HOST A BUDGET FRIENDLY GRADUATION
Graduation time is almost here and many people are beginning to plan graduation parties for their teenagers graduating from high school or even college students. Graduation is an amazing event that needs to be celebrated especially when a lot of people do not reach graduation so easily or fail to graduate. So by all means throw an amazing Graduation party for your teen or college student, but do not overspend on things for the graduation. I needed to plan and host a graduation party a few years back for my own sister who graduated high school, and with money tight we successfully hosted a nice graduation party on a budget. The most important thing when celebrating someone for their graduation is personalizing the graduation and making the feel special. Keep that in mind as you begin to plan and look for special inexpensive ways to celebrate you loved one and their accomplishments without going broke.
I have a few specific things that really helped keep our budget to a minimum throughout the whole process of preparing for the graduation.
1) Invitations....Invitations are very Important but do not have to be super expensive either. I have found many deals to help you create Invitations cheap and yet they still look terrific. No need to go with the high-priced companies suggested by your child's school. You can create and personalize your own Invitations so reasonably using one of these websites. Snapfish Vistaprint Shutterfly Inviteshop Walmart
2) Decorations.....One of the best places I was able to find cheap decorations and even disposable table cloths was the Dollar Tree. My local Dollar Tree had great $1 decorations that we purchased, and also matching disposable table covers for the party. Of course if you do not need to purchase table covers and you have reusable table covers already this can save you even more money. I also found a great deal on table-cloth clips for picnic tables on amazon, which can be really helpful to keep the table cloths on if you are hosting outside. If you are good at creating things, you could even do a lot of you own decorations yourself with things you may already have around the house. I am not a super crafty creative person, since this was not a strong point for me I opted for the dollar store and found some great deals. Be sure to go as soon as possible to look for these because in my experience they are gone very quickly. I went to the dollar tree one week and purchased these items and two weeks later the items I had purchased were all gone already.
3) Get Creative.....There are so many ways to save money and to create a memorable but inexpensive celebration. One of the best places to find Ideas for this are on Pinterest. I love Pinterest for so many things and the biggest thing I look for on Pinterest are Creative ideas for things I am hosting and also recipes. Pinterest has so much available right at your fingertips thanks to all the many bloggers out there like me sharing their creativity and ideas. I found a few awesome things when I was planning this party that I really thought were unique and special. One of those things was the idea to use a Jenga game as a guest book.You purchase a Jenga game and these can be found cheap on Amazon for your guests to sign and I recommend fine tip sharpie markers to sign the pieces with. This makes a special gift that the graduate can enjoy long after the party.Pinterest
4) The Location.... Location can be super important and renting a location for a graduation party can be expensive and often hard to find as you get closer to the graduation party day. A local park can offer a great cheap location to host a graduation party for free or very reasonable. We chose the free option, and arrived at the park early that day to secure a good area with multiple picnic tables. This worked great for us and had it been a better day for our local weather this would have been perfect. Word of advice from someone who made the mistake not to check in advance, make sure it is not going to rain if you are hosting outside. It only sprinkled but it did rain and that was just a minor annoyance to us and probably to some of our guests. If you choose to host Indoors somewhere there are cheap places you could likely host a graduation party, your own home, family member or friends home, your church, VFW halls or community centers for cheap.
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5) The Food and The Cake..... The food for a graduation party can be handled so many ways and this can be very budget friendly or can quickly get out of hand and cost a fortune. If you have a membership to a Costco, Sams Club or BJ'S Wholesale these can really come in handy when preparing this potion of the party. Cake at our local Costco for a graduation party cost $16 for a rather large and very well made cake. If you are good at making cakes you could probably make on cheaper than Costco charges but for us this was the best price for the size and cake we needed. Utilize club stores if possible to get larger quantities of food and various items for cheaper prices. We purchased plastic ware and plates as well as faygo pop cans and water bottles at Costco for a very cheap price. If you can find better deals than Costco, Sam's and BJ's buy them there instead. There are times and situations where these stores are not the most reasonable and budget friendly. If you are good at couponing and rebates you may be able to find better deals on everything somewhere else. If you have an Aldi's near you they have very good budget friendly food items as well as plates, napkins and plastic ware so this may be a great option for you also.
Look for ways to make sure the party celebrates the success of the graduate, but also in a budget friendly way. One of the best lessons you can teach your children is the value of money and how to manage it well. My advice is Include them in the planning of their own party. Do not burden them with the cost of everything for the party and make them feel bad about what it is costing to host.I do think however that Including them in the preparation for it the entire way is a great way to encourage them becoming an adult, and to also help them to understand the value of money and how it is managed.