Baby Shower on a STRICT budget!

So I'm back! I should start by apologizing profusely for putting out one post and then going missing for almost three weeks. I had been working insanely crazy, long shifts prior to the July 4th holiday and for the past week have been battling with a cold. I should mention that I will be able to honestly post more because the store I work at is in its slow season, so less hours...which means more time to blog!
Alright, so now that I've explained that....time for today's topic. I have had a few ideas for recipes and DIY projects, but unfortunately have not been able to take photos and devote the time to them, which is why this idea for a DIY baby shower on a strict budget came as an idea. My best friend had her little girl on November 23, 2011 and I of course wanted to throw her a shower! This was done in October of 2011 and on a budget of no more than $250! This was my first time planning a baby shower, I usually stick to birthday, halloween and new years eve parties and I think it came out pretty good. :)

As the picture shows, the baby shower took place at a house, which saved major money off of renting out a room at a clubhouse, restaurant or hall. In order to have enough seating for everyone, I used folding tables and chairs from where I work, but this can also be made possible by having a few of the guests bring chairs and/or tables (my fallback plan if I couldn't use the ones at work). Also keep in mind that when it comes to baby showers there are usually more then one thrown for the mother to be (work, family and sometimes one for friends), so you could keep the guest list small once you find out who else is planning a shower and who they are planning to invite.

Decorations do not have to be extravegant or expensive. I bought most of the decorations at Wal-Mart and with the help of a friend, spruced it up to look like more money was spent then really was.

The glasses were bought at the Dollar Store and attached to the bottom is ribbon and a little pacifier decoration. The centerpieces are glass holders with fake flowers (bought by the bunch and then split up) with the glass beads as the base. Some of the decorations were bought at Party City (the jungle theme items), but what I did was buy the small pack of plates, the banner, napkins and tablecloth and then buy the plain yellow plates and yellow cups and the pink tablecloth for the gift table and sign in table, plus plastic silverware from Wal-Mart and put them together to look like a fancy table setup (the jungle plate on top of the yellow). I also purchased a bag of 12 yellow and 12 pink balloons at Wal-Mart and pink and yellow streamers. Instead of spending money on helium, my guests helped me blow up the balloons before the mother to be showed up and we spread them throughout the party on the floor, which actually looked really nice.

If you can believe it, the cake only cost $35...and fed all the guests attending, plus some leftovers. I really wanted to include a piggy bank and I had seen that some baby showers, the host places them at the sign in with a note to drop spare change to start the child's college fund or whatever and that is what we did. I bought the piggy bank at JCPennys for $18 and printed the sign off the computer. The sign in sheet is actually just computer paper that one of my artistic friends was nice enough to spruce up. For games, it was kept simple. We had a plastic container that we filled with approx. three boxes of animal cookies and had the guests guess the number, there was also a guess the name game in which you had to guess the baby name for the animal listed (we wanted the games to somewhat resemble the jungle theme) and finally our third game was about 8-9 diapers filled with different melted chocolates for the guests to guess. The prizes were $10 gift cards to Target, so it was simple, but enjoyed!
Now finally, the food. Since I work at a grocery store, I did order two platters from there and no I did not receive any discount. I did a fruit platter (a medium sized one-about $16) and a sandwich platter from the deli (ham and turkey, medium size- $22), but also bought the salad mixes (which were buy one get one, so I bought two) and four different dressings (also buy one get one). One of the guests made cupcakes and another made meatballs (because the mother to be absolutely loves this person's meatballs), so you could always see if anyone is willing to bring a dish to save you some time and money. I also bought bottled water and soda (both on sale), orange juice and chips (on sale).

Here is breakdown of money spent rounded to the nearest dollar (although as a note for the future....with a guest list the size I had, I probably could have done two small platters, and saved roughly $10-12 instead of having leftovers.
Target- $30 (gift cards)
Publix- $78 (platters and other food) SN: I know I could have saved more by buying the extras (salad mixes, dressings, soda and chips at Wal-Mart for cheaper...and I know this for next time)
Cake- $35
Piggy Bank- $18
Party City- $40
Wal-Mart- $30
Dollar Store- $15
The total spent was $246, but I know the mother to be loved it and everyone else thought it looked amazing. Like I said, for the future, I would make a few changes, but I definitely think that less is more and in buying items that were simple and turning them into something beautiful (like the centerpieces and wine glasses-which were the party favors for the guests) is what makes a space beautiful. Keep in mind, that a smaller guest list (we had 14 people) can decrease the money you need to spend and making some of the food yourself will also save money! Hope today's blog has shown you that you do not need to spend hundreds of dollars in order to throw a great baby shower, or any party for that matter!