as I've hosted bajillions of dinner parties, holiday parties, bridal showers, lingerie showers…etc so I know how to spend moderately but make things look good.  I own a lot of the things I plan on using already too.

[Deleted]

Probably about a 1000ish for 50-60 people. We rented a community rec room at a park, had food catered and a caricaturist. I made the desserts and decorations.

[Velar Fricative]

We are hoping to keep it at around $2k. We've decided to invite our whole families after all (brings the invite list to ~160, gulp) and anticipate about 100 guests but who knows. We will use a local community center with catering, so that will make up the bulk of our expenses. I don't care about themes so decor will probably be minimal and whatever I can get on sale or for cheap at Party City.

[rugbywife]

I feel like I must be the only person here who doesn't have more than 10 people to invite to a party. I am pretty sure we will do a dinner with DHs family. I will want to do a cake smash but will probably photograph it myself. So maybe $100-150? I feel like a shitty parent after reading this thread but I can't imagine finding that many people to come to her 1st birthday. Maybe I will feel differently in a year.

[jinxy]

I think I spent around $300 once it was all said and done. The party was at my parents' house and here were about 35-40 people there. The food was homemade including the cakes/cupcakes, I made my own invitation in Photoshop and had them printed, made some decorations and bought other decorations and paper goods. We didn't have an extravagant party but I don't feel like we skimped either.

[Velar Fricative]

May 15, 2014 5:11:09 GMT -5 rugbywife said:

I feel like I must be the only person here who doesn't have more than 10 people to invite to a party. I am pretty sure we will do a dinner with DHs family. I will want to do a cake smash but will probably photograph it myself. So maybe $100-150? I feel like a shitty parent after reading this thread but I can't imagine finding that many people to come to her 1st birthday. Maybe I will feel differently in a year.

Trust me, I wish I could do small. But part of the reason we feel obligated to do a big party is because I had an immediate family-only baby shower and christening party. This will be the first opportunity for some of our aunts, uncles and cousins to meet DD. Yeah yeah, I know everyone is thinking "Well, if they really cared that much they would have come visited you to meet the baby by now." But I'm willing to suck up the costs this time around to have one big party for them to meet her and then not have any big family parties like this for future birthdays. 

Plus, we have big families. That's just how it goes with a lot of big families. 

[rugbywife]

May 15, 2014 8:19:31 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

May 15, 2014 5:11:09 GMT -5 rugbywife said:

I feel like I must be the only person here who doesn't have more than 10 people to invite to a party. I am pretty sure we will do a dinner with DHs family. I will want to do a cake smash but will probably photograph it myself. So maybe $100-150? I feel like a shitty parent after reading this thread but I can't imagine finding that many people to come to her 1st birthday. Maybe I will feel differently in a year.

Trust me, I wish I could do small. But part of the reason we feel obligated to do a big party is because I had an immediate family-only baby shower and christening party. This will be the first opportunity for some of our aunts, uncles and cousins to meet DD. Yeah yeah, I know everyone is thinking "Well, if they really cared that much they would have come visited you to meet the baby by now." But I'm willing to suck up the costs this time around to have one big party for them to meet her and then not have any big family parties like this for future birthdays. 

Plus, we have big families. That's just how it goes with a lot of big families. 

DH has a big family. I just don't think the would be interested in coming to a 1st birthday. I could be wrong but SIL didn't do anything for my nephew - beyond immediate family coming over for cake.