Planning a party on a budget

     So my oldest son Logan is about to turn 6 and I want him to have a real party this year.  Of coarse we have the typical "family" party for him, but this is his first year in school and he has friends he wants to invite. I asked his teacher for a list of all the kids in his class, there are Eighteen of them... So how do I make this work on a budget?  First things first... Figuring where to entertain all of these kids being that it's winter and an outside party is just not possible.  There aren't many places around here to start with so I thought it would be fun to have it at the local bowling alley.  Logan loved this idea!  Great I was off to a good start.  I called to see what they offered as far as pricing, food, drinks, shoe rental and so on.  At first the lady told me $10.50 per child plus $1.50 for shoes. Now that did include cupcakes and Pepsi.  Hmmm, hyping a bunch of kindergartners up on Pepsi.....not my idea of a good time.  These were the prices for a Friday or a Saturday.  I asked, "What about on Sunday?"  She said if I had it on a Sunday between the hours of 1-3pm the cost would be $7.00 per child and it would include their shoe rental but not the cupcakes and Pepsi...now that's more like it.  I went to Walmart and bought enough juice, not soda, for the kids, and got the invitations at the Dollar Store. I filled out the invites requesting a weeks notice for an RSVP.  I am waiting to purchase the rest of my supplies, paper products and party favors, so I don't over spend and end up with a bunch of things I don't really need.
     Ok so we are now 4 days away from the party.  I had sent out the invites 2 weeks prior, on a Monday, requesting a weeks notice by that following Sunday.  As of now I am still getting rsvp's!  Um hello I don't understand.  The reason I asked for and rsvp buy a certain date was so that I could properly prepare for the exact amount of children coming.  I was planning on doing my party favor shopping this week to get everything in order.  Now I will have to do a lot of unnecessary running around for last minute parents calling me to rsvp.  Very frustrating!
     Thursday night was my last rsvp, thank goodness, I had already made up the party bags on Wednesday but made a few extra just in case.
     The party is tomorrow!  I am very excited, I think Logan is gonna have a blast with all of his little friends.
So my grand total of kids is 14.  That is including mine.  The gift bags are done, 30 cupcakes are ordered, I pick them up today.  I got 30 so the parents could have some too.


Budget: $300.00
Bowling Alley: $98.00
Juice: $4.14
Invitations:$2.12
Party Favors:$14.84
Paper Products:$2.12
Cupcakes:$20.00

     My total comes to $141.22.  Had all eighteen kids rsvp'd, plus my 2 totaling 20, my total would have been $183.22.  Coming in under budget is an awesome feeling, it allowed me more spending money for his gifts, which kept me from dipping into my pocket.  You should always set a limit for yourself, otherwise you could end up spending more than you planned for.