[Music] well hey you guys so I recently saw a stat saying that parents spend on average $314 on their kids' birthday parties and I'm be honest with all the custom balloon arches that I'm seeing on social media I'm surprised it wasn't more but today I want to talk about the root of why this is going on share my honest thoughts and even offer a few tips for celebrating your kids on their special day without sacrificing your family 's financial future and if you love this content make sure to hit the Subscribe button so we can chat more about topics like this all right first USA Today reports that having a set theme for a kid's birthday party automatically increases the price so if you're a '90s kid you know it was Barney today it may be Bluey or Paw Patrol but throwing a specific themed birthday party usually means that the price is going to increase cuz if you think about it you got to get custom invitations you got to get the Branded plates you got to get the themed party favors the matching napkins and tablecloth and balloons the custom cake uh I mean all of it together has to work if a theme is happening versus just kind of finding what's on sale and what works and throwing it together but again the idea that like there is a theme in a color palette you're going to end up spending more another reason for the increase in kid birthday parties I believe is social media I think comparison culture is a real thing I mean you really are watching people either that you know or that you you don't know maybe in your town or maybe on the other end of the country you know throwing these birthday parties and you're like oh wow look at that that's amazing and naturally you're going to compare what they're doing versus what you're doing and usually comparison leads you down a road of discontentment end up spending more money and even debt at the end of the day so being able to put the blinders on and just saying you know what I'm going to do what's best for me and my family it may not have a color palette it may not look you know beautiful the Aesthetics may not all work with my house but like this is for my kids we're going to be reasonable here I think is really key so just repeat after me if I don't hire a Disney princess for my toddler's birthday party to impress everyone at the party and the internet I'm going to be okay I'm going to be okay so just take the take the guilt and the burden off parents take it off all right reason number three kids birthday parties are getting pricier simply because time is passing and your children are getting older and the survey found that parents spend more money on birthday parties as the child gets older and inflation makes everything more expensive year after year and apparently 20% of parents confess to spending more than $500 on their kids' birthdays in years past and I think we can all agree that inflation does play a huge part you guys you're going to be paying more and more as the years go on and the idea that again you you see what everyone else is doing and so as this price increases and the expectation of what these birthdays parties increase to uh those expectations are sometimes just completely out of reach and I think it's okay to say that all right before I share my tips on how to save in this area let's talk about what it should look like if you do want to go all out for your kids birthday party because the truth is too people are creative that's not my vent naturally but it may be yours and you may be like hey I enjoy a good aesthetic when it comes to my kids birthday party I enjoy doing a theme and doing all of this and if you love it here are a couple of things to remember number one always check your intent why are you doing this why are you spending x amount of money for your kids's birthday party going into all the effort why because you can kind of check yourself with these four questions if nobody sees this do I still want to do it right if you can't post it or even if nobody shows up to the birthday party right like what is that motivation there also will this earn my kids love if you're kind of thinking oh I felt guilty because of X Y and Z in life and I can go big on this day because they're going to love it and they're going to be happy with me and it's going to be great not a great motivation also is it in the budget are you going into debt for it those are those are automatic X's okay but if you can budget it and it's reasonable then go for it because also I know you guys watching everyone has different income levels you know they they're different places financially so if you have the margin the ability to kind of yeah go all out cuz that's what you want to do uh it's not a bad thing but again making sure that you can budget for it and also is this what my kid actually wants because sometimes as parents we can tend to live vicariously through them and you just want to make sure that this is actually what my kid is wanting and it's not just all about me also think about the balance in it all so if you are party planning and that again brings you Joy then that's great you just want to make sure financially you're able to do it and doing a budget like we talked about earlier is a key part of it so if you've not done a budget you guys in general you need to do that and every dollar is a great budgeting app especially when it comes to these kind of expenses cuz as of right now I'm actually planning a birthday party for Charles cuz he'll turn five soon and in every dollar legit have a line item for Charles's birthday so it's able to like we have the amount we want to spend stay within that budget and it keeps you accountable which is great all right now here are my six budget friendly birthday tips if you're looking to throw a birthday party on a budget number one don't pay for invitations just send a text or an email cuz let's be honest we all need tracking and if you mail an invitation or at least to our house more than likely we're going to lose it and so when I get a text it is so much easier to see and that's literally what I did I was like Charles's birthday with the confetti emojis on each side I tried to make the like the text cute but besides that you text it out to all the moms they're texting you back and boom boom boom very efficient it's great number two skip party favors my kids they always kind of hate this about me they're like Mom we want a goodie bag for our friends and I'm like yeah but the truth is that goodie bag is going to go home and that Mom is like here's more crap that we're going to have to deal with on the floor of the minivan are being you know it's going to break or youall going to fight over it like it's all crap anyways it is so like if you need to save money if you need to save money skip the party favors number three focus on the essentials so think about you don't have to go and cook for 50 people and you know do a huge full meal listen a Funfetti cupcake is going to be a crowd pleaser and that is one thing that we have done is we have nixed birthday cakes if we well we do a birthday cake but I've nixed going to a bakery and buying one because the kids don't care they really don't and again it's beautiful good for pictures and again if that's your thing and that's where you want to spend your money do it but for me I've kind of nixed it and my kids we bake their birthday cake we go get a box literally a box of cake and they make it and a Funfetti is usually what it is and everyone's happy everyone's great number four keep it casual for as long as possible so listen if they are under 3 years old your child has no clue what is going on I would even say when they're three they probably really don't know like maybe when they're hitting that four or five age like they're starting to have friends and ask specific things that what they want but besides that y'all they don't know they do not know so do not feel like you have to go all out cuz they they don't know what is going on it is for the adults at the party it is not for the kids at that point all right number five think about experiences over things so if you notice that your kids have a favorite activity or something that they love to do incorporate that into the party like I've known people as our kids are getting older they're not doing big birthday parties they're just like hey they tell their kid pick you know two or three friends and we'll go to dinner and go to a movie or go to a sporting event like we can do something that again is a little bit of smaller capacity and it doesn't feel like you have to throw this big birthday party for everyone so if your kid likes that kind of thing that could be a way to save some money number six research affordable venues so I know here in Nashville there are definitely places that you can throw kid birthday parties everything from Chuck-E-Cheese uh to the trampoline indoor trampoline thing this other thing that has all this crazy stuff that the kids can do um or the skate center right and so there's all different venues at all different price points so look at that because you can spend a significant amount more depending on the venue and my daughter had a skate birthday party this summer and the skate center y'all was so cheap like when I saw the quote I was like really that's great okay so that's much different than some of the other places that we've done that are like indoor and bigger and much more expensive so do your research all right those are some tips when it comes to a budget friendly Kid birthday party I hope that helped and also remember as your parenting sometimes we can put such importance on like one day right whether it's like Christmas or their birthday and the truth is who they are all the other days of the year and who you are with them is what's really going to shape them and that's why it is so important to always remember to be teaching your kids things about giving and sharing and all of that because the character of your kids is what's important and that's not going to be defined by one birthday party that you over spend on but again cultivating who they are is so so key and I'm so passionate about that and so I actually wrote another kids book specifically about sharing and giving and I am so excited you guys it is out it released this week and so make sure to check it out because again it is something that so near and dear to my heart it's called I'm glad for when I can share and it's a sweet book that goes along the series U about contentment and generosity and this book is about sharing so make sure to check it out all right you guys share this episode with a friend if you know someone is going to be throwing a birthday party soon and if you want to cut back on other places make sure to check out my episode on three places you overspend without even knowing it remember you guys to take control of your money and create a life you love
