5 Money-Saving Tips For Buying Party Foods And Drinks
There are millions of reasons to celebrate and organising a good party can be so rewarding. But holding a great party doesn’t necessarily come cheap and money is often the reason why people don’t celebrate more often.
But a good party doesn’t need to cost a fortune. Here are five money-saving tips for buying party foods and drinks for your party.
1. Keep It Simple
First, you need to keep your food and drink selection very simple. The best way to do it is by having a theme for your party. A good theme will help you focus on a simple menu for the party and thus ensure you don’t buy too much.
Build a menu around the theme and keep it very simple. For a dinner party, you only need a starter, main course and a dessert.
For a party where you only serve finger foods a good rule of thumb is to go with three different options where you have at least one vegetarian option. You can then have one salad and a simple dessert.
2. Know What You Need
Once you have a clear menu set up it is a good idea to create a detailed shopping list. Naturally you also need to know how many people are coming to your party so that you can purchase the correct amount of food. Real Simple’s website provides a good calculator for knowing how much food you’ll need for your party.
3. Make It Yourself
You can also save a lot of money with the food if you try to make as much of it yourself as possible. Buying ready cooked party foods can quickly end up costing a lot of money so look for recipes you can make yourself.
There are plenty of good recipes that you can prepare beforehand as well. When you also keep your menu simple you don’t have to do as much food preparation anyway.
4. Go With Basic Drinks
You also don’t need to offer millions of different drinks at your party. Most likely you will also get a few wine bottles from your guests, so you always have more backup options. But remember not to rely on it!
It is important to have an alcoholic and non-alcoholic option. For a dinner party you can go with a simple orange juice, water and wine. For a more relaxed party you can just make two simple punches with one being alcoholic.
Vintage whisky for celebrations is also a great idea and could be a great dessert drink option. You can make a lot of savings if you buy your drinks online.
5. Ask Guests To Chip In
Parties don’t always need to be organised by just one person either. It isn’t a bad idea at all to have potluck styled parties among friends and family. You can cut down costs a lot and ensure you can organise parties more often if you give everything something to bring for the party.
It doesn’t need to be anything big either. Just ask one guest to bring a wine bottle, someone to provide some crisps and someone to bring cupcakes, for instance.
Marco Woodbridge loves to organise parties and he doesn’t want to end up spending a fortune doing so. He is always looking for great money-saving party ideas. He loves to bake and is a big fan of quality wines and whiskeys.
Featured image source flickr.com