Backyard Movie Night Party + Free Party Printables

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, Walmart Family Mobile. All opinions are mine alone. #YourTaxCash #CollectiveBias

Have you filed your taxes yet? If you've been putting it off, I hate to tell you, but… you have less than three weeks to get them finished up. Last year, we waited to file until the last day. I know, I know. This year, we've already started and we'll be finishing them in the next week. We do not always get a refund, but when we do, I try to use it to pay off things or use it in ways that help us save money throughout the year. I want to get the most out of that tax refund cash as I can! And you should too!

I recently shared some tips about how to use your tax refund to help you save money all year. One of the tips I mention in that post is taking a look at your phone plan. We're now using Walmart Family Mobile and I am loving the cash that we're already saving!

With two lines on the Walmart Family Mobile PLUS plan, we're saving about $40/month from our previous plan AND we're actually getting more data than we had before! I picked up a new phone, the Samsung Galaxy On5 (on rollback for just $69), at Walmart. With Walmart Family Mobile, all you need to get started is a phone (grab a new one or you can bring your own) and a SIM Kit ($19.88).

On our new Walmart Family Mobile plan, we have Unlimited* Talk, Text, & Data which *includes up to 10GB of 4G LTE then 2G and a free movie credit on VUDU every month ($7 value) for $49.88 per month, per line! That $7 credit is enough for a new release rental and we love having family movie night at home because Hello! It saves us money!

In fact, because we're saving money with our phone plan and not heading out to the movies, we're able to throw a little backyard party and invite some friends over for movie night!

We have some super cute little invites for you to hand out to friends or pop in the mail to make sure everyone knows you're having a backyard movie night!

Setting up for our Backyard Movie Party was simple! I moved our benches for our picnic table in front of our shed and used the table to hold all of our movie snacks. We hung a large white canvas piece on the shed. Tom used some clips to secure it. A white sheet will work great, too. While I was at Walmart picking up snack supplies, I snagged a few $5 outdoor pillows and placed them on the benches with some blankets to keep everyone nice comfy!

The kids had a blast helping me get things ready and we're really excited about hosting more backyard movie nights this summer with friends!

To play the movie (using my free $7 VUDU credit), I set up the projector outside in front of our makeshift screen and loaded up our VUDU movie using my laptop, connecting it to the projector with an hdmi cable. So easy!

We decided to do dinner and a movie because everything's better with food! For something super easy, we went with a hot dog bar! I put out ketchup, mustard, relish, and chili! Yum!

Every movie night needs sweets and popcorn! I set up some candy in bowls with little scoops, so everyone can grab their own. I know my kids like to just toss their candy into their popcorn, but not everyone does, so they can just add it to their plates if that's more their style.

I do believe every party needs cake! We made these super fun popcorn cupcakes for our backyard movie party! They're really much easier than they look. I made regular cupcakes (from a box), frosted with icing, and topped with “popcorn”. I made the “popcorn” by cutting a few slices into mini marshmallows – kind of like making peace signs in them. You'll get the hang of it pretty quick. To add the butter to the “popcorn”, I added some yellow food coloring to water and spread a little over the marshmallows after they were on the cupcakes.

We have everything you need as far as decorations go for your own backyard movie party! I've included cupcake wrappers, water bottle wrappers, cupcake toppers, invites, favor bag toppers, popcorn boxes, and straw flags. Just click the image below to print them out!

The kids had a blast and cannot wait to invite more friends over for another Backyard Movie Party! If you're looking for a fun birthday party idea, this is an easy one that would be great to add to a camp-out night for a sleepover.

For more great movie night ideas, check out the Walmart Family Mobile hub. I'd love to hear your own ideas, so drop me a comment below! 

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Disclaimer: All prices for phones and plans included in this post are accurate as of the date of posting; however, these prices are subject to change. Please refer to http://cbi.as/7e-jr or your local Walmart for current pricing.