Love That Dollar Store!

Our local dollar store is Deals and I hit it hard for my son's 9 year old birthday party. I must say I am very proud of myself! And my husband, of course. We threw a great party for our 9 year old son and we did it pretty inexpensively. We had told our son after his last birthday party that this year would be a small party, maybe a couple of friends for a sleepover. Something of that nature. Well, when we talked about his birthday a few weeks ago he said "Can I just have some friends over to play football?" I thought that was a great idea. We found sports themed computer paper at Deals and miniature football helmets for $8 at the Kroger. We printed the invites at home, rolled them up and attached helmets and hand delivered the invitations. The invitations told everyone to wear their favorite team jerseys and to be ready for football and cake and ice cream. We hired an older neighborhood boy to "referee" for 2 hours (we gave him $20 because he did such a great job!). We had 14 boys playing football in our backyard for over 2 hours yesterday and they had a blast!
Here is what we bought for the party and where:
1/2 sheet cake from Costco $16
Paper for invitations $1
Helmets for invites $8
Paper plates, napkins and cups (sports themed) from Deals $1 per package
9 helium balloons for the mailbox $9 from Deals
Goodie bags included:
mini footballs $1 each from Deals
Skittles and Starburst (Costco 30 pack for $9.50)
Candles $1 from Deals
Referee $20
Powdered Gatorade to make huge Thermos full $6 Kroger
Pretzels, cheese balls and Bugles $6 Deals
Total cost of party = $92.50
So that makes the party $6.60 per guest. For over two hours of fun complete with snacks, cake and ice cream (already had the ice cream), I think we go t our money's worth!
I did order 14 pictures (one for the birthday boy too) of the "team" to send along with the thank you notes which cost an additional $3.30 so make that $95.80!



TIP FOR THE WEEK
Ok, this isn't really a money saver but it is a time saver and very convenient. For those of you who shop at Costco, did you know that when you check out you can add food from the "restaurant" area to your bill? As you check out just tell the cashier what you want form the food area (hot dog, slice of pizza, frozen yogurt, whatever) and they will add to your bill and give you a slip of paper to take right over to the counter. I never know that until the other day when the woman in front of me ordered like that. Occasionally I do eat there, especially if the kids are with me--they think it is a treat!