Whether it’s birthdays, holidays, celebrations or a watch party for your favorite new tv show, hosting a party can cause all the joy and all the stress. If you’re a party planner, you love putting on a good time, making things look good, and ensuring your guests are fed. What can sound like an expensive task can actually be done for a reasonable price when done with a little extra planning and preparation.
Timing
One major party spender is food. The easiest way to cut some immediate costs? Plan your party around meal times. Rather than having people come over at 6 p.m. (right in the middle of supper), set the start time to 7:30 p.m. to ensure people have ample time to eat their dinner beforehand. The same goes for the afternoon. Rather than setting the time for noon, start the festivities at 2:30 p.m. Odds are, your guests are only hungry for a light snack and not an entire meal.
Food
Depending on what kind of party your hosting, you can always ask guests to bring something to contribute to the celebration. If the party doesn’t call for that request, plan to prepare the majority of food yourself. This option is a little more time consuming, but it ultimately saves you money and gives you the opportunity to 1. Make some of your favorite dishes or, 2. Learn to make something new. The possibilities are endless when it comes to appetizers and finger foods.
Let the same be true for your desserts. Buying a $2 cake mix from the store is far most cost effective than ordering a cake from the place down the street. Buying your own ingredients for the desserts also gives you total control of how you want your sweets to look and taste.
Decorations
Before you turn to the store and start from scratch, first check what you have around the house. Odds are you have leftover decor from other events or from your own personal decor. Check first, then look at a store for the remaining items needed. Two words of advice: Dollar. Tree. More often than not, you can find some sort of variant of decoration for your party there! Just add a little D.I.Y. and you have yourself a good-looking setup.
Once the party is over, save what you can. Whether it’s leftover plastic utensils, a slightly used table cloth, holding containers for food, or D.I.Y. decorations, start a party hosting box that you continue adding to. Over time, you might not even need to go to the store for your party decorations– just head to your party hosting box!