Star Wars Party for less than $50 - We recently had a birthday party for my son, but since we just had a baby, funds were low.  So we tried to have a really great party with little money spent. First, we chose a location.  We decided to have it at the park so we could utilize the playground equipment for one of our activities.  Plus, it was free!  Next, we made invitations. We picked some Star Wars graphics online and printed our own invitations. Again, no money output, since we already had the paper and ink in our printer.  Our invitations read Outside: "You have been chosen Youngling.  You have the power to help save the universe!" Inside: "Jedi training begins at 2:00 pm on Saturday May 20th. Meet at the Jedi Temple in Corsucant (Emmett City Park Playground).  Your Jedi Master will greet you."  Next we had to come up with decorations and party supplies.  We checked out the "Star Wars" Theme stuff, but it was spendy, so we just got black and gold stuff from the dollar store and it looked great (One package of forks, two plates and two napkins, and a tablecloth -Total $6) For decorations, we used my son's Star Wars Miniatures toys. He had the Millenuim Falcon and an ATST, as well as several figurines. For party favors & for a game, we made Light Sabers for the kids. We took the cheap dollar store water noodles and cut them in 1/2, then we took duct tape and made a handle on one end, and then took two strips of electrical tape and put them at the top and bottom of the duct tape "handle". (6 water noodles made 12 light sabers - we already had the tape - $6 - Total spent $12) For food, we just did cake and punch. For the cake, I bought 2 cake mixes and a package of powdered sugar plus a package of wild colors fruit roll-ups ($5 - total spent $17).  I made a two layer from one cake mix, and baked the other one in a glass bowl. Then I made white frosting, and took about 1/2 cup and turned it blue.  I layered the cake using frosting as a filler and placed the bowl cake on top.  Then I frosted the entire thing white.  I opened all of the packages of fruit roll ups, only 2 were blue, so I used the blue ones to create the square things on top of R2-D2's head, then I used the blue frosting for the other shapes. (I cut the other fruit roll ups in 1/2 (They were still rolled up) so there were 12 pieces and placed them on a plate near the cake.)  We also bought two packages of red water balloons and a package of black regular ballons, and a Mylar balloon on the day of the party. (Just a hint, it took a lot longer to fill up the water balloons than I thought it would, so you might want to do it the day before) We put the water balloons into a plastic tub which we already had, but a cooler, or a box would probably work too. ($4 - total spent $21)  The punch, we got lucky with, Sunny D was 10 for 10 at the grocery store, so we got three flavors and only spent $3. (Total so far, $24) Finally, we got a package of lunch bags at the dollar store and two packages of star wars stickers  ($3, total - $27) We bought an R2D2 pinata for $11 and filled it with candy for another $5 (Total cost $42)  For the stick, we took a blue broomstick (We already had it) and used the tape to put a light-saber handle on it as well. ON THE DAY OF THE PARTY...We set the presents on one end of the picnic table, and the food and party supplies at the other. We blew the regular balloons up and filled the water balloons and taped the mylar balloon to the table so that people would know where we were. We also drew some "Droids" on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk.  The kids arrived and we gave them the lunch sacks and some stickers and markers and let them make their own goody bags. As soon as the kids had all arrived, I gathered them together and told them that we had a training session for them, they needed to understand what had happened when the clones changed sides, so they were going to attack the droids, and then, when they received the order "General Order 66" they would then turn on their "Jedi Trainers" which we told them were the dads.  They let loose with the water balloons at the droids, and I had my husband and brother keep an eye on them for a moment while I checked on the baby, and when the dads got close, I yelled out "General Order 66" and the kids started throwing the balloons at my husband and brother, who had to run through the kids to get to the balloons, but everyone got thoroughly soaked and had a great time.  For their second Jedi task, I had them pick up all of the balloon pieces. Next, we had an obstical course challenge. We went to the playground and did an obstical course, ending in the big slide.  They enjoyed it so much that most of them did it twice. Next we had cake and opened presents. Everyone liked my cake, except my sister-in-law who didn't know what character it was supposed to be.....After cake, we gave each of the kids a light saber and a balloon, the training challenge was to keep the balloon in the air with the light saber for 2 minutes.    Finally, we did the pinata, and the kids filled their goody bags with the treats from the pinata. Then they basically just played with the light sabers until the parents arrived. Everyone had a really great time and they were still talking about it the next week at school.  The best part was that we spent less than $50. (Total Spent was $42)  Thanks - Ellen