Today we are talking about goody bags. I know some parents can’t stand them and others feel like a party isn’t complete without them. Speaking for myself, I like to give them out especially if they help tie in the party theme. The good news is that you don’t have to break the piggy bank to put them together. I am going to show the goody bags I handed out at my kids last birthday party in January, along with my tips for keeping the cost down.
Here are the contents of the goody bag and the cost breakdown. It was all in a cute lunch sized bag with a snowman on it. Sorry, no picture of the bag.
Snowman Bag: $.12
Bubble Set: $.35
Snowman Lollipop: $.04
Paper and stickers $.15
Themed notebook and pen: $.23
Total: $.89
I thought the bags had some really good stuff in it for under $1 a bag. Here are my tips so that you can do it too:
- Plan ahead – I knew that I would want to give goody bags at the kids birthday party and so I kept an eye out all year long for good deals. I bought the notepads during all the hot back to school sales and they were cheap. Once I decided on a theme, I decorated them with paper I had on hand. You could make these work with any theme in the world.
- Clearance, Clearance, clearance! I love shopping the clearance section. Almost every holiday clearance has some items that are not holiday specific. The mini pens for instance were Christmas clearance, but they came in pink, red, blue, and green. The bubble pack was my major clearance score. I found them on summer clearance, and they had a ton of them left. Every kid loves bubbles, and this is another universal goody bag item.
- Utilize the closest holiday – If you want to keep the cost way down, it doesn’t hurt to take advantage of the closest holiday to your event. My party was in January, so I combed Christmas clearance for items that weren’t strictly Christmas, like Santa and reindeer. That’s how we ended up with a party theme of snowmen and penguins.
- Get creative with what you have on hand – My daughter loves stickers and art projects. I simply took some paper I had on hand to create a snow scene. I found some holiday stickers on clearance and was able to get a whole sticker page activity for only $.15 per child.
What about you? Do you have any money saving tricks up your sleeve? We would love to hear about. Please share in the comments!
