Debt Free Adventures Archives

Budget-Friendly Tips to Plan a Child’s Birthday Party

04.11.2022 by Harry //

Every parent wants to make their kid’s birthday as unique and memorable as possible. However, the party planning process can be daunting with so many picture-perfect birthdays and tons of decor and theme selections. This is especially true if you must stick to a budget and try not to overspend.

There are so many elements of a party to look after and plan, which can pile up your total costs. However, there are ways you can pull off a fantastic birthday party for your child without making a dent in your wallet.

You need some creativity, imaginative thinking, and hands-on effort to cut costs while throwing a fabulous birthday party your child will never forget.

Here are some of the best tips to help you plan a budget-friendly perfect birthday without breaking the bank:

Tips to Plan a Child’s Birthday Party on a Budget

1. Find a Public Space with Free Rentals

Finding an excellent location and booking a venue can be one of the highest costs when planning a birthday. If you decide to rent out a place, you’ll have to take out a big chunk of your budget.

You might be considering booking a bowling alley, restaurant, or popular commercial venue, but this usually will not be a cheap option.

One idea for saving money is to look at free community spaces for public use. Then, all you must do is make the arrangements, set up the décor, and bring in your food and games.

You will also have to consider the weather, as winter birthdays can be a little harder to pull off.

Another idea is to host a slumber party at your own house. This can keep things simple, cozy, and fun for everyone.

2. Host the Party Outside at a Park

If the location is still one of your primary concerns and the weather allows it, you can host a party outdoors in a playground or park. This will be particularly appealing for younger kids. They will be able to run around and play with complete freedom and enjoy the fresh air.

A birthday party at a park also provides entertainment for the little guests without any expenses. In addition, not hosting the party at your house means you will not have to worry about cleaning up or clearing space for everyone.

You can also opt to do it in your backyard, on a reservoir, or at a local beach for an outdoor birthday party. You can also ask friends and relatives with bigger backyards if you could host the party at their place.

3. Make a Budget

A fundamental rule for planning a budget-friendly party is to first make a budget. Then, it would help if you took some time to consider how much you are willing to spend on your child’s birthday party. Being practical and realistic is essential for good planning.

Jot down the main categories or things you will be spending on and an estimate of how much you plan to spend on each item.

For example, you can divide the expenses into categories like decorations, food, games, party favors, cake, etc. This will keep you organized and clear-minded throughout the process.

9 Tips for a Budget Friendly Birthday Party

Keep the Guest List Small

You do not have to invite 40-50 people to your child’s birthday party, especially when trying to keep it within a budget. Your costs will go up or down depending on how many people you invite.

Try to think carefully about the guest list and only invite the people relevant to the birthday party. For example, keep your guests limited to your children’s friends and close family.

Make Simple Invitations

If there is one thing you do not have to overspend on- it’s invitations. Buy birthday invites from a stationary store nearby or design them yourself and get them printed.

If you want to cut down on expenses even further, send digital invites to the guests, and you’ll be good to go.

Make Your Decorations

You can look for an event manager or vendor to arrange the decor for your child’s birthday, or you can do it all yourself. This may sound tough, but it’s doable and saves money.

Look up DIY decor videos on YouTube or Pinterest and follow the instructions. You can work with balloons and streamers, construction paper, glitter, and other supplies. This will be a fun activity for you and your child, and it will also be a huge money saver.

Head over to the nearest dollar store and buy paper plates, utensils, cups, tablecloths, and other ready-made decor supplies.

Cook and Bake Yourself

When you are planning a budget-friendly birthday, going completely DIY is one of the best options. You can save a lot of money by baking the cake, cupcakes, and dessert yourself.

Of course, it is much easier to order a customized and fancy cake from the bakery. However, this will be much more expensive and unnecessary.

So, gather some sprinkles, edible decorations, and food colors, whip up a yummy icing, and customize your home-baked cake. It may not be perfect, but you can create unforgettable memories with your children while working on the cake together.

Food and snacks can also be made at home with some legwork.

There are many easy recipes you can look up online and follow. Some simple foods you can make include french fries, sandwiches, hamburgers, and pizza. You can also buy snacks from the store like pretzels, popcorn, marshmallows, candies, and chocolates for the children.

Another affordable snack idea is to cut slices of apples, carrots, crackers and serve them with yummy dips. The kids would surely love munching on these light snacks, plus they will be healthy too.

https://lifeasmama.com/6-clever-tips-for-planning-a-kids-birthday-party-on-a-budget/

Go for Simple Games

There is no need to splurge on expensive new games or rent a bouncing castle for the birthday party. Instead, you can plan your games and have tons of fun. Think of simple games like soccer, baseball, blowing bubbles, or activities like painting, pottery, etc.

Here are some fun game ideas that are simple and can easily be hosted at home without any spending at all:

Three-Legged Race
Simon Says
Duck, Duck, Goose
Freeze tag
Musical Chairs
Hot Potato
Freeze Dance
Charades

Keep the Party at a Good Time

If you hold the party near lunch or dinner time, your guests may expect you to serve a full meal. So, it would be wise not to start the party at noon or after 5 pm.

Instead, keep it at any other time slot when snacks will be enough for the guests. This is a simple yet effective way of saving on expenses.

Reconsider the Party Favors

Party favors are often considered essential for a kid’s birthday party. However, you can decide to skip them altogether.

On the other hand, you can come up with affordable party favors consisting of a single homemade item, like a cookie or cupcake. You can also look for simple one-dollar items as party favors.

Image Credit: [Robert Kneschke].

How to Build Your Credit Score and Stay Debt Free

10.28.2021 by Harry //

Many of us know that being in debt is typically a bad thing from a very young age, but do we know why? Unfortunately, credit scores are not often discussed, so they may come as a bit of a shock to those who have just turned 18 and are looking to start building credit.

Your credit score has a significant impact on many areas of your life. It affects things such as buying a house, getting a credit card, and getting a loan. So, it is crucial always to keep it in mind when going about your everyday business.

Here we will tell you tips to build your credit score without going into debt.

What Is a Credit Score?

Your credit score is a three-figure number that indicates how likely you are to be a safe bet when it comes to loans. Essentially, it lets lenders know whether you are a risk. The higher the number, the better your credit score and the “safer” you are considered.

https://www.cnbc.com/select/how-to-build-credit-and-achieve-a-good-credit-score/

Your credit reports determine your credit score, but if you had never had to pay anything in your name, then it’s common to have little to no credit history.

Building a Credit Score

There are many ways to go about building a credit score, but some are better than others. For example, many people will tell you to get a small loan and pay it off when due simply to prove that you can do so. However, things are not always certain in life. What may not seem like a risk at the beginning can indeed become one.

So, how do you build a credit score without debt?

Sign on as a Co-Holder’s on a Family Member’s Credit Card

One of the quickest and easiest ways to get a credit score is to be a co-holder of a credit card. For example, if your parents are willing to let you do this, you can be added as an authorized user to their account. Once you are approved, the payment history will lend itself to your credit score. Essentially, you get a boost in credit score with no work.

It is better to become an authorized user on a trustworthy person’s credit card.

The last thing you would want to happen in this situation is that they make a late payment or even fail to make one altogether. This would then, of course, negatively impact your credit score through no fault of your own.

Open Your Own Credit Card

Perhaps a safer way to boost your credit score is to get a credit card with just you as an authorized user. This way, you won’t be reliant on anyone else’s spending habits for your credit. Of course, most credit cards will require you to have a good credit score already before they approve you. However, one option is a secured credit card.

A secured credit card needs a security deposit. The amount of money that you deposit with them is your credit limit. Essentially, it’s insuring you against yourself. You need to treat it like a typical credit card and pay the amount off when it’s due to receive your deposit back.

However, remember that failure to pay the sum or even a late payment negatively impacts your credit score. It also means that the lender keeps your security deposit to recover the money that you spent.

Set Up Autopay

The easiest way to quickly accumulate bad credit is to make a late payment. Your payment history makes up 35% of your credit scores, and so paying late does significant damage. In addition, late payment even just once can result in you being reported to the three main credit bureaus.

This report of late payment will then stay on your record for up to seven years. So, to avoid this, you should consider setting up autopay. It means that the amount owed will be automatically deducted from your account each month.

You can always keep a record of the amount spent and check it yourself against the amount automatically deducted to ensure that you are not being overcharged.

Get a Credit-builder Loan

A credit-builder loan is not your average loan, but it is designed to help people build up their credit scores. With this type of loan, you will need to place money into an account every month. When the set period is up, you will receive the total sum of your deposited money (possibly plus interest) minus fees.

What you are doing shows that you can be trusted to pay a certain amount of money by a certain deadline. Additionally, it demonstrates to companies that you are trustworthy and can keep your money in order.

To Sum Up

A credit score has a significant impact on daily life, but it is often overlooked when we are children. The importance of building up a good credit score cannot be stressed enough. However, many people state that getting a loan is the best way to go about this. Unfortunately, that is not always the case, as any form of a loan carries risks.

Instead, we have listed above some of the best alternative ways to build up a good credit score without the need to take out a loan. Each of the methods listed above still carries a small amount of risk, and it is up to you to decide which way is the best for you.

If you need to rely on someone else to get your credit scores, then becoming an authorized user is a great way. However, remember that you are reliant on someone else. Otherwise, lenders will insure you against yourself. Be sure to do you homework before opening a credit card.

Image credit:[Margo Hercules].

6 Tips for Sticking to Your Budget

10.11.2021 by Harry //

Reaping the benefits of a well-balanced budget is a game of stamina and determination. You really have to be committed to your goals and be in it for the long haul!

Sticking to a budget can be a real challenge, particularly if you aren’t used to restricting yourself in any way. We all are at different levels of self-control and discipline, both practices that take time to master. But never fear, we have organized the top 6 tips that are tested and true to help you stick to your budget!

Make It Fun

We live in a world where we strive for immediate satisfaction from everything we do. Engaging in activities that are restrictive and don’t show immediate results are demoralizing to many (that’s the pitfall of dieting also!).

Budgeting can be a downer, especially if you are taking away some of life’s pleasures. But this modern world has also made a way to make almost anything fun!

There is such a wealth of resources for budgeting these days that it should be an absolute breeze. Mobile apps enable you to “gamify” your budgeting and get pleasure out of boring budgeting tasks.

Find out what motivates you to have fun with your budget and ingrain it into your daily routines. Do you like games, lists, or rewards? There’s something out there for everyone!

Reduce Temptation

It sounds pretty simple, and I’m sure you’ve heard it many times before, but it cannot go unmentioned.

Your brain responds so strongly to the things it likes. And if spending money is one of those things, whether it be shopping, eating out, then seeing the items you want will send strong signals to the brain.

So it’s simple, don’t look at those things. Don’t walk into the shops “just to have a look” and remove the bookmarks for your favorite online stores.

When shopping for food, go in with a list and a plan, and don’t even think about going down the aisles you don’t need to. Have set days that you visit the grocery store. Make your supplies last until the next visit. Frequent stops add more opportunities for you to succumb to the confectionery aisle.

Be Realistic

This tip is a run-on of the previous tip. It is all well and good to reduce temptation and practicing self-discipline, but you should not starve yourself of things you enjoy either!

Completely taking away the things you enjoy simply is not healthy, nor is it sustainable in the long term. While it might work great for a start, you are likely to fall hard. And you may end up feeling demoralized with budgeting altogether.

Life is full of unexpected scenarios. No matter how well you plan, things are bound to pop up. Your budget should have wiggle room so that you can deal with unexpected events or emergencies.

Without emergency money, each time you make progress, you find something that will knock you back to square one, over and over again.

Budgets only work if you approach them earnestly and realistically. While a budget template can offer you some good starting guidelines, you must personalize your budget for your lifestyle.

Create a budget that is realistic to your income and expenditure with a spending clause and wiggle room with those unexpected expenses.

Treat Yourself

When looking at your budget, you must fit in some spending money. When things are tight, this can feel like it won’t be helpful. But, trust me, in the long term, it is!

Restriction always ends in temptations, which leads to indulgence.

Setting aside a portion of your budget for your things like eating out, shopping and entertainment, will mean you will hardly feel restricted by your budget at all.

Stay Connected to Your Motivation

When you set your initial budget, make sure you have some real “oomph” behind it. Set your budget with intention—do you want to be debt-free? Do you want to be prepared for emergencies? Saving for college? Buying a house?

Discover your motivation and the drive behind your goals. Keep them in your mind and heart always. Continually reconnect to your intentions to stay motivated when things seem tough, or you feel your budget starting to become unstable.

An Ideal Morning Routine for Staying Energized Throughout the Workday

Track your spending every day and incorporate reviewing your budget as part of your daily routine. For some, it helps to visualize your goals and progress by plastering reminders around the home.

You can also utilize an accountability partner or a “budget buddy” to help you stay connected to your motivation. Talking about your progress with someone who shares your same goals offers a sense of camaraderie that boosts motivation.

Plan Ahead

Sometimes the budget is blown by the “unexpected.” Other times, it is blown by the expected! Don’t let special events sneak up on you. Make sure your budget is flexible. You can change it around as needed depending on how your calendar looks.

Consider a flexible budget that will morph to fit your events and calendars, or create a separate account that is added to every budget that is especially for these extra special events.

Image by: [KAROLINA GRABOWSKA]