I saved over $25 with these three easy budget party tips for my daughter’s Harry Potter birthday party! If you want to throw a birthday party on a budget, there are a few things you’ll need to do yourself.
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This frugal blog was updated 10/27/2023
We just celebrated my daughter’s 10th birthday at Disneyland, but she also wanted to host a birthday party so she could celebrate with her friends. I gave her a $50 budget, and the whole family got really creative and pitched in to make a Harry Potter Halloween Birthday Party blowout worthy of Fred and George—on a budget even Professor Lupin could afford.
With just a $50 budget for decorations, party activities and favors, food, drinks, and the all-important birthday cake, I realized that some items I usually buy for parties—like ice—were a luxury.
Here are 3 tips that saved at least $25 (If I purchased these items outright it would have taken half of my $50 party budget!) and helped get a few things done several days before the party. These easy tricks left money in the budget for showstoppers like Chocolate Frogs, and DIY-ing the party necessities ahead of time left me enough free time (hahahahahahaha) on party day to make the Chocolate Frogs and wrap them in gold. (Long story; stay tuned as we break down the $50 Harry Potter Party in upcoming posts!)
We’re not big on sponsored posts here at All Day Mom, because we tell it like it is! When Hefty offered to pay me to think of creative ways to use Hefty Slider Bags, I already had three sets of Hefty Slider Bags in my fridge and freezer thanks to my party prep! I use TONS of freezer bags in my meal prep and Hefty is much stronger than Ziploc! I tried using Ziploc bags when I was making the chocolate frogs and EVERY SINGLE ZIPLOC BAG BLEW OUT! That’s why I bought the Hefty bags!“
The $50 Harry Potter Halloween Birthday Party!
Budget Party Tips: Save Time & Money
Budget Party Tip 1: Make your own ice!
- Spent: 12 cents
- Could have spent: $4 and change
- Saved: $4
#1 on my day-of party to-do list is always buy ice. No big deal; ice is cheap, right? But a 10-pound bag of ice costs just under $3 at the nearest convenience store, and $3 is 6% of my $50 party budget.
I packed up 10 pounds of ice myself for just 12 cents!
Each gallon-size storage bag holds about 5 pounds of ice. I did not need to use the thicker freezer bags, because this is just temporary storage. My ice did not puncture the bag, or spill out when I tossed the bags into the freezer.
I saved more than $4 of my party budget by making my own ice: $3 for a bag of ice, and at least $1 in gas to drive to buy the ice.
Budget Party Tip 2: Chop your own veggies!
- Spent: $2.40
- Could have spent: $8
- Saved: $5.60
When you’re pressed for time, it’s so easy to grab a pre-made veggie tray at the store!
I always seem to have more time than money, so I chop my own veggies for my Halloween party veggie platter.
I made this owl veggie platter for just $2.40 (photo below)—including the fennel “branch”—because I chopped everything myself. I chopped all the veggies two days before the party and put each vegetable into its own quart-size freezer bag. This saves a lot of room in the fridge (compared to packaging the veggies in rigid containers). I filled the carrots, jicama, and cucumber bags with water to keep the veggies crisp, and the freezer bags did not leak a drop!
While I was shopping at Walmart for party stuff, I noticed that the least expensive pre-made vegetable tray cost $8. It looked great, but not very Harry Potter-ish. I wanted to pretend the kids would eat something fresh along with the Chocolate Frogs, Cherry Lemonade Honeydukes Candy Cake, and Polyjuice Potion, so I insisted on making a veggie tray.
My kids rearranged my owl into—the Halloween Cyclops Monster Veggie Platter!
Budget Party Tip 3: Do It Yourself Harry Potter Chocolate Frogs
- Spent: $15
- Could have spent: $250
- Saved: hahaha Who would spend $250 on a kid’s birthday for Chocolate Frogs??? I didn’t actually save $250, but I did spend $15 total for really cool party favors.
- Really saved: $15. I would have spent at least $2 each for generic party favors. The Chocolate Frogs came in at just 47 cents each!
One Harry Potter Halloween party element my daughter really wanted was to give a Chocolate Frog to each of her friends. Since we had 23 people on the guest list, and real Chocolate Frogs from Universal Studios cost $10 each (not real chocolate frogs; you know what I mean), it would cost $230 plus tax—for the frogs alone!
I made my own Chocolate Frogs, 32 of them to be exact (9 extras to satisfy any greedy little wizards), for the price of 1.5 Chocolate Frogs from Universal Studios.
The magic behind the coolest Chocolate Frogs you’ve ever seen is coming soon, but the point here is that you can save a ton of cash with these budget party tips! My daughter really wanted to give her party guests a magical treat, and with a little extra work and a whole lot less cash, I was able to grant her wish without blowing the party budget. Get creative, and stay on budget!
More Universal Studios Hollywood and Disney posts:
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I don’t do sponsored posts! I do use affiliate links—that means your price doesn’t change and I get a kickback from Amazon, etc. Using my links helps keep All Day Mom sponsor-free so you know you’ll always get honest advice. I recommend you check Rakuten first for current Amazon categories that offer cash back (Rakuten: sign up here for $10 bonus or check Amazon cash back offers on Rakuten here) and if there is not a cash back offer there, please consider using my Amazon link here for your shopping. Thank you!”
