Your sister or best friend is pregnant, and you want to throw her a baby shower. However, money’s tight, and you need to keep the costs down. Don’t despair- you can throw a baby shower on the cheap without actually looking cheap. By using your home instead of a restaurant, you are already saving big bucks. Here are eight tips for hosting a baby shower in your home while on a budget.
Make your own invitations, or send an electronic invitation. If you have a good printer and are creative, you can design and print your own invitations. Or, if the crowd is younger and less traditional, consider sending an evite.
Choose the best rooms in your home for the gathering. If your basement is finished or at least clean and uncluttered, that may be an ideal location for the main festivities. Or, you can use your living room and dining room for the party, moving or removing furniture from these rooms as necessary to keep the room open and provide plenty of floor space for walking and maneuvering.
Borrow or rent folding chairs. Depending on how many guests you’ve invited, you may be able to get by with borrowing some extra folding chairs from neighbors or friends. Even if you have to rent some extra chairs, though, this is a pretty easy task. Contact party supply rental companies in your area in the weeks before the party. The price per chair is usually surprisingly cheap. At a party rental company near my home, for example, chairs are as low as eighty cents each.
Serve appetizers only. On your invitation, you may want to specify that the guests are joining you for appetizers. You can host the party at a time between lunch and dinner and serve some budget friendly appetizer items. These items can include sliced tortilla rolls filled with meat or cheese plus ranch dressing, cut up vegetables and dip (cut the vegetables yourself to save money), cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, deviled eggs, or pigs in a blanket. If you opt only for finger food, you’ll also save yourself from having to buy too many plastic spoons or forks.
Bake your own cupcakes for dessert. This can be done in advance, and might be cheaper and easier than baking a whole cake. Top each cupcake with colorful icing.
Play budget friendly baby games. One great game is to ask all the guests to bring photos of themselves as babies. The guests must then guess who the pictures belong to. Or, buy some ribbon and ask guest to estimate how big the mother-to-be’s baby belly is using the length of ribbon. Throw diaper pins into a bottle and have guests write down their guesses as to how many pins there are. Or, fill baby bottles with water, juice, or even wine, and see who can chug their beverage fastest! Winners can get fun, inexpensive prices, such as scented candles, candy treats, or nail polish.
Choose candy party favors. Buy candy in bulk, and then divide into small gift bags. Gift bags can be bought in bulk at most drug stores, or you can check online for good prices. Or, if you have babies (or know someone who does), considering saving baby food jars, cleaning them out, and using them in place of gift bags.
Decorate inexpensively. If you have children, you may have an assortment of rattles or baby bottles that can serve as fun centerpieces when tied with some festive ribbon. Or, hit up the dollar store for some crepe paper and cardboard signs. The dollar store may also sell balloons in a baby theme.
With these eight tips, you can throw a great home baby shower on a budget.
