Even if your favorite team isn’t playing in the Super Bowl this year, chances are you are either going to be attending or hosting a Super Bowl party on Sunday, February 7th, when the Indianapolis Colts meet the New Orleans Saints in Miami. A recent VISA survey showed that six out of 10 Americans will be at a party on this date. That same survey determined that the average American spends about $175 on a Super Bowl party.
Think you can’t have a Super Bowl party on the cheap? Think again. Here are my five frugal Super Bowl party suggestions:
1. Make it a potluck party. Why not spread the spending around by asking your guests to bring a little something to share with everyone else. Everyone loves a potluck because it makes the menu more interesting and, especially for the host, it takes a lot of the prepping pressure off. Best of all the entire price tag for the party doesn’t fall on your shoulders.
2. Do away with disposables. Sure clean up is a snap when you can just throw out all the cups, plates and napkins. But how much money will you be throwing in the trash in the process? Instead, plan to set out reusable plates that you can put in the dishwasher at the end of the night. Don’t have enough place settings to go around? Ask family and friends to bring their dishes along, or head to your nearest thrift store and pick up a few extra plates for pennies a piece. Since most Super Bowl parties are buffet style, no one is going to care that your dishes aren’t a matched set.
3. Limit your menu to save cash. Instead of grilling burgers and dogs and serving chili and having side salads, try limiting your menu to one or two affordable options. Chili in a Crock-Pot will make most people happy. Plus, the only sides you’ll need are sour cream, shredded cheese and some bread. You can even have two slow cookers going–one with a meat chili and the other with a vegetarian version. Slow cookers use the least amount of energy of all of your appliances so you’ll save this way, too.
4. When shopping for your party, choose store brands over name-brand products. According to the Private Label Manufacturers Association, you can save about $40 per grocery trip if you choose the store’s brand products over the name brands. When it comes to your Super Bowl party, you can probably find everything on your shopping list and not pay brand-name prices for them–from hunks of cheese to sprinkle on your chili to the spices you’ll use to give your chili some kick.
5. Don’t waste money on decorations. Who’s really going to notice if you’ve hung streamers in the favored team’s colors so why spend the money on something you’re just going to throw away at the end of the night? Instead, borrow footballs, helmets and other gridiron paraphernalia from your family, friends and neighbors and use those freebies to dress up your space.
What kind of Super Bowl party (frugal or not) are you having or attending this year?
READ LEAH ON HOME GOES STRONG
I think it will just be the 2 of us and I’m going to try making chicken liver pate – I’ve never done it before and I have a hankering!
Well that’s a way to keep it frugal–just be the two of you!
It isn’t a super bowl party, but in a couple of weeks our son is becoming a bar mitzvah. Because I enjoy it AND because money is tight, I am doing all of the food for the luncheon (250 people) myself and I hired a caterer to serve the food only. My friends are all spending a day helping me cook. This saves about 50%. I did the same thing for them when their kids were having their bar & bat mitzvahs.
And as for doing away with disposables, we priced heavy plastic plates out at $0.65 per piece. We went to Ikea and bought 275 places at $0.99 each. And we donated them to our synagogue. That way the synagogue has them to re-use, we save a boatload of plastic from entering the landfill, we have nice plates to use, AND we can write off part of the cost of the plates as a donation.
I am limiting the menu — not so anyone else would notice, but we cut a couple of dishes from the menu just to make the budget a little leaner.
Because the numbers are so much higher, I will do my shopping at restaurant supply companies and wholesale greengrocers. What I can’t get there, I will supplement from Costco.
This is all very cool. Thanks for sharing these suggestions! Do you need to keep the food kosher? Does that add more costs? You have wonderful friends to help you out this way. Mazel Tov to you, your son and your family!
Leah
Potluck is the way to go or just split everything that you order. Makes it easier for everyone and tongs of different foods to eat.
Craig:
Glad you like the potluck idea.
Leah
It does have to be kosher. But many staples are now certified kosher. I make all my own bread, and I buy my flour from an Amish store in Shipshewana, Indiana twice a year. Even the flour milled by the Amish community carries a kosher certification.
Where kosher means expensive is hard cheeses. Cheddar, Parm, etc. These can run double and triple what their non-kosher relatives would. So we created the menu with only one dish that included cheddar.