How to Make 20 Kids' Goody Bags for under $30 - Kelly in the City (2024)

Bulk Squishy Animals / Bulk Monkey Strings / Bulk Pop Tubes / Bulk Rainbow Stickers / Bulk Macaroon Erasers / Bulk Rainbow Gel Pens / Bulk Pop It Keychains / Bulk Stars and Moons Gift Bags/ Cricut Joyand Kraft Paper, but you can find kraft gift tags on Shein.com for essentially nothing!

At my girls’ elementary school, it’s kind of customary that students give out goody bags on their birthdays at the end of the day. (And sometimes holidays!) It’s certainly not a requirement, but the kids really look forward to giving them to their classmates on their special day. And I have to admit that I look forward to putting them together with Emma and Lucy. We have so much fun doing it together! There’s some magic in it.

The goody bags I’m talking about aren’t anything fancy—think a handful of knickknacks and maybe a little attached note—but oh man. It all adds up rather quickly, especially if you’re planning on throwing a traditional birthday party with goody bags in addition. For example, last year, the grand total was $100 for one batch, even though the tiny bags were filled with junk from Amazon. (We also tried Party City in-person, but that was even more expensive!)

2 kids x 2 batches of $100 goody bag batches (school/party) = $400 per year, just for birthdays!

This year, I decided that enough was enough. 😆 It was time to hack the system, and find a way to make fun, affordable goody bags. And while it definitely took some time, I’m proud to say that I’ve done it. (Muahaha.) I figured out how to make 20 awesome goody bags for under $30!

Bulk Squishy Animals / Bulk Monkey Strings / Bulk Pop Tubes / Bulk Rainbow Stickers / Bulk Macaroon Erasers / Bulk Rainbow Gel Pens / Bulk Pop It Keychains / Bulk Stars and Moons Gift Bags

Shein.com

The answer: SHEIN.com. I know. When you click on it, it looks like something you would never trust. But it’s actually a legitimate company with a good reputation. The only catches are:

• It can take a couple of weeks to receive your order. (But let’s be serious: we can get our acts together to save ourselves hundreds of dollars, right?!)
• Many products are non-returnable.

Fine by me. They’re goody bags, for heaven’s sake.

Anyway, the site has zillions of goody bag stuffers, many of which come in packs of 5, 10, 20, etc. for a SONG. Prices you wouldn’t believe. And trust me: I was skeptical when I placed my order. But the goods are great; arguably better than the stuff on Amazon. There’s also far more inventory, so you can customize your goody bags to your child’s interests.

My daughter Emma—who celebrates her half birthday at school in February since she was born in the summer—decided that she wanted to go with a theme of “school supplies and rainbows” this year. (A girl after my own heart with the school supplies, but also a tad ironic considering she recently told me that she only wanted to wear black and white from here on out, but whatever. Kids are hilarious. 😉)

I found all of the above treats on Shein.com, and guess how much they totaled? $29.14. (I used discount code “URUSNEW,” btw.) And shipping was free!

Score.

Bulk Squishy Animals / Bulk Monkey Strings / Bulk Pop Tubes / Bulk Rainbow Stickers / Bulk Macaroon Erasers / Bulk Rainbow Gel Pens / Bulk Pop It Keychains / Bulk Stars and Moons Gift Bags

Affordable goodie bag stuffers

I aimed to put six or seven little trinkets in each bag, coming to no more than $30 in total. Here’s what I went with:

• School supplies/stationery
  • Stickers
  • Pens/pencils
  • Erasers
• Fidget toys
  • Squishy animals
  • Pop tubes
  • Monkey strings/noodles
  • Pop it keychains
• Mesh gift bags

(Stamps, sticky hands and cartoon eyes are also great ideas!)

Emma was absolutely thrilled with the result. We laid everything out on the floor and added the treats into the bags one-by-one while playing music, and it was a total blast. She is so excited to bring her goody bags into school for her friends on Friday!

What to search for

One thing I’ll say is that searching for goody bag stuffers on Shein.com isn’t the easiest. You definitely need to click around a bit, and click on related products on the bottom of product pages. Here are some search terms that helped me:

• Number of products: e.g. “10pcs” or “20pcs”: This is very important. While there are tons of great deals on Shein.com, there are also some not-so-great deals. We want to be paying between $1-$5 for products in BULK, not $1-$5 per product. (Though keep in mind that you may have to buy multiples. For example, I bought only one 20-pack of keychains for $3, but I needed to buy several 6-packs of pop tubes. It still worked, though, since each pack was only $1.)
• “Rainbow [insert word, e.g. pens or pencils]”: Rainbow colored treats are great because they’re gender-neutral. Everyone likes a rainbow! (Note: Emma wanted to make one all-pink goody bag for herself, which you see in the photos of this post, haha. The rest have multi-colored treats in them.)
• “Pet training toys”and“Cat teaser toys”: Hilarious, but this is what Shein.com calls most fidget toys (and miniature stuffed animals). There are obviously a handful of ’em that are meant for pets, but we all have common sense and likely wouldn’t put catnip in a kids’ goody bag.

Alternative idea: ONE small ($1-$2) plush animal per child

While I clearly get very passionate about little projects every once in a while, I normally aim to lead a simpler life. The easiest route here would be to order a bunch of mini stuffed animals in bulk, throw them in mini gift bags, and call it a day!

Please note that Shein.com calls these stuffed animals “pet toys.” However, this is just marketing. 😆 First of all, we gave one to our 12-pound miniature dachshund and she destroyed it in about 30 seconds, which leads me to believe that these stuffed animals are suitable for very few dogs. Kids, though? They’re perfect! Emma and Lucy were obsessed with the ones I ordered.

I’m definitelyconsidering going this route for Lucy’s birthday goody bags. She loves “stuffies”—in particular, bunny stuffies. So many to choose from on Shein.com, many of which are $1 each!

I used a Cricut Joy machine and cardstock, but you can find kraft gift tags on Shein.com for essentially nothing! Write something along the lines of “Thanks for celebrating with me! -[child’s name]” and boom: adorable.

Bonus: gift tags!

Ahem, here’s my obsessive nature peeking through. But Emma wanted to include some sort of a note on each goody bag, and I ran a little wild with her idea.

(Btw: I made our gift tags with the Cricut Joyand this Kraft paper, but Shein.com has TONS of kraft gift tags for essentially nothing.)

We wrote a poem together and printed it on gift tags, and we’re both in love with the result. It really makes her celebration different and special—which I think is so important for summer birthday kids. :)

Thanks for reading, and I hope this post saves you some headaches and dollars this year!