What Does a Party Cost Per Guest? How to Create an Accurate Budget
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
5 min reading time
Parties rarely go wrong because of one big expense, but because of ten small ones. Calculate per guest instead of in totals and immediately see which item is disproportionately high.
Most parties don't get out of hand due to one large expense, but ten small ones. A pack of cups here, another bag of candy there, and by the end of the evening, you don't know where that hundred euros went. Yet, you can calculate what an evening will cost beforehand – you just need a different approach than "what do I like."
Don't calculate in totals, but per guest. Then you'll immediately see which item is disproportionate, and you can adjust without the party becoming boring. Below is how to set that up, with real prices so you can re-calculate the sum yourself.
Step 1: Determine the number of guests before buying anything
Everything depends on this number. Twenty guests or thirty-five guests is not a small difference in decoration, but almost a doubling of your consumables. Therefore, take the number of people who have truly confirmed, add ten percent for plus-ones and late registrations, and calculate with that.
Then divide your expenses into three types:
Consumables — are used up during the evening and must be calculated per guest: cups, straws, napkins, candy, treats.
One-off — you use it once and throw it away: confetti, candles, balloons.
Durable — lasts for years and therefore should not be fully charged to this party: glasses, games, an ice mold.
Only the first two categories belong in your cost per guest. The third is amortized over several parties, and that significantly changes your choices.
Step 2: Serving drinks is your biggest consumable expense
Don't underestimate how many cups are used. People set one down, forget which one is theirs, and grab a new one. Count on three to four per guest for an evening of about five hours.
Disposable is then the cheapest per piece: Coffee Cups 150ml 100 Pieces (€14.95) costs about fifteen cents per cup. For stronger drinks or shots, a set of small glasses works better: Shot Glasses Set 6 pieces - 60 ml (€3.00) comes down to fifty cents per glass, but you can wash those and reuse them next year — so that's a durable item, not a consumable. If you prefer to hand out one cup per guest that lasts all evening, look at something like the Sports and Coffee Cup Hard PVC 500 ml (€9.95).
Step 3: Decoration doesn't have to scale per guest
This is where the biggest savings are, because decoration is noticed on the wall, not by the number of people. One well-decorated corner does more than streamers throughout the entire room. Choose two or three accents and leave the rest bare.
What does scale per guest are the things people hold or take with them. LED Balloons 5 pieces - yellow or multicolor (€2.95) comes out to about sixty cents per balloon. A Red Petals Party Popper / Confetti Cannon 28cm (€6.95) is calculated per piece, not per guest: two or three at the right moment is enough, and it saves you half an hour of cleanup. For a birthday, a Name Candle Birthday (€1.00) is also appropriate — the smallest expense with the most effect on photos.
Step 4: Treats and candy, the item that quietly doubles
You almost always buy too much or too little candy, because you think in bags instead of portions. Count one substantial portion per guest and one extra for every three guests.
That's approximately €4.40 per guest, excluding drinks and food. Do you see now that the shot glasses and party poppers together account for a quarter of the total? Then you immediately know where you can make adjustments — and that the glasses can actually be amortized over three parties.
What to save on and what not to
Saving on cups and straws feels logical but only yields a few dimes per guest. Saving on the number of different items yields much more: two types of candy instead of five, one decoration corner instead of three, one game on the table instead of a stack. A set of Poker Chips 50 pieces - 6 colors (€9.95) or a UNO Flex Card Game for 2 to 8 players (€6.99) lasts for years and keeps an evening going if the conversation dies down.
Finally, buy everything in one order. Three separate orders mean three times shipping costs, and that's precisely the amount you were trying to save so hard on with the straws.
Calculate yourself
Make your list with the number of guests and fill in the prices from the collections Party Supplies, Glasses, Straws and Candy. For candles and ambiance, check Candles. Can't figure out how much you need of something for your number of guests? Email your number and date to info@verpakkingdeals.nl, and we'll help you with the quantities.
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