From decorations to food, goodies, cakes and party favors. I'll do anything for my little angels. Growing up with scarce resources, I learned to recreate things and apply my own style to it. This skill which I developed as I grow up has become very useful to my motherhood.
I never get to celebrate my birthday after turning 18. That was the last time I remember when my parents prepared something for my birthday. Unlike other kids, I don't ask for anything, just wait for whatever may come. It's never really a big deal for me, though. I'll just be grateful at the end of the day for all the great things that happen to me over the years.
When I started having kids, I just couldn't let nothing happen in their birthdays. We all know that it's what kids want. As parents, their smiles are our simple happiness. Being the sole breadwinner of this family, I couldn't help myself from feeling upset whenever my kid's birthday comes closer and I only have few bills in my pocket. Always looking at the bright side of everything is my strength. With great positivity comes great success.
Innovation and creativity is always the key to my success in this tricky challenge. From my eldest son's birthday, I only have $30 to $50 for birthday preparation. My strategy is to find the least cost of ingredients to my menu and materials to my decorations. I make everything alone and with my bare hands (I do things manually). I'm just lucky to have my siblings who pledge for additional food and sometimes I also get lucky with my online earnings.
From tarpaulin layout to simple arrangements, I set things up a week before the big day so that I can manage my time properly. This time, with less cash on hand, all I need to do is to beat the time in preparing all the things needed. When I have free time, I spend it in making crafts for decorations. At home, I bake cake simultaneously with house chores. When my eldest had his first birthday, that's the time I started doing DIY especially the cake but only few pictures were taken because I'm not really fond of taking pictures and posting them on social media.
I wasn't able to take a picture of the tarpaulin I made for this birthday.
Another picture taken during his 5th birthday. I cooked all the food except for the roast pig which his uncle bought as a birthday gift for him. This is an army themed birthday and I made a military camp cake.
This one below is an improvement of my baking skill. This is my first ever chocolate overload drip cake.
This last photo was taken on my youngest's first birthday. I did all the decorations and just like the usual, food, cake, goodies and everything are made by me.
It might not look the best and as good as the others works, but it looks satisfying for me. It makes me proud to achieve all these in a week with low budget. This only proves that mothers will always do what's best to put a smile in their kids faces.
Every year, it will come and this year seems to be difficult since my tiny businesses were affected by the pandemic. I am planning again for a simple preparation for my youngest this coming Sunday. And you know what, only my online earnings will be used since everything has been consumed. It's a really difficult time this year but I will not let it ruin my kids birthday.
What can a $50 do for a birthday party?
Here's a short budget breakdown...
$10 for the decorations and loot bags (can create 10-15 pieces goody bags)
$6 beef w/ broccoli
$5 pork/chicken shanghai
$6 whole chicken ham
$8 birthday cake
$6 baked pasta
$6 fried chicken (kids favorite)
$3 mixed fruit dessert
The budget can get you a decent meal for a simple birthday celebration. That's how I do it and it worked well for me.
Traditionally, we prepare pancit (stir fried noodles) for what we believe that gives long life. But yeah, it's just a myth you know.. Preparing pancit can give you lesser cost ingredients so, I usually cook it and thankfully it's good that everybody liked it.
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So that's how I thriftymom at home. This is how I celebrate my kids birthdays.
How about you? How do you prepare a birthday every year? Always feel free to share your thoughts about this.
I am a thriftymom too hahaha. I preferred doing DIY to lessen the expenses rather than buying. The decoration for the 1st birhtday and 2nd birthday of my son was DIY . Though I spend 20,000 pesos oh his 1st birthday because there's a lot of guest that time 😄 We prepared 12kilos of spaghetti , 7 kilos of palabok, 5 kilos of pansit, 5 kilos of shanghai, maja blanca and putong puti plus the rentals of chair and table, his cake from his birthday and prize for the gamea and also the pre birthday photoshoot pero kung tutuusin mura pa nagastos namin because other moms I asked them they spend more than 50k. We used also to cooked and not cater para madami makakain.
The 2nd birthday of my son naman we spend 3000 pesos but it's not our own money, it is all sponsor 😅 Tipid yung birthday ni anak ngayon pero napasaya namin sya because of the cocomelon theme that we prepared for his 2nd birthday. Yung decoration nya nasa 150 pesos lang then libre print out ng pinsan ko tapos yung handa konti lang din kasi pandemic . Mairaos lang hehe. Pero satisified kami kasi ang cute cute nung design.