If someone you know is having a 40th birthday soon and you want to throw him a party, don't let cost deter you. You can throw that special someone an outstanding party without breaking the bank. Frugal birthday party ideas can cover food, music, decorations, gifts and party favors. Once you get in the spirit of things you'll soon find that the money-saving ideas start flowing.
Food
The best way to cut costs on a 40th birthday party is to ask all of the birthday guests to bring a food dish. Whether you are having the birthday party outside or indoors, guests are generally more than happy to bring something to eat. In fact, most party guests generally get excited when they are asked to prepare food for an event because they know their entire family is going to be able to eat a large, delicious meal for free.
Music
There is no need to worry about spending a lot of money on music for a party these days. Forgo the live entertainment and make your own music CDs. A nice music idea for a 40th birthday is making CDs of the birthday person's favorite tunes or creating a CD that contains only music from the birthday person's birth year. Don't forget about adding some karaoke sessions into the music mix, either. It's a great way to get some cheap, enjoyable entertainment.
Decorations and Table Settings
A lot of the cost at parties is often in the decorations. A frugal way to decorate for a party is to use things that you find for free outdoors or items that you already own. For instance, if you live in a beach area, you can use colored beach towels for table cloths, decorate tables with seashells, fill glass containers with sand and stick votive candles on top of the sand. If you live in the country you can place handpicked flowers in vases, scatter colorful leaves on the tables and use white or brightly colored sheets for table cloths. The only investment you may want to make will be in balloons, streamers and throwaway plates.
Gifts
A very frugal birthday gift for a 40-year-old is to give him 40 envelopes that each contain a handwritten message about what you think is special about him or a reason why you love him. Another frugal gift idea is to make a video recording of the birthday person's family and friends talking about memories they have of him or well wishes for his future. The video can be played at the party or viewed at a later time.
Party Favors
If you want to give goody bags or party favors to the birthday party guests, this can be done very economically. For your goody bags, all you need to do is purchase some brown lunch bags and draw a colorful picture on each one, such as a balloon or a flower. Then, toss in free and/or inexpensive goodies into the bags, such as free perfume, cologne and makeup samples that you can ask for at your local department store and all those goodies that are stocked in the dollar bins at discount stores such as lotions, body sprays, note pads, ink pens, key chains, candy and gum.
Tags: birthday party, 40th birthday, birthday person, goody bags, guests generally, party favors