5 ways you can plan a themed party on a budget

Building your party menu and decorations around a theme or specific event will help you to make a big splash for less money. Here are five themed parties that will allow you to tailor the party for effect rather than expense.

• Meet up with friends at a coffee shop in the morning and divide into teams.
• Each team is given tasks to perform at various sites around town and must prove they have been there by bringing a specified token back.
• Meet at your home in the early evening.
• Give prizes to the winners, then prepare easy, hearty food such as baked potatoes with a selection of fillings or chili made the day before.

• Dress in hot pants, flares and psychedelic clothing.
• Dance to the classic hits that made the '70s memorable.
• Lava lamps and disco balls make great decorations.
• A perfect meal is a cheese fondue, and then get your guests to play charades and guess the '70s personality.
• This retro-style party theme can be adapted to suit any era and any music, and so is ideal for someone with a milestone birthday.

• Rent a karaoke machine, or buy a "Karaoke Classics" CD for $15 and let your friends do their best celebrity impersonations. Just warn your neighbours first, or invite them.
• Serve a punch of fizzy wine and fruit juice, with finger food such as chicken wings.

• Ask each guest to select a different country and bring an appropriate dish or choose to pay homage to one country and assign each guest a course to bring.
• As the host, you provide beverages and tableware.
• Play CDs of appropriate music and ask a travel agency for posters or brochures to use in decorating.

• Create a Latin fiesta by decorating your venue with strings of lights, cacti, colourful balloons and streamers in red, green and yellow.
• Dance to sounds of the mambo, samba and tango.
• Serve tortilla chips with salsa, wraps filled with chili, refried beans, sour cream, guacamole, cheese and lettuce, and ask your guests to bring bottled beers or the fixings for margaritas.

No matter what your style is, a themed party is a great and inexpensive way to have a celebration your guests will be talking about for years to come!