Easy, Inexpensive Birthday Party Favors

As a mother of one and a stepmother of two, I have planned a good number of children's birthday parties over the years. For all of those parties, I could have spent a ton of money on party favors, but I didn't. What's my secret? I planned ahead.

Our children's birthdays come every year. They even come on the same date each year, so there are no surprises when it comes to when we will have to find birthday party favors. The first time I planned a party to which other children were invited, I scrambled around at the last minute trying to get everything together. I had no idea what to kind of party favors would be best for the children in attendance, so I asked the resident expert: the child whose party it was. She informed me that the kids she had invited liked everything from princesses to racecars.

I struggled to find the best party favors I could so that I could make all of her friends happy. This resulted in my stress level increasing more than I liked, but I did not want the size of my wallet to decrease that much over party favors. I then started to look around at the local dollar stores. I took the kids with me and we picked out toys that came in packages of at least three. I found Play-Doh®, small rubber balls, Disney® Princess toys and more. In my panic to find something for everyone, I had completely forgotten about this land of cheap trinkets. And, for some reason, kids treat these trinkets like they are rare treasures.