You’ve been saving money all month, heck, maybe even all year! You’ve been working so hard getting everything in order, and you feel like you deserve a little bit of a celebrations. Or, maybe it’s your birthday, or your partner’s birthday, or your dog’s birthday, and you want to have a bunch of people over at yours. How do you feed so many people on the cheap? Where do you do it? How much do you set aside for the DJ? Actually, you can throw a party (or ‘entertain’, as my mum would say) for basically pocket change, if you know what you’re doing. Here’s how!
The food is always the hardest part of a party, because it’s what everyone is looking forward to. Disappoint with the food, and you’ve got a disappointing party. You never want to seem like a stingy host, too!
One really great way to make sure everyone gets fed is to have crowd pleasers. These are always yummy, easy, carby favourite that people will be excited to eat, not caring that it probably cost you a few dollars to throw together. We like sliders for this, slicing down the centre of a set of buns and filling them with all sorts before baking in an oven to get melty. This Tasty https://tasty.co/compilation/sliders-4-ways recipe has a lot of ideas for what to do, but we also like the idea of cold cut sliders with crunchy pickles, mushroom and cheese sliders for vegetarians, or tofu and basil for a Thai-inspired vegan sandwich.
If bread isn’t really your style, why not try a sushi party? Make one big pot of sushi rice, and mix in some sugar, salt, and mirin (https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-make-sushi-rice/) and put it in a big bowl to serve with some julienned slices of carrot, ham, and cucumber, maybe some tuna mayo, and definitely some seaweed, for guests to make their own tasty sushi rolls! It’s fun, healthy, and saves on so much cooking time. Kids especially love folding up their rolls and pretending to be a proper sushi chef. If you want to be a bit more adventurous, why not try the Japanese tamago omelette, or making Hawai’ian spam musubi? All of these tasty meals are perfect for trying to entertain on the cheap.
Finally, if you’re really pushed for time and for money, why not tell everyone that the party is a potluck? This is great if it’s for an event like an independence day, anniversary, or if everyone is watching a movie. That way, you only have to cook one dish, and everyone brings one too. We recommend cooking something that’s cheap and easy for everyone to share, but also reheats well in case you have some left over. Lasagne, Mac and cheese, and any sort of cake are great options for this (but expect the cake to run out!).
