Dress up parties or masquerade could be fun !

Have a gathering at your place. Ask everyone to bring a plate and BYO drinks and you’re set

Why not a small gethering at your place? If your place is too small, ask a friend with a bigger home if she could host. Then ask guests to bring a plate and BYO drinks. Balloons and streamers are cheap decorations. Hope you had a great 30th

A backyard barbecue with a few close friends and their children would be very personal and lovely.

Why not have a colour themed party. I recently went to a black and white party, everyone wore black and or white, there was black and white decorations, plates, etc. The cake was simple black and white cupcakes.

Why not do a family holiday to celebrate your 30th? do a drive holiday to a nearby beach or watch for cheap flights…doesn’t matter where to and wing it, your son would love it too

Have a themed party like mad hatter or Alice in wonderland You can get lots of ideas from that or do a tea party in the afternoon nice and affordable and fun

I think you could still do fancy dress even though your son is doing it for his party. it’s great as adults to dress up. I did hollywood theme for mine – red carpet! The invites were like invites to logies and we had papparazzi! Or you could set a theme to dress up as something starting with a certain letter (e.g the first letter of your name).

Either an easy BBQ at your place or go to park that has a BBQ! Ask your friends if they could do a salad or dessert. Easy peasy!

Bbq and these cool home made pizzas, pizza made from english muffins, tom sauce, cheese, pineapple, bacon or ham…. Mmmmm yummy. Dessert chocolate spiders, rice noodles broken up and mixed through melted chocolate… Dress up party sounds great, u could tell ppl to dress as super hero’s or their favoourate childhood cartoon character, that would be interesting, and could invite all ur family and other ppl that u do know.
Happy birthday to you both and have a wonderful time

thanks for all your help ladies

I also agree with the good old BBQ and Fancy dress. You can also ask your guesses to dress up as something that starts with their Christian Initial eg Cherz = Cheese.
Desserts can also be done on the BBQ as well..Pineapple coated in brown sugar is delicious and around January should be quite cheap. Also Pavlova can be cooked on the trusty BBQ as well. Heaps of ideas and recipes on Google. Happy Birthday to you and your son.

Sausage sizzle at home with other simple birthday food, combine both dress up parties – cheap as chips.

I agree with the first answer but combine the two. A fancy dress backyard barbie!

You could probably hire for a donation to the local rescue club or similar organisation for holding a party there. Pick a letter and get people dress up with something that starts with that letter, you could do an easy bbq/catering with minimal cost and ask one of your friends, if you aren’t computer savvy to create a usb/cd with your favourite music, that way reducing the cost of entertainment. It can be done on the cheapo, but imagination is the key, think outside the box. And happy 30th!