Looking for some great, inexpensive Princess Party ideas? Lucky you! I’ve got some really great ideas to share:

The Invitations:

Be creative in making your party announcement. You could purchase one like the Princess Party Invitation shown above, and add a little pop to it with glitter puffy paint, or by gluing on small rhinestones. Or you could make your own from scratch! For a princess party, you can make it in the shape of Cinderella’s shoe, a castle, like a rolled up scroll, anything like that! I thought it would be cute to send out the invitation like I was inviting each child to a royal ball. Here is what my invitations read:

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Princesses of all the land… Her Royal Highness, Princess Jada, is turning four years old! In celebration of this joyous occasion, the Princess requests the honor of your presence at a royal gala marking her fourth year.

Come One, Come All, in your finest princess attire, to insert place on insert date from insert time. Princess Jada and her royal Court will eagerly be awaiting your arrival! Please ring Queen Kendra to announce if you will be in attendance…

For some printable invitations, see the links at the bottom of this post. I’ve listed several good sites to visit for more Princess Party ideas.

(Me and Princess Jada)

Playing The Part:

Princess parties are so exciting for little girls, because they get a chance to dress up and have fun! Make sure that your little princess has a beautiful dress to wear. Also ask your guests to wear their own princess dress if they have one. Make sure that you have extra dresses and accessories on hand in case one of your guests doesn’t have their own. I had a dress up “station” where there was a little dress up trunk full of outfits, shoes, and jewelry for the girls to play with. What I didn’t have, I borrowed! If you have friends or family with little girls, see if they might have dress up stuff that you can borrow for the party and save yourself some money!

Don’t be afraid to play along too. Any little girl would love to have Mommy dress up along with her. I bought a Cinderella dress to wear as the host of the party. (It was like $30 at Party City, and I actually got my money back out of it by selling it close to Halloween time on ebay!) All of the girls loved that I was dressed up too! And I have to admit, I enjoyed it as well! Jada especially was in awe. She said, “Mommy, you really are Cinderella!” She was so excited!

Make A Cardboard Castle:

Last year I came across this site which showed how to make an awesome castle out of boxes, for under $10! We decided to make one for our daughter’s 4th birthday. She was having a princess party, and we thought this would be an awesome addition to the decor. And since we are all about frugal parties, this came within budget.

It requires several refrigerator boxes, which actually took a little while to track down. We went to Home Depot and spoke with a man in the appliances. We asked him if he had any big boxes like these that we could have. He told us that they break them down and get rid of them as soon as they come in. But, he would hold some for us from the next shipment. We had to keep checking back, but after a couple of days he had some ready for us. We ended up getting several refrigerator boxes, along with stove boxes, which worked out fine.

We didn’t follow the directions exactly. I thought it would be more frugal to just use duct tape instead of the rivets that they suggest you buy from the website. I was wrong. Buy the rivets, seriously. They aren’t that expensive, and after trying the duct tape, and several tubes of liquid nails, and using a staple gun, it FINALLY held together. Next time, I will definitely just buy the rivets. So, anyways, it came out really cute. I happened to have a can of gray paint leftover from a project, so I used it to paint the castle. Really you could paint it whatever color though. It took quite a few hours putting this thing together (doing it the hard way), but when it was finished we were very pleased. (Though I could have spent days detail painting it to look like real bricks!)

The kids LOVED the castle! They were in it for most of the party. We filled it with balloons, and they had a blast throwing them, kicking them around, and peaking out of the tower windows. The castle was the hit of the party!

A Throne For The Birthday Princess:

All I did was decorate one of our dining room chairs. I went to Walmart and bought a big sheet of stiff foam board. I also bought an inexpensive decorative stencil, and some glittery gold acrylic paint. I went home and cut the board to be the right size to make the back of the throne. Before I attached it, I used the stencil and the paint to create a really nice decorative scroll-like boarder. I also added a sparkly gold monogram by simply creating the lettering I wanted in Word on the computer, then printing it onto cardstock (thicker paper is better). I then cut it out to create a stencil, then traced it onto my board and filled in the lines with paint.

For the seat of the throne, I used a flower girl dress that my daughter had outgrown. I first cut the skirt away from the bodice of the dress. Since the seats of my dining room chairs are removable, I unscrewed the seat and removed it. I then duct taped the skirt onto the chair, on the inside of the frame where it wouldn’t be seen. I used the sash that came with the dress to cover the seat and then placed it back onto the chair frame.

Voila! A throne fit for a princess! And it cost me under $10. If you don’t have a pretty dress to destroy on hand, I’d suggest hitting up a Goodwill. They always have stuff like that for cheap!

Jada sat on her throne as each of her guest presented her with her gifts to open. This really made her feel extra special on her day!

Music:

You really do need to have some music playing to make your party lively and fun for the children. A great CD that we enjoyed for Jada’s party was Disney Princess Tea Party. We hooked up the stereo to play it continuously throughout the party. The girls loved dancing along with the fun tunes! The whole CD cost me $12, but you can also purchase individual songs and download only the ones you want, for $.99 each! If you Go Here and scroll down, you can listen to samples of each song, and purchase only those which you like.

Activities & Games:

Dress Up: As each girl arrived, I’d lead her to the dress up station, where she would get a dress (if she didn’t have one) and accessories. Then I would sit her down at a vanity to apply a little eye shadow, lip stick, blush, and stick on earrings if her ears weren’t pierced.

I really lucked up when I found an old vanity on the side of the road a week before the party. I had been wanting to use one, but didn’t want to buy one. I grabbed it up, took it home, and painted it, adding the same gold and glitter stenciling as was on the throne. What a blessing that was to find, it was perfect! (And I actually was able to sell it at a yard sale after the party after it was all painted and pretty!)

Kiss The Frog: It’s like Pin The Tail On The Donkey, but with a frog and lips. Draw a picture of a Frog Prince on a large piece of paper. Next create paper lips for the children to stick onto the frog. Blind fold each child, spin the around a few times, then let them see who can get their kiss closest to the frog’s mouth.

As a prize I let each child chose a Disney Princess Lip gloss.

Princess & The Pea: I like to precede this game by telling a short, paraphrased version of the story The Princess and The Pea, using a book mainly for visual interest. If you read it word for word, you’ll probably lose the attention of the kids pretty quickly, depending on their age of course, so try to keep it fairly short.

Now, you’ll need three or four small pillows and a marble or small rubber ball (for younger kids) to hide underneath one of the pillows. Have the girls line up sitting on the floor in front of the pillows. Let each girl have a turn to sit on each pillow and try to figure out which one has the “pea” under it. Once they have determined the correct pillow, announce to that girl, “You’re right! You must be a real princess!” And as their reward I gave each of our princesses a crown of her own (each was only $1.00 at Target!).

Karaoke: Having an open mike is so much fun for the little ones! Not to mention a crack up for the parents to watch! If you have access to a music player and a microphone or a karaoke machine, this is a wonderful, and inexpensive activity for your party goers to enjoy! My husband happened to have a PA system for his business, so we were fortunate to have that to use!

Decorations:

As if the huge castle wasn’t enough, right?

Besides the usual streamers and balloons, something that I got and loved was a Palace Scene Setter. It’s that faux palace backdrop that you see in the pictures. It was super easy to tack up, and really made a huge difference in creating a magical place for the kids. For $18, it’s so worth it!

(Not quite as perfect as the picture I was trying to replicate, but oh well, it was still a hit!)

The Cake:

Want to save some money, and still have an awesome birthday cake for your little princess? You don’t have to have any cake decorating skills to make this adorable castle cake! Believe me, if I can do it, I’m sure you can too! There’s even an instructional video that you can watch. Not only will it save you money by doing it yourself, it will be much cuter than a store bought cake and tastier too!

(*Notice the flags are missing from the tops of the cones? Here’s a little tip: don’t refrigerate the cake with the cones on it before you put the flags in the top! The cones get hard, and the toothpicks will cause the tips of the cones to break when inserted. Keep them room temp.)

After hours of searching for more Princess Party ideas, here is a list of the BEST places that I have found for some great ideas online!

Familyfun.com- Invitation idea, games, craft

Princess Paper Dolls- Printable Activity

Princess Castle Maze- Printable Activity

A Ton of Great Princess Party Ideas

Total Guide to Princess Party- Printable Invitations, printable crafts (including crowns to decorate), lots more!

Hope this has been helpful for you! If anybody has any other neat and frugal ideas for a Princess Party, or if you’d like to share how you did yours, I’d love to hear from you!

Tags : frugal party ideas, little girl party ideas, princess party, princess party ideas, princess party tips, the best princess party

I appreciate Crystal encouraging us to share our goals for this year, and I have many, so I thought I’d share them as well. This year, I feel, is going to be particularly tough. I have been feeling the need to really start preparing for the worst; here are some of my goals with that in mind for this year:

• Settling debt: When we were forced to close our business this past August, we were left with a ton of debt as a result. Without the business’ income to help pay the loans, we were suddenly unable to pay the high rates, and were falling behind fast. Our debt payments were over $400/mo. WAY too much for us! I tried all I could to work with the banks to negotiate a better rate or a payoff amount, but they were unmoving. Our interest rate was 18%! OUCH!! So, we decided to pay off the debt with a home equity line with an interest rate of 2%! So now, instead of our payments being $408/mo, we are paying $40/mo. Much, much better! So now, the only debt we have is on our home. Though a little more now, much more manageable.

• Start my very first garden. You can read all that I’ve accomplished so far here!

• Publish a Christian Children’s Book that I’ve been working on for almost 2 years! I’ve actually had it ready and waiting. I just need to find a good illustrator now…

• Reducing our power bill. Currently it’s over $200/mo! I’m sure there are things that we can do to knock that down. I know it’s winter and all, but that’s crazy! My goal is to get it under $100/mo.

• Get some farm animals. If you’ve been following me, you know that I’m fascinated with homesteading and living self sufficiently (if you’re interested in this kind of stuff, you need to be reading my series: The True Queen of Frugal: Lessons from Butterberry Farm). One of my goals is to begin acquiring some useful animals around the house. I’d like rabbits, chickens, maybe goats, a milk cow, and maybe a pig… maybe. I’m hoping to have at least one of these by the end of the year.

• Plant fruit trees.

• Make my own cloth baby wipes, and perhaps try the Family Cloth idea.

• Make my home safer: adding fire extinguishers, a driveway alarm, teaching my kids fire safety, preparing an emergency kit, etc.

• Stocking an Emergency Pantry with six months to a year’s worth of canned goods, flour, sugar, etc. Including learning to can, dry, and freeze my garden’s produce for storage.

• Learning to sew. Something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

• Fix up our single wide and get it rented out. This would help bring in some much needed extra income.

• Investing for my kids. If you missed it, read more about how I’ve started investing HERE.

• Sell unnecessary items. We have lots of yard sale things boxed up and ready to go, but also lots of inventory and such leftover from the business. I am hoping to liquidate everything in order to put away some money in an emergency fund.

• Make a will. I’ve been really needing to do this for years. I really need to make a will, for the children’s sake.

Well, that’s all I can think of right now. I’m sure that I’ll think of more to add later. It will be good for me to have this all written down, so that I can come back to it throughout the year to remind myself of things I may have missed. I am really hoping to accomplish all of these things and more. Prayerfully, diligently, and maybe even a little naively at times. But I am determined to do my best!

When the stock market started going downhill this past Fall, I began to really contemplate the market. I have been saying for years that I’d like to invest money for my children, but I never got around to it. It always seemed like such a complicated, and expensive task. But once I saw stocks plunging, I began to really look into taking advantage of the low priced market. I remember Dave Ramsey saying that when stocks go down, think of them as being “on sale”. Well, there was a major sale going on, and I wanted to get in on it!

I was a little hesitant, and not sure how long the market would stay low. But after it seemed to only be getting worse, I decided I’d better jump in while I could. In October I started looking into buying stock, completely naive about anything to do with investing. My grandfather, an expert (in my opinion) in investing wisely, suggested that I try using Scottrade as my broker.

I pulled all of the kid’s savings out, a modest accrual, and brought their money to my local Scottrade office. First of all, I didn’t know that they wouldn’t take cash. I had to go to the gas station next door, and get money orders. Next, I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t be able to invest that same day. I had to wait a few days for the money to actually post in their accounts before I could start playing with it. So, that was a little disappointing. I was afraid that the market would suddenly skyrocket overnight and I would lose my chance. It didn’t. I finished the process, and opened the accounts in each child’s name. No fees, no cost. Then I went home and watched the market like a hawk, and studied which stocks I thought I’d like to buy.

Now, I am by no means an expert. I am brand new at this. BUT, I’ve listened closely to many experts, and paid attention to what they are saying. NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY… as long as you will not need this money within the next 5 years. If you have a little money stashed away for your kids, seriously consider investing it. Everything is at bottom prices right now, and eventually they WILL go back up. Since I don’t plan on giving my kids their savings until they are atleast 18, I know I have time to safely invest their money, and I don’t have to worry about if they lose some in the short term.

I wish I could tell you which stocks you should buy. I wish I knew. But I will tell you how I picked mine.

• First, think of a product that you use often; something that you need (ie: electricity, gas, food…). I think it’s wise to invest in things that people cannot do without.
• Next, find the stock symbol for the company, and then look up their 5 year record. If their stocks have increasingly gone up (until this past year), then it’s probably a good one to invest in.
• Pay attention to what the media is saying. If you are hearing that a company is close to bankruptcy, or is closing, common sense tells you not to invest in it.
• Diversify: Don’t spend all of your money on one company. You need to spread it out between several, just in case one of them goes very badly, that way you won’t lose everything on that one. But keep in mind that there is a fee every time you buy/trade, so take that into consideration and don’t waste a lot of your savings on trading fees. Be sure how many shares you want to buy before you actually make your purchase.

Scottrade is cool because their fees aren’t crazy. I was afraid that brokerage fees would be outrageous, and that it wouldn’t be worth it to me with such little money to invest. What I like about them is that if you do all of your trading yourself online, you only have to pay a one time fee of $7 for every trade (no matter how many shares of that one company you buy). And that’s all I’ll ever have to pay them. Plus, they will give you free help and advice over the phone if you need it.

Trading online really isn’t as daunting of a task as it may seem either. If you are comfortable navigating the internet, you can do this. The hardest part in investing in making up your mind which stocks you want to purchase. After that it’s just a click of a button and it’s yours. It’s really that simple. You just have to research, research, research, and do the best you can to make a good decision.

I’m sure there are other stock brokerages out there that are great too. All I can tell you about is what I am familiar with, and have tried. But if you have a little stash of money in your kids savings account or piggy bank, maybe you ought to consider putting it somewhere where it just might grow to a substantial amount by the time they are ready for it.

So, tell me, have you invested yet? Got any advice to share? I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

Tags : advice on investing money, beginning to invest, investing your childs savings, stock market tips

You guys have been so sweet… I’ve been getting a bunch of emails from you asking how I am, and if I’m ever going to write again! I know it’s been forever. Here’s what’s been going on, and why I’ve been absent for so long:

After the big move, we were quickly consumed with the holidays, and all that goes with them. And, we ended up getting a big surprise for Christmas…

We’re having another baby!!

So, for the past couple of months I have felt horrible, morning (actually all day) sickness in full swing. It has been all I can do to get up and make sure the kids were dressed and fed, let alone try to do anything else. On top of that we all got hit with a horrible head and chest cold, and now me and little Titus are just getting over the stomach flu. One thing after another, but at least the pregnancy nausea has pretty much subsided, and today I’m feeling pretty good.

Needless to say, I’ve been waiting all of this out before I started writing again. I’ve had so much to say lately, so much on my mind. I can’t wait to share it with you all again. I’ll probably start off slow, posting a couple of times a week. Yes, I’ve visited with my friend Adelia, so I do have some more Lessons From Butterberry Farm to share with you this week.

Thank you for your thoughts, and kind emails. I can’t wait to hear more from you all again!

Your friend,