Kids birthday parties. UGH! Let’s be honest. They can be expensive, aggravating, exhausting… did I say expensive? Every summer my family celebrates five birthdays and a wedding anniversary. That is a lot of parties in just five weeks and if I’m not careful, I can break the bank celebrating. So I’ve learned a few tricks to keep expenses down. My biggest tip is to pick up your party supplies–food, candy, helium tank, cake, ice cream and drinks–at BJ’s Wholesale Club. It’s a one-stop shop plus you will save a lot of money! On top of their already low prices, BJ’s is the only wholesale club that accepts manufacturer’s coupons. AND you can stack them with BJ’s in-store coupons to save even more!
For our Halloween party, I tried to go as simple as I could. My girls and I located some cute but easy Halloween themed treats and created a list of items we needed. I already had decorations from Halloween last year so really all we needed to buy was the food and drinks.
Here are the tutorials for the adorable mummy drink pouches, marshmallow and pretzel skeleton pops, and pumpkin goody bags.
I was fully prepared to make the cake myself, but discovered BJ’s bakery now carries delicious Wellsley Farms Two-Tier Cakes for only $29.99.
This two-tier cake features a five-inch round cake stacked on top of a 10-inch round cake. Available in a gold cake with a smooth and creamy vanilla buttercream icing, the tiered cakes can serve 40 or more guests. You won’t find a custom cake for 40 at that price in your local bakery or grocery store! PLUS, decorations are FREE. They have a large selection of kits for you to choose from, and if you can’t find exactly what you are looking for, you can submit a photograph for a custom photo cake at no extra charge.
The girls REALLY wanted to decorate the cake on their own, so we decided to create a monster eye, creepy spider cake instead of having BJ’s decorate it for us.
For the snacks we served Mummy Dogs and Dino Buddies All Natural Chicken Tenders.
My kids aren’t fans of most frozen chicken tenders because they have a weird, chemical taste. But the Dino Buddies All Natural Chicken Tenders were really good and they should be! They are 100% All Natural white meat chicken and contain no preservatives.
- Host the party at home or at the home of a friend instead of renting out a space. As long as you have cake, ice cream, and goody bags, kids really don’t care where the party is held.
- Hold the party between 1:00-4:00 pm… it’s after lunch and before dinner so you can get away with serving cake and light snacks, instead of a full meal.
- Buy decorations and goody bag toys at your local dollar store. You can get streamers, banners, small toys and tissue paper for a lot less than if you went to a party store.
The girls had so much fun planning and attending the party. It was a big hit and I’m glad I let them talk me into it!
I loved that I could keep the costs down by purchasing most of the supplies at BJ’s Wholesale. Here is a breakdown:
Party Costs*:
- Dino Buddies All Natural Chicken Tenders ($11.99 less $2.50 coupon= $9.49)
- Ballpark Hot dogs ($8.79 less $2.50 coupon=$6.29)
- Pillsbury Crescent Dough Sheets ($6.99)
- Wellsley Farms Two-Tier Cake ($29.99)
- Oreo Cookies ($9.39 less $2.50 in coupons=$6.89)
- Pretzels ($5.99)
- Breyers 64 oz. Vanilla Ice Cream ($3.99 less $1.25 coupon=$2.74)
- Capri Sun Roaring Waters ($7.59 less $2.75 in coupons= $4.84)
- Starburst Fruit Chews ($6.49)
- Total from BJ’s: $79.71
Items not purchased at BJ’s
- Marshmallows ($1.59)
- Pretzel sticks ($2.57)
- White Chocolate Almond Bark ($2.47)
- Junior Mints, M&M’s and Reese’s Pieces ($3.00)
- Mini Oreo Cookies ($1.00)
- Green Duck tape ($1.75)
- Edible marker ($2.49)
- Wall stickers ($2.97)
- Total for items not purchased at BJ’s: $17.84
Total Cost: $97.55
Don’t have a BJ’s membership? No worries!
BJ’s is offering a FREE 90-Day Membership (today through December 31st). Simply print the coupon at www.BJs.com/savings. And if you follow the instructions below, you can also receive a $25 BJ’s gift card for purchasing a membership after your free 90-day membership expires. (More details under the photo.)
Click here, to go to BJ’s Refer a Friend program, read and agree to the Offer Terms, and click GO to register. In addition to unmatched value on one-stop-shopping, a BJ’s membership comes with big benefits, including: *Not including tax. The following items are not included in my total because I already had them on hand: Halloween decorations, googly eyes, crepe and tissue paper to create the goody bags and to decorate the drink boxes, extra frosting to decorate the cake. Cutlery, paper plates and napkins. If you need party-themed paper plates, napkins, and cutlery, BJ’s has got you covered! Artstyle Balloon Themed Napkins 120 ct. ($6.99), Artstyle Balloon Themed 10” Plates 40 ct ($6.99), Artstyle Balloon Themed Tablecloth 3 pk. ($6.99), Berkley Jensen Cutlery set 320 ct ($12.29). What you are best money-saving tips for throwing a kids birthday party?
Oh my goodness my kids would flip! This is so cute!
Under $100 is definitley doable with fun snacks and decor. I like your tips, especially hosting the party in the afternoon between meals, smart thinking.
I am a fan of those crescent roll hot dogs!
OMG this looks amazing! I can’t believe how cute the cake and cookies turned out.
I can’t believe that you but such an elaborate party together for under $100 !! There is so much going on! It looks like you spend a lot more!! I love the eyeball cake.
These are great ideas. There is so much you were able to do for under $100. My favorite is the cake. That is such a fun way to make a truly unique cake.
That is a great price for the cake! And very fun that you got to decorate it still then. Great party, seriously love everything about it!
That cake is SUCH a good deal! It looks way more expensive than it is. Love the eyeball details too!
BJ’s makes really good cake. I often get our cakes there. That’s wonderful that they are making double layered cakes now! You did a great job decorating that cake. Nice job with the party for under $100.
Great ideas. We do the mummy dogs every year on Halloween before we go out trick or treating. Fun traditions. That cake is great too! Looks like a great party for kids.
How awesome that you can get the blank cake! It looks a lot better than I could make.
These are all such great ideas! Halloween is so much fun for decorate for. You did a great job with your budget. I’m going to use some of these for our party. Such a great idea to wrap up the juice boxes.
I love the cake! It turned out awesome! My daughter’s birthday is just a few days before Halloween so we throw Halloween parties often!
I most always throw all my kid parties around 1-4 too! It really is the best time because of like you said it’s after lunch and before dinner but also because it gives younger kids a chance to nap before heading out. Great tips and Love the spooky fun cake!
This looks awesome! Parties can get pretty expensive, but it looks like you had everything covered for a great price! We’ll have to check it out.
Cute ideas, thanks for sharing.
That cake is a cute and creative way to add a festive touch to a kids halloween party! I like how it all came together. I have never been to a BJs before, can you believe it! It looks like it would be a nice place to go to stock up on party stuff!
To be honest, I had never been in BJ’s before because I had heard stories about how run down they were vs. Costco. But I decided to sign up for the free trial after I read that they accept manufacturer’s coupons and I’m so happy I did! I didn’t know you could stack coupons, that is awesome!!! I was also surprised how many organic products they have.
OMG I love your cake! It is super cute and looks easy enough even I could do it!!
My kids and I made the hotdogs for lunch. They were fun!
Great ideas!
Cute ideas. Can’t wait until my kids are old enough to appreciate Halloween.
Love some of your ideas. The pumpkins turned out very cute. I might do those for my kids for Thanksgiving.
BJ’s is my favorite wholesale club. I’m so happy they built one closer to me in Charlotte!
Love the juice boxes! They are too cute and look easy to do.
My daughter insisted we try making the white chocolate skeletons. The arms were a little difficult to do, but we had so much fun putting them together. We used a decorated cake pop at the head, lol. Too cute! Ally brought one to school for her teacher and she loved it! Thanks for sharing.
Love your ideas. Saving this for next year.
I just had to come back and tell you how much fun my classroom had making the pumpkin goody bags! The school “officially” does not celebrate Halloween but for our Friday craft we made the pumpkins and my kids really enjoyed putting them together. Thanks so much for sharing!