I was quoted £500 for my daughter's first birthday party - so I pulled it off myself for just £50

A British mum on a budget turned her dismay at not being able to afford her daughter's first birthday into a DIY project that saved her hundreds of pounds.

Kimberly Walsh wanted to make her daughter's first birthday special, with plans for an elaborate photo shoot, a monogrammed jumper, and a big balloon arch.

However, when the mum from Surrey was quoted around £500 for her plans, she was forced to come up with clever workarounds that would make her daughter Amelia just as happy - but without breaking the bank.

In the end, Kimberly saved £450 by organising the party herself, with her total expenses coming in at just under £50.

'It was my daughter's first birthday and we were on a budget. You only get to experience your daughter's first birthday once, however we couldn't afford what I wanted,' Kimberly said.

'So, I decided to teach myself to make the things I wanted badly for her birthday and managed to save hundreds by doing it at home!

'And she loved it and we made great memories.'

She added: 'I was quoted just shy of £500! Did it all myself at home for less than £50.'

Her first plan of action was to custom-make a balloon arch for Amelia; Kimberly's creation cost a total of £20 and she ended up saving over £180 on the installation.

'The balloon arch I was told was £200+ it varied depending on what company I chose,' the thrifty mother explained. 'I bought the balloons off Amazon to do it myself for £15 and the fishing wire to tie them together for £5.'

Next up were the cookies, which she was told would cost £40, but after some intuitive thinking, she managed to do it for just over a pound.

'I bought some biscuits for £1, ordered a stencil off etsy and made some fondant!' she shared.

Instead of splashing out £40 for a birthday jumper with Amelia's name on it, she bought a cheaper jumper and knitted the name in herself, for a grand total of £17.

'For the jumper, I was quoted £40 but I did it myself by buying a jumper for £12 and buying yarn for £1.50 and needles for £3.' Kimberly added.

Lastly, Kimberley wanted a photoshoot to remember the lovely day and instead of paying £200 for a cake-smashing photoshoot, she just did it at home, with an old sheet on the floor, some wrapping paper.

The whole exercise cost Kimberly £3 - and some clothes she already had.

She pulled off the cake smash photoshoot 'by using an old bedsheet as the flooring, bought a £3 wrapping paper for the backdrop and made the cake at home and put her in an outfit we already had at home too!'

However, putting everything together 'definitely took longer than I thought', Kimberly said.

'I thought I could make the balloon arch in less than an hour but it ended up taking me five hours! It was very tiring and the jumper was about four hours too as it took so long to make as it was very fiddly.

'The cake smash was so hard to clean up, I'd definitely rather be spending more and getting a photographer's house dirty!

Ultimately, it was all worth the effort because Kimberley made her daughter's first birthday a great one, and absolutely loved seeing Amelia over the moon with her creative ideas.

'She absolutely loved it!' Kimberly described Amelia's reaction to the party. 'She ran straight to the presents but as any child would.

'She had so much fun destroying the cake and ripping it to shreds and at the end of the day, popping all the balloons.

'I have always called my daughter our little strawberry so we wanted to do the berry birthday theme and base her first birthday around that but kept getting quoted way too high so I kept researching how to do it at home.'