Me and my friend were totally stumped on what to do for her 15th birthday that would be fun, yet inexpensive. This is what we came up with:  We invited about 6 girls (including her) to attend the party. Not much, but still a good number for a fun, intimate party. We sent them invitations to attend a party with the usual party info (time, date, place, etc.) Then, the day of the party we kidnapped the girls (w/ their parents knowledge and permission of course) early in the morning (about 6 a.m). We took the girls back to the birthday girl's house and let them freshen up (we provided tooth brushes, other hygiene products for them). Then we had my aunt come over (who's a hairdresser) and style each girl's hair and do their makeup. Then we went (still in our p.j's) to the mall where each girl was given $30. Then, (kind of copying the show, The Look For Less) we gave each girl a picture from a magazine and told them they had to try and copy the picture as best they could. The catch was they could only spend the $30 and no more. We split up in 3 groups of 2 people, but this could be done any way. Then, we chose a place to meet up when we were done. Believe it or not, but it is actually pretty easy to stay within the $40 budget. The trick is to go the clearance sections. For example, in some stores, like Agaci, you can find some really great shirts for like $3. They might be a bit damaged, but this is all for fun, so it shouldn't matter. And the damages are usually not visible. Another trick is to try to chose pictures that don't include jeans, as they could use up most of the $30 budget, even if they are cheap.  After everyone met back up we chose the person that matched the picture the closest based on: clothing and accessories. The girl that won got a gift certificate. After that, we went to get pictures taken of us in our outfits. Then later on, we went out to eat and back to the house for movies and stuff. We had the girls sleepover and the next day we "returned" them back to their parents. It was a lot of fun and actually quite inexpensive. Though, if you are on a budget, you could probably have the parents tuck money into the shoes or something of the girl being kidnapped so that you don't have to provide the money. But, all in all, it was really fun and very memorable!