Whatever the occasion may be for inviting over guests to host them for a dinner, it can be a lot to organize and ensure that you have everything ready. Whether you are celebrating buying a house, getting a new job, or a birthday, it can be an exciting event putting together a dinner for your closest friends and family to join.
As much as we would all love to have a private event planner and personal chef who organizes the event for us and all we have to do is look fabulous and greet guests, unfortunately, this doesn’t fit into a lot of people’s budgets.
Rather than putting yourself out hundreds of dollars, consider that you don’t have to have the most lavish party ever to make your guests happy and have a great time. Here are some of the best tips for throwing a dinner party on a budget.
Keep Guestlist Reasonable
Rather than feeling obligated to invite absolutely everyone that you know, consider only inviting the bare minimum. This way you won’t only spend less overall but you will find that you are going to have a more relaxed time yourself.
When you are stretched thin to feed over 10 people, it can be overwhelming. You may find that you are spending so much time serving everyone else that you hardly have time to host or even eat. Therefore, try to keep your guest list number at a reasonable amount and keep it simple.
Keep Alcohol Simple
Rather than stressing out about special cocktails which require multiple kinds of liquor and enough to be able to go around for everyone at your party, consider keeping your beverage list simple.
Try offering only beer and wine. These can be purchased for a very reasonable price if you buy in bulk. Boxed wine used to have a reputation for being low quality or less than classy, however, there are more and more award-winning wines that come in a box. To simplify the beverage service, you can also hire a caterer or consider hiring a mobile bar service from a reputable mobile catering company. These professionals can provide full service, including serving your preferred alcohol choices like beer and wine. By outsourcing the beverage service, you can focus on other aspects of the event.
Make Everything Yourself
Rather than spending large amounts of cash on special platters or dishes which you buy premade, consider making as much as you can from scratch.
Making things yourself rather than buying them premade or prepackaged is a great way to save money. When you buy the ingredients and make things yourself you are spending as little as a few cents per serving rather than a few dollars per serving for the convenience of it being made by someone else.
If cost isn’t an issue it’s always easier to outsource the work to someone else, but since you are looking for budget solutions, this involves a little more work to save money where you can.