Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

Visit Us On FacebookVisit Us On TwitterVisit Us On PinterestVisit Us On InstagramVisit Us On LinkedinCheck Our FeedVisit Us On Youtube
  • About Me
    • Favorite Resources
    • Advertising and Sponsorship
    • Copyright and Terms of Use
    • Disclosure Policy
    • Privacy Policy
  • Travel
    • Europe
      • Benelux
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Ireland
      • Italy
      • London
      • Porto
      • Prague
    • USA
      • Chicago
      • Georgia
      • Hawaii
      • Ohio
      • Utah
      • Yellowstone and Teton
  • Homeschool
    • Book Lists
    • How Do We Do That?
    • Notebooking
    • Subjects and Styles
    • Unit Studies
  • Military
    • Deployment
    • PCS
  • Health
    • Recipes
    • Essential Oils
    • Fitness
    • Mental Health
    • Natural Living
    • Natural Beauty
  • Family
    • Frugal
  • Faith
  • Reviews

© 2021 Jennifer Lambert · Copyright · Disclosure · Privacy · Ad

You are here: Home / Recipes / Frugal Birthday Celebration

Frugal Birthday Celebration

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure. Please see my suggested resources.

March 13, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 3 Comments

I’m decorationally challenged.

I loathe kids’ birthday parties. I am always stressed.

Some of the stress is from growing up, surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins and having rather large gatherings for my birthdays, along with kids from my class at school.

We just don’t have any of that.

I tried. I wasted time and money on Liz’s birthdays for years. Some were rather successful and others flopped miserable, with no one even RSVPing or showing.

My husband didn’t grow up with big birthdays so he didn’t understand any of this.

So we discussed downsizing our idea of birthday expectations.

We’ve been having simple family dinners at home for a few years now.

No pressure. Teaching our kids that they’re special to us and we don’t have to blow a lot of money or impress people to show that.

So I’ve had to dig deep to find ways to make birthdays specials, frugally and without stressing out about it.

Because it’s not about things. I want my kids to learn that and honestly, they’re teaching me that too. They’re better at contentment than I am. And I love this post by my friend, Amber: When You Can’t Give Your Kids Disneyland.

Here is what I did for Tori’s 8th birthday.

I scored this rustic burlap pennant banner at Hobby Lobby.

I printed the letters on teal paper. I found the letters online at Martha Stewart’s site. I’m not really a fan, but Google to the rescue!

Birthday Banner

I used the same letters on skewers to decorate the cake with some long skinny blue candles and a cocktail umbrella Kate found in our cupcake drawer.

Tori wanted a white cake with chocolate frosting. This is my grandma’s recipe and it turned out amazing. Is it me, or is there just never enough frosting? I have bald spots on my cake!

Birthday Cake

What do you think?

I’ve also used this recipe to make 24 cupcakes and I’ve also thrown a half cup of cocoa powder into the cake batter to make a chocolate cake.

It’s almost time to blow the candles out! Dad picked up a lovely bouquet of flowers from the store on his way home from work.

Chocolate Cake with Blue Decorations

Tori’s favorite meal is Korean BBQ. Now, she’s never actually actually been to a Korean restaurant. She loves the Korean BBQ sauce flavor.

Which is basically a type of teriyaki sauce.

So we buy some nice strip steaks (no bony, fatty kalbi short ribs for her!). The kids don’t like to work for their food.

I plated it rather pretty on our Celebrate plate:

Celebration Dinner

Here’s our happy birthday girl. Eight years old!

Birthday Girl

I scored a Marie-Grace American Girl doll back in November for $40 on sale on their website and kept it hidden in my closet until now. It’s not the one she was wishing for (Caroline looks more like her and is into fishing!), but it is her first American Girl doll and she’s happy.

Whew!

One birthday down, two more to go this spring. Then Liz’s in the fall.

A great steak marinade:

Print

Korean BBQ Sauce

Cuisine Asian
Servings 1 cups

Ingredients

  • 4 T ground sesame seeds We use a coffee grinder
  • 8 cloves garlic pressed
  • 1.5 c soy sauce We like gluten-free Tamari
  • 4 T sherry
  • 6 T honey
  • 4 T sesame oil
  • 4 T water
  • 4 t fresh ginger grated
  • 4 t red pepper flakes optional

Instructions

  1. Whisk ingredients together in a bowl and store in a plastic squeeze bottle in the fridge for when needed. I like to garnish meat with more sesame seeds and chopped scallions.

 Our favorite cake:

Print

Easy White Cake

Cuisine cake
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 2 layers

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter (2 sticks) softened
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 large eggs room temperature
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 1/2 t almond extract
  • 3 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 3 c cake flour
  • 1 c milk room temperature

Instructions

  1. Cream butter and sugar.

  2. Add eggs and vanilla and almond extract.

  3. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together in another bowl.

  4. Alternate milk and flour into butter mixture until just mixed.

  5. Pour evenly into cake pans.

  6. Bake for about 25 minutes at 350*

Print

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Cuisine cake
Servings 2 cups

Ingredients

  • 1.5 c butter (3 sticks), softened  or 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening
  • 1 c cocoa powder
  • 5 c powdered sugar
  • 1/2 c milk
  • 1-2 t vanilla
  • 1/4 t espresso powder optional

Instructions

  1. Whisk cocoa to remove lumps.
  2. Cream butter.
  3. Add vanilla and espresso (optional).
  4. Gradually add sugar, 1 cup at a time, scraping bowl often.
  5. Add milk until desired consistency.

Linking up: Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, The Life of Jennifer Dawn,  3 Boys and a Dog, Our 4 Kiddos, Kiddie Foodies, Kitchen Fun with My 3 Boys, The Jenny Evolution, Crafty Moms Share, 

Share
Tweet
Pin2
Share
2 Shares
You might also like:

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: birthday, cake, frugal, grilling, recipe

I feel this is how rich people live. We now have a I feel this is how rich people live. We now have a garage fridge!
Homemade ramen night with pork and tuna Homemade ramen night with pork and tuna
Grilled pizza Friday night Grilled pizza Friday night
Fun at the park last night Fun at the park last night
Garden harvest Garden harvest
My pollinator garden is going great! My pollinator garden is going great!
I made a rare trip to Trader Joe's and was not dis I made a rare trip to Trader Joe's and was not disappointed. We grilled the figs stuffed with herb goat cheese and wrapped in prosciutto, drizzled with almonds and local honey. Glory.
The game time has changed at least three times, an The game time has changed at least three times, and we arrived over two hours early, too late to go back home and come back.The weather is muggier and sunnier than we anticipated. No foods or drinks or coolers allowed inside the venue.I ate my lunch in the car while looking at a cornfield. Who knows when dinner will be?I love watching my son play baseball, despite the obnoxious parents loudly cussing at the umpires, abusive coach/parents screaming at their own kids, and boys who play 4 sports and don't really want to be here.This field complex has about a dozen domestic beers on tap and more drinks in cans and it cost $8 for me to enter. I feel like I'm at a club.I never did like clubs.I think I deserve this tub o'beer.#baseball #beer #midwest #sports #homeschool
First rose of the year! First rose of the year!
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Recent Posts

  • 50 Shades of Green
  • Healing Mother
  • Our Curriculum for 2022-2023
  • Summer Slide
  • Benefits of Taking a Magnesium Complex Supplement
Booking.com ThermoWorks Thermapen Mk4

Comments

  1. Jill says

    March 16, 2014 at 4:38 pm

    That is a great deal for an American Girl doll!
    Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!

    Reply
  2. Adelien Tan says

    March 19, 2014 at 10:35 pm

    The meal looks very mouthwatering. Korean food is very interesting.

    Reply
  3. Madeline lee says

    September 30, 2021 at 10:03 am

    Baking your own stuff is definitely cheaper, and it’s something we usually do for birthdays. Hell, my grandma got me a little pound cake for my last birthday as there were only three of us celebrating. My birthday was often combined with 4th of July celebrations, as it’s only 10 days later. My cousins were both born in November, so they either had joint parties, or we celebrated one, and then the other with Thanksgiving. No one ever complained

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Homeschool Giveaway & Freebie Suggested Resources.COM for just $5.98 at NamecheapDaySpring Back to School Sale

Archives

Popular Posts

10 DIY Gifts with Essential Oils10 DIY Gifts with Essential Oils
Natural Remedies for HeadacheNatural Remedies for Headache
10 Natural Remedies to Keep on Hand10 Natural Remedies to Keep on Hand
Homemade SunscreenHomemade Sunscreen
Henna Hands CraftHenna Hands Craft
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT