Inexpensive food for 1st birthday party?

Pizza and chips.

Spaghetti, garlic bread and salad.

Sub sandwiches, potato salad, chips.

Chili beans and corn bread.

Chicken from Albertson's, potato salad, macaroni salad, dinner rolls, chips.

Fruit platter is always good, or fruit kebabs. Use watermelon, pineapple, banana, apple, pears, grapes, strawberries, cantalope, honeydew etc, whatever fruit is in season. If doing kebabs be sure to snap/cut off the pointy end of the stick so children don't poke themselves.

Vegie sticks, dry crackers and dips. You can make your own dips with cream cheese and french onion soup mix, or other ingredients.

Little vol-u-vaunts with a chicken and corn filling. I make mine with a BBQ, corn and a white sauce. These can be precooked and eaten cold.

Cup Cakes and muffins. You can actually cook cupcakes in an ice cream cone for something different.

The basics chips and lollies.

Fairy Bread (bread buttered and covered in sprinkles).

Sandwiches. Do a mixed sample with Ham, Cheese, Chicken, Tomato, Lettuce, Egg etc.

I hope these ideas help

Serve food that children love (so do the adults) remember the party is for the kids!

Here are some ideas of foods that "travel" well:

1. home made chicken nuggets. You can make in advance and they keep. I will list the recipe

2. Sandwiches. Cut them in shapes like stars, hearts etc. with your cookie cutters.

3. Pasta salad (you could individually package these in food cups)

4. Cherry tomato with mini mozzarella salad - drizzle with olive oil and decorate with a basil leafs.

5. Chips and dip or carrots / cucumber sticks and dip (easy dip is sour cream with a few spoonfuls of onion soup mix let rest in fridge for a couple of hours)

6. Birthday cake

chicken nuggets:

chicken breasts cut in bite size peaces

a. dust them with flower

b. dip a few at a time in 2 egg 1 cup milk mixture

c. dip them in bread crumbs seasoned with salt and oregano (or what seasoning you like)

at this point you could freeze them and fry them on the day of the party / single layers with cooking paper in between layers.

d. deep fry them a few at a time in good quality oil (that has been heated) for about 5-6 minutes per batch or until golden

Have a great party!

(I have three kids and I have personally cooked at all their parties including their First birthday parties)

I think if u have Sam's card, I would go with sliders, chicken sandwiches, taquitos. It is pretty cheap when you buy in bulk. Make some huge sides like mac & cheese, baked beans, potato salad.

If you don't have time to make these things, take a trip to the local deli to compare prices.

try this for an activity

coloring hats.. it could be cutehttp://www.coloringhats.com/

as for foods, try trader joes..

lots of healthy appetizer choices. a lot of it you can just defrost and serve

order pizza, salads, fries, garlic bread, cheese sticks, noodles ??