Em's Birthday

Here's the breakdown of costs for my daughter's 4th birthday party. We are expecting 40 adults and 15 kids. Our theme is Hannah Montana.

Invitations $1-Bought paper with a border at the Dollar Tree and printed them on my computer.

Location FREE-Our church's activity center

Decorations & Partyware $8- Some decorations were given to me by a friend, I bought balloons & streamers. I bought some plates, cups, etc at a garage sale & the rest at Dollar Tree.

Activities $16-Printed coloring sheets, played Pass the Microphone, and bought a pull string pinata.

Cake $7-Baked 2 cake mixes in star pan & iced them. Put 4 candles on top that spelled out her name.


Food $25- Crackers, cheese, & pepperoni tray, 2 kinds of chips & dip, Deviled eggs, Veggie tray, chocolate chip cookies, no-bake cookies, pop & juice

Favors $15- Girls got-personalized mixed CD, candy, Hannah Montana braclet, play dough, stickers. Boys got-pirate eye patch, kaladescope, magnifying glass, treasure map. Babies got- board book & fuzzy socks

Present $0-Since we spend so much on a party and she has lots of family & friends that give her gifts, we do not buy her one.

Total-$72

Homemade Birthday Cakes

My daughters birthday party is this weekend. We do not spend a lot of money on parties, but we have a great time by making everything simple and homemade. I save the most money by making my children's birthday cakes. With a birthday cake running anywhere from $15-$40 it's easy to see how much money can be saved by making your own.

1st, I use a box mix & icing because I can't make a good cake. This costs me about $3. If you make lovely cakes, you might save even more money than I do. 2nd, you DO NOT have to be a great decorator to make a cake. This homemade cake website is very helpful for people who have never decorated a cake before or who are just looking for ideas.
3rd, If you decide that you absolutely can not decorate a cake then look at buying a cake kit. You can simple bake and ice a sheet cake and stick one on top. Most bakeries, (I get mine from Wal-Mart) will sell them for about $5 a piece.

Here are a few cake decorating tips:
-To get a smooth look dip a knife in hot water and run lightly over iced cake.
-Freezing a cake and brushing the crumbs off after will help your cake not to have crumbs in the frosting.
-Use a ziploc bag with the tip cut out to make simple lines.

At the most your homemade birthday cake will cost $8. Over the course of your child's life this would save you $216!

No matter what the cake looks like, your child will love it and you will feel good that you made it yourself.

Applesauce Oatmeal Bread

I started buying applesauce in a big jar because it's cheaper and I use it in the place of oil when I make cakes, muffins or sweet bread. Well, I had some applesauce that I needed to use and found this recipe for Applesauce Oatmeal Bread.

I love using oatmeal in breads so I gave it a try and it was delicious. I also had got boxes of oatmeal packets for less than a dollar a while back so I had plenty to use. I used Quaker Simple Harvest Vanilla, Honey and Almond oatmeal. I doubled it and got 1 loaf, 24 mini muffins, and 6 regular size muffins out of it.

Give it a try!