Entertaining on a Budget

Guest Author - Rhonda Cliett

Inviting people into your home for an evening of conversation, laughter, and great food is a wonderful way to build friendships. Unfortunately, many people become discouraged at the thought of entertaining guests in their home for fear that it will break their budget beyond repair. Thankfully, this is not the case. You can entertain your friends and family without having to dip into your savings account.

There are many ways to prepare a wonderful feast at a reasonable price. Probably the most inexpensive meal that I have prepared when entertaining was for a group of foreign exchange students from Japan. I live in Texas and wanted to prepare a meal that would introduce them to some of the local dishes. Since Mexican food is very popular in Texas, I decided to prepare a variety of Mexican dishes. The menu included: Bean and Cheese Burritos, Beef Tacos, Spanish Rice, Tostado Chips and Salsa, and Ice Cream with Snickerdoodle Cookies. We had 12 people for dinner with plenty of food for everyone.

Tips for Entertaining on a Budget:

Plan your menu at least a week ahead of time, if possible.
Watch the store sales flyers and make adjustments to your menu according to what is on sale that week.
When planning your menu, take advantage of items that you already have on hand. If you previously stocked up on lasagna noodles, now would be the time to use them.
If your guests ask what they can bring don’t give them the standard “just yourself.” Instead, let them bring an item from your menu. Easy items for guests to bring are: wine, loaf of bread or rolls, gourmet sodas or teas, fruit juice, vegetable tray, fruit and cheese tray, relish tray, dips, or ice.
Make sure some of your items can be prepared a day or two ahead of time. If all of your items have to be prepared on the day of the party you might be tempted to use too many expensive convenient items rather than preparing items inexpensively from scratch.
If one of your guests has special dietary needs, take this into consideration when planning your menu for the entire party. It is less expensive to prepare a sugar free dessert for the entire party rather than to prepare two desserts, one sugar free and one not.
Your main dish does not have to be made from the most expensive ingredients. Many people feel they have not adequately prepared a meal if the main dish is anything less than lobster and caviar, for instance. If you really must serve an ingredient such as lobster, include it in the salad or in a vegetable dish. This will allow you to buy less of the expensive ingredient.
Take advantage of seasonal fruits and vegetables. They not only will add more freshness to your meal, but they will be less expensive since they are in-season.
Limit the appetizers or skip them altogether. If your meal is ready within 15-20 minutes of your guests’ arrival time then it really is not necessary to have an appetizer available. If you feel you must have an appetizer, keep it simple.
Most importantly, keep a list of inexpensive recipes and menu ideas handy. Obviously, the best way to cut costs on your entertaining is to prepare foods that are relatively inexpensive. Having the recipes already on hand will not only save you time but it will prevent you from being tempted to prepare more expensive dishes because you cannot find anything else.

Menu for Entertaining on a Budget - Here is the menu and recipes for the Mexican Fiesta that I served to our Japanese friends.