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<title>My Frugal Los Angeles Life</title>
<link>http://www.myfrugallife.com/blog_mrsdawn.html</link>
<description>How to be frugal and live well in a big expensive city!</description>
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<title>How to throw the best kids party with little money</title>
<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:20:01 GMT</pubDate>
<link>http://www.myfrugallife.com/post59087536_mrsdawn.html</link>
<description>&lt;p&gt;I recently had the task of planing my daughters 7th birthday for her and 11 of her friends. Here is how I made it look like my husband and I spend a lot of cash with out actually doing it.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Party Favors: I am against giving large amounts of candy or small un-useable toys.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;So to avoid this I went to claires. They were having a 10 for 10 sale. I bought 12 necalaces which retailed orginanlly for $7.00&amp;nbsp; and 12&amp;nbsp; lotions and bodywashes which were orgianlly 3.00 a piece.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Each bag cost me $2. I bought tinkerbell paper lunch bags to put the favors in a 10pk was $1 at the .99c store.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;For the two boys that came. I bought each of them a $2 chalk bucket from Michaels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Games&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We did a potato sack race for prizes (Two winners) (sacs were purchased at wal-mart (5.99) as were the suncatcher making kits which were on clearance in the craft department for 2.00.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We made a home made pinata, water-baloons, and large batch of bubbles. ( pinata I saved candy from halloween and parties my kids had been to in a ziplock bag which i used to fill it)&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Food/drinks&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;All the food was homemade.(Picked things I knew the kids would like but so would the grown-ups) Recipes came from foodnetwork and marthstewart.com. (Huge hit). I made cupcakes instead of cake. One of the girls told me it tasted just like store bought.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We used bottled beverages instead of canned. No juice boxes, Just bottled apple juice. We also made homemade sangria for the (grown-ups).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Our splurges&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Decorations. We did a Hawaiian theme.(We went to party city and .99c store and spent about $40.00 including a music cd) I got flower necklaces from freecycle!!! Enough for everyone!&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;I made a happy birthday window clings using&amp;nbsp; gallery glass. We also bought one of those balloon time helium takes using a 50% of coupon from Michaels.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Invitations&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;We did evite but we had some picture cards from a pic from the party made from walgreens and sent them out as thank you notes.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Everything was a huge sucess. The adults had fun and so did the kids. It felt great to get the complements from people who thought my husband and I really spent the bucks!&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;The party cost us much less than it would have to have in any-where else. In Los Angeles where we live the parties at the zoo and other places start at $300.00&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Which in my opinion is crazy.&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;Good luck throwing your next birthday bash!&lt;/p&gt;&#xD;&#xA;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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