1St Birthday - Bellflower,CA

Well first a happy early birthday to you daughter. My daughter birthday is the 27th of this month. I have a very big family to and I am always the one to throw the big partys for every one but some times money is tuff and I just tell every one to either pitch in and lets do it together or tell every one to bring something. Hope I helped.

You can always make it a potluck. I have a very large extended family who celebrate everything and I have found potlucks to be a lifesaver!

I am a big fan of I love the ------ that you make can you bring that to the birthday party it works most of the time that way they are invited and it will take some of the load off you , just make the menu around the things you ask for or make it a 3:oo p.m. party so that people don't expect food just tell people it is cake and punch.

Hi S.:

It's hard to know what you consider low budget -- I'm going to make an assumption here (which I rarely do) and figure you're talking about $20-$100.

Your best bet -- Google: low budget birthday ideas, cheap birthday ideas, cheap 1st birthday ideas, frugal birthday ideas, etc. You'll find great ideas at sites like the following:

www.stretcher.com
www.stretcher.com/stories/04/04jul26g.cfm - 44k
www.ehow.com/how_14770_childs-birthday-party.html - 42k
www.clubmom.com/display/253297 - 37k
www.wisegeek.com/how-can-i-plan-a-birthday-party-on-a-bud... - 17k

The first thing you need to do is establish what your budget is, on the Dollar Stretcher and Frugal Moms websites I've seen great cheap -- but fun -- party ideas.

Btw, I buy my party supplies and balloon bouquet at the Dollar store for about $20 or less.

Potlucks are also a great idea, but if you have family flying in from out of town this might not be such a great idea. Some families are cool with this, some will consider it tacky. At any rate, even though you don't want to step on anyones toes, don't let family pressure drive you bonkers -- this is a birthday to enjoy not stress over.

Good luck!

A.

It seems we all jumped to "Potluck" - which is great - but how about having your guest bring something w/o them knowing it's a potluck??? (tell them of course -as not to decieve them)
How about a cook-off or "Iron Chef"
A chili cook off? spaghetti sauce (you can provide the noodles) Hamburgers
Get creative with your "evites"
...You are invited to celebrate _____1st Birthday. This years celebration will be a competition...which of you is the best______ (filling in the blank) cook. Bring your ____ ready to serve.
Winner gets to a special treat (maybe slicing the cake with the baby?)

If you do spaghetti or chili - you can provide noodles or baked potatoe, rice
If you do burgers, you can provide buns and condiments

ALSO - you can have different competitions - main course, best salad or side dish, dessert and speciality drink

Just be sure the "winners" get a prize - like I said, cutting the cake or group winners photo with the baby, I'm sure you can figure it out

Themed "cook -offs" work well too - mexican or italian

I was kind of wordly huh?
Good luck

I say tell everyone it's going to be a potluck! That way they are supplying most of the food, so you can just make dessert and maybe some appetizers, and drinks. You can assign types of food, too ... appetizers, main dish, side dish.

I think it's awesome your family all want to get together to celebrate your daughter. Good luck and have fun!

I just had my daughter's first birthday and it was a BBQ also. It can be expensive depending on how many people you plan on having, but a way to cut down on the expense is to tell everyone that you are going to have a BBQ, but it will be a potluck BBQ. That way you only pay for the meat, and then delegate side dishes and dessert out to the rest of the people who are coming. I wanted to do everything on my own for Emily's birthday, and everyone asked me if I wanted them to bring anything. I should have accepted their offer because I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to make sure everything was done, cooked, shopped for, prepared, etc. I'm sure that no on will mind helping out!! If you only pay for the meat it should only cost you about 30-40 dollars, or even less if you just do hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken.

Have a pot luck and you be responsible for only the cake! Make everyone bring a dish, or hot dogs or hamburgers and you could do the bbq thing?!?! Even if they are coming in from out of town they could stop at the strore too. I'm sure they would understand. Or you could just do cake and ice cream in the afternoon - after lunch but before dinner too. Good luck!
-K.

The only advice I can give you is; be honest.

Your daughter is very lucky to have so many people who love her and want to celebrate her birthday! I doubt very seriously that they are coming to do anything other than see her.

My suggestion is to explain to everyone how happy you are to know that your daughter is so well loved...however, since money is tight right now (babies are expensive and most people understand this!) so, instead of having a party, you're having a potluck...would they please bring x, y or z blah blah blah...

I have found that most people just want to help, and appreciate honesty when it's done in a kind manner. :)

Happy Birthday to your daughter. And, really, don't stress about it (most first birthdays are for the parents not the baby!) :)

one word POTLUCK! all our kid's birthdays are done this way in our family. works out great. You supply the main thing like burgers and everyone brings something small, side salad chips, drinks whatever.

Well, you could either tell your family that we cannot afford to do several dinners like we want to and they should understand - if not that is selfish. Or you could say we would love to have you over but you would have to help with the meal. POTLUCK style!

good luck

I would suggest "POTLUCK" this way the family will not only be pleased about being included in your celebration, but also about being able to participate in your daughters party as well. We always have big parties for my son every year, and my family exspects this because I am a cater. I know how costly it can be, but I have came up with a solution for this year...I am going to have a party and I will only cater for the children which will be macaroni & cheese, chicken tenders, mini corn dogs, & nachos. This is very inexspencive and fun as well. My husband says he will make the cake and we have already asked eveyone else to bring something for the adult menu.....They were excited to know that we wanted to include them in our celebration. Good Luck

Hi S., my son turned one on 2/10 and I'm in the exact same position. Everyone contributed something. My dad paid for the food. My mom and sister did goodie bags for the kids. His other grandparents bought decorations. We did drinks and invitations. We asked that people who bought stuff for the party not to buy presents since they had already made their contributions. We ended up with over 30 people and it couldn't have been nicer. All the aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. made the day so much fun and so special. Just an idea for you.

Make it a potluck. In my family whenever there is a family gethering everyone asks what they can bring. No one does this for birthdays...how odd...Just send out an e-mail or telephone tree saying it is a potluck. You'll provide the cake, but see if other people are willing to bring something. They're your family. They should be willing to help and if not, then why would they want to come to a family event anyways?
If they supported you through the hard times, they should be able to support you now.

First of all, dont feel bad that your not doing a big deal for her birthday, as she will never remember it. Second Im glad to hear she is doing well after a long year for you.
I would go to the dollar store for decorations, paper plates, and balloons and stuff like that. If you dont have your heart set on a bbq you can get pizzas for as little as 5 dollars a pizza. Or I always buy the big pack of chicken for around $7.00 and it makes 3 meals for us, and im sure you could feed alot for a party. For cake, I always do cupcakes, and make them myself. This way each child doesnt end up with a huge piece of cake and its alot cheaper. Another thing to try is check around with grocery stores (safeway)and baskin robbins as they often give free birthday cakes for childs first birthday. Dont know if this helps but just a few ideas to consider.

Your little one will still be too young to really understand about the party so don't fret. You have lots of years ahead to have clowns and games and all that stuff. My suggestion is to have a pizza and pasta party. There are so many good choices for inexpensive pizza to feed a lot of people these days and it makes it easy to offer many choices. Most of the first birthday parties we went to were like that. Even friends of ours who quite frankly, are well off, through pizza parties. It's inexpensive, no fuss, and most everyone will like it. My secondary idea is to look at costco. We actually catered our childs party through costco and there were loads of good inexpensive choices. As for decorations, it's certainly more environmentally friendly to just use real plates instead of disposable. But do check party city. They regularly have great deals on disposable plates, napkins, cups, balloons in every color of the rainbow. Again, since there is plenty of time down the road for Elmo, Curious George, etc...just get a Happy Birthday banner that tyou can re-use and a handful of regular first birthday latex balloons and you can have a ball. Just remember to enjoy it!

I agree----POTLUCK!!!! Then you can invite even more people and you baby girl can have a blast with all that wrapping and tissue paper =) Good luck!!!! and Happy bday!

Hi S.,
I would suggest that you either ask for family to help chip in for food, or have a pot luck. We usually go the pot luck route with family get togethers since we are all usually strapped for cash, and it works out great. If you go that route you should keep tabs on or assign dishes/drinks so you don't get repeats.
C.

Hi! S.:
My son's 1st birthday is on March 24th and we have gone through the same dilemna. We finally decided(agreed)on a small family lunch. My husband has a large extended family and they are all close. We have not been asked from any of the family about his 1st birthday and we have invited a few of my husbands aunts who are close to us and our son and the very few family I have. Included us we are having 16 people. Also, our house is not big enough to hold more than that comfortably.
We are serving turkey and ham with all the fixings for sandwiches, potato salad, fruit salad, cupcakes and ice cream. I am getting a little "smash" cake for my son!
If you can and if your family has access to e-mail you can send them all an e-mail and explain to them that you really want to have a larger party but your budget only allows for you to have a small dinner with the grandparents.
Good luck to you and happy birthday to your daughter =)

hi my name is J.,i have been there and back, make it a potluck and make a homemade cake. It is tough but let them know that they are invited, but becuase of your financial situation that a potluck was the best way to have a birthday celebration, or if you are emabarrassed Spaghetti is very economical and can feed alot of people.
good luck,
J.

Have the party during the day or mid afternoon -between lunch and dinner so that you are simply providing snacks- or in between nap times. Make sure you have someplace to go in the late afternoon so everyone doesn't hang out until dinner- is there another relative that can host the family later in the evening, so you could piggy back the party on top of. Worst case is to simply be honest with everyone. Chips and dips and birthday cake are pretty sufficient for a one year old! Good luck!

If money is tight, have everyone bring a dish. Their favorite and your favorite. One of them might end up being your daughters favorite in the near future.

One word: POTLUCK

That's what my family does so it keeps the costs down.

I say to have a BBQ. But make it a potluck, everyone brings something. So this way everyone gets to see her, and it won't cost a lot of money. My sons 1st birthday is march 17 and I think thats what we are going to do. Hope this helps.
R.