Today I am going to show you what I put together for favor bags for my kids winter themed party. I was able to put them together for less than $1 a bag! I want to give you some of my tips on how you can keep costs down when putting together party favors.

Here is the contents of the bag and the cost breakdown. It was all in a cute lunch sized bag with a snowman on it. Sorry, no picture of the bag. 

Snowman Bag: $.12
Bubble Set: $.35
Snowman Lollipop: $.04
Paper and stickers $.15
Themed notebook and pen: $.23
Total: $.89

I thought the bags had some really good stuff in it for that price. Here are my tips so that you can do it too:

1. Plan ahead – I knew that I would want to give goody bags at the kids birthday party and so I kept an eye out all year long for good deals. I bought the notepads during all the hot back to school sales and they were dirt cheap. Once I decided on a theme, I decorated them with paper I had on hand. You could make these work with any theme in the world.
2. Clearance, Clearance, clearance! I love shopping the clearance section. Almost every holiday clearance has some items that are not holiday specific. The mini pens for instance, were Christmas clearance but they came in pink, red, blue, and green. The bubble pack was my major clearance score. I found them on summer clearance, and they had a ton of them left. Every kid loves bubbles, and this is another universal goody bag item.
3. Utilize the closest holiday – If you want to keep the cost way down, it doesn’t hurt to take advantage of the closest holiday to your event. My party was in January, so I combed Christmas clearance for items that weren’t strictly Christmas, like santa and reindeer. That’s how we ended up with snowmen and penguins. 
4. Get creative with what you have on hand – My daughter loves stickers and art projects. I simply took some paper I had on hand to create a snow scene. I found some holiday stickers on clearance and was able to get a whole sticker page activity for only $.15 per kid.

Do you have any tips for keeping party costs low? I would love to hear them. Please share in the comments! Happy party planning!

Recommended Reading:

10 tips for a Successful Holiday photo shoot with kids Carnival Party Sneak Peek: Cotton Candy 10 Tips for Reducing Allergies from VISINE®