Happy 1st Birthday to Millie. But how do I celebrate? Social media platforms put so much pressure on parents and its wrong.
12 months have passed by so quickly. I feel like I’ve pressed the fast forwarded button 🙁 and here I am writing a blog on how we celebrated her special day on a budget.
Pressure, pressure and more pressure
Social media platforms and Tv programs like the mummy diaries I think put a lot of pressure on parents to go above and beyond their means to have the ‘prefect party’. A cake, balloon decorations, food, drink and entertainment can cost parents hundreds if not thousands of pounds for just one afternoon/day.
Thinking back to when my now 12 year old daughter turned 1. We celebrated her milestone birthday at home with close friends and family. Social media platforms were in their infancy and I didn’t feel at all pressured into splashing out money that I didn’t have on a party. However with Millie I can really feel that pull of ‘I need to have a cake, balloons, entertainment, food etc’. It’s such a horrible feeling and if I don’t have the perfect party what will other people think 🤔.
I tried so hard to push these thoughts away. I do want to celebrate Millies milestone birthday. So I decided to try and save some money by decorating the house myself. I YouTubed how to make a balloon number 1 column and bought my DIY balloons and decorations from Amazon. I think it worked out quite well – see picture below.
Millies Happy 1st birthday tea party
I ordered a bouncy castle which was around £50, mainly for my other 2 daughters and their friends. My mum surprised me with ordering a grazing table, from a family member, they had not long started up and their homemade sausage rolls were delicious. I would definitely do a grazing table again. Sometimes it’s not what you know, but who you know!!
Millies happy first birthday cake was done by a local lady who lives not far from me. Again she did a fantastic job and the cake was reasonably priced of £40.
Freezing a birthday cake?
Yes is the answer! I hate when you buy a cake, cut it up and half of it goes in the fridge which you forget about, then ends up in the bin!
So after doing some research🧐 I cut up the cake, placed it in tinfoil and put it straight in the freezer. You can keep the cake in the freezer for up to 3 months.
When i did defrost the cake I was worried it might taste different. But in all honestly it tasted just how it was on her birthday 👍.
I went to Aldi and bought soft drinks, beers, some cupcakes and crisps which were on offer. I must have spent about around £40.
Happy BirthDay
Close family and friends came round. The kids played on the bouncy castle which was good because it kept then entertained. It actually stopped them playing around the house and messing the girls bedrooms up.
I made sure there was enough seats for the adults and it was lovely just having everyone around to celebrate her birthday. Overall I spent, and this didn’t include the grazing table because my mum got that. About £150, which I think in todays pricing is fair.
An end to a perfect birthday
For anyone who is planning their sons or daughters first happy birthday party. I would recommend you stop and think about how you want to celebrate that day. It can be as costly as you want it to be, I had a brilliant day even on a budget. But it would be lovely to see some photos and tell me how you celebrated your little ones 1st birthday. So please comment below.
