Summarize this article in one sentence.
Before you decide the specifics of a party, like what to serve or who to invite, you'll need to choose a location for the party. If you're sticking to a budget, you'll want to find a venue that is either free or very low-cost. If you're throwing a relatively small party, you can host it at your home or in your backyard. If the party will be too big for your home or yard, try booking a picnic area in your local park. Regardless of where you decide to have the party, you'll want to decorate the venue. This will help customize the space, ideally to make it unique to your child's interests and hobbies. Rather than paying a professional decorator, you can find and display your own decorations at a relatively low cost. Instead of tablecloths, you can buy a cheap roll of plain white paper and drape big sheets over the tabletops. Then leave crayons out for the kids to draw and doodle on the paper. It won't cost much, and it will add a fun element of creativity to the party. Balloons are fairly cheap, even if you buy them with helium from the store. Decorate the tables with small, low-cost party favors. You can leave a small bowl of individually-wrapped candy at the center of the table, or put out a small bushel of freshly-picked apples for guests to take home. If your child wants a theme birthday party, you can make things simple by buying plates and napkins with that theme's design on them. You can also cut costs by buying balloons and napkins that are the color of your theme - for example, red and blue for a Spiderman party, or teal blue for a Frozen party. Another easy way to cut costs for the party is by making your own invitations. You can use recycled paper on hand, or for even greater savings per project, try sending out an e-vite to the party. You can find free templates and sample invitations online. Search for "party invitations" to find examples of easy party invitation templates. If you're trying to plan a party on a budget, the reality of the situation is that you may need to invite fewer people. Each extra kid who's invited will require additional food and drinks, plus any party favors or supplies for activities you have planned. If you're worried about hurt feelings from your child's peers, consider inviting only friends and classmates, rather than leaving the invitation open to siblings or other outside friends. For infants, it's best to stick to family members and/or close friends. No two year old is going to remember how many people were at a party, and the smaller, more-intimate setting will make it feel more like a family get-together. If the child is in preschool, a general rule for the number of other kids to invite is the child's age plus one. So, for example, if your child is three or four years old, invite four or five other kids from preschool. For older kids, it's more a question of how many classmates your child is actually friends with, and how many people you can reasonably accommodate (in terms of space and cost). However, if you do invite several classmates, you'll want to avoid sending invitations to all but one or two kids, as this will alienate the uninvited kids and may cause tension. If your child's birthday falls around the same time as one of your other kids' birthdays (or a friend/classmate's birthday), consider combining the two parties into one bigger party. You'll then be able to split the cost of the party with the other parent (if it's a friend's birthday), or at least consolidate the costs instead of having two parties (for siblings). Ask around among your friends' parents to find out when their children's birthdays fall. You can bring up the idea of combining parties casually. Say something like, "Our child's birthday is only a short while before/after. Would you be interested in combining the two parties together and having one big party?" Just make sure the other parent isn't planning anything too extravagant that would break your budget.
Choose a low-cost venue. Decorate the venue. Make your own invitations. Cut back on the guest list. Consider combining parties.