Find Cheap Party Favor Ideas and Party Bag Fillers for Kids

These days party bags and party favors are as much as part of the party as the balloons and cake, although you know that whatever is in them will last for about 5 minutes after the kids have left the house - if you're lucky. This makes finding cheap kids party favor ideas an absolute must for the savvy host.

Luckily there are plenty of ways to achieve this ~ it just a case of being creative and looking at ways you can reduce expense, without reducing the pleasure kids get from carrying home their bags of cake and toys.

You could of course suggest that the little darlings forgo their party bags altogether in aid of being environmentally friendly / saving the planet / saving money (delete those not applicable) but on the basis that they want to carry on, here are a few ideas.

 Your children tend to get invited to most of the birthday parties of the other children in their class ~ which means a) a lot of parties, but more importantly b) a lot of party bags. Lets say your child goes to 20 parties a year, each party with 15 kids and each kid taking home a party bag each time ~ that's 300 party bags between them all.

Most things are cheaper to buy in bulk so why not have a word with some of the other Mums and see if you can form a Party Bag Club. You can either join together and buy a batch of pre-filled bags (remember there's the cost in time you spend shopping for things to consider as well as teh physical cost), or make use of buy one get one free offers. You may not use 100 sets of bubbles at one party but you will over a few.

Work out how many items you're likely to need then buy in bulk, varying the items so the kids don't end up with exactly the same party bags each time.

If you can find enough buy one get one free offers on small toys and sweets you could cut what you spend on party bag fillers in half.

Homemade mini cookies and sweets make great inexpensive treats to go in kids party bags. Use cookie cutters to make interesting shapes and cover them in brightly coloured icing or with sweets to make really pretty fillers.

Go out for a walk and collect some small, smooth stones (or shells) and take them home and wash them. Find a local craft store and buy some little stick on eyes, you can normally pick them up very cheaply. Stick the eyes on the stones and call them stone animals and give one to each child to take home as a 'pet'.

Again from a craft shop get some mini foam letters and put the letters to each child's name in their party bag. It may take a bit of time to sort out but it's a very personal thing to do that costs next to nothing.

Of course if you're going to do this you have to get them to do it without realising they are ~ and that means having an arts and crafts type of party.

The choice of arts and craft parties you could hold is phenomenal. If you want a 'do it yourself' one you could go for card-making, or jewellery making or a great one which can keep the kids entertained is a cupcake decorating party, where the party bag is the cupcakes they make.

If you're not sure where to start with arranging your own party then here is a comprehensive guide by Lisa HW on to how to plan a child's home birthday party.

You may need a few ideas to get you thinking about what sort of party you're going to hold, in which case a quick search on the Internet should suffice, and if you're in any doubt of your own creative abilities you can take a look at some of the party craft kits on the market such as the 'make your own balloon animals' below.