My husband, Joshua, and I are planning on throwing an Independence Day barbecue for some friends this year, on July 4. We're planning on having around fifty adults and probably around twenty children. Here's my goal: I want to keep the entire event cost under $125.
I started planning this so far in advance because a major factor in keeping an event frugal is not doing things at the last minute, and not being forced to spend money because there's no time and you've must buy something you need. And by nature, I'm a detail-oriented planner. I started my rough-draft, all-important Google spreadsheet, and I'm going to open it up to my readers, so that you can see how my planning will evolve. This Google spreadsheet is where I'll keep my notes, my lists and my prices.
Much of my savings will stem from the fact that I already have some of the things I'll need for the barbecue, like the condiments, all bought on sale with coupons. I'm going to cheat a little and say that whatever I already have in the house, I'm not counting toward the total. I'm also planning on borrowing chairs, and asking a few friends to bring salads and sides, so that will certainly cut expenses.
My major expense will be the kosher meat, of course. I'm going to have to do some research on that.
If you're curious as to how this will come together, please continue to follow along as my shopping and planning for the 7/4 barbecue evolves. Even I'm sort of curious as to whether I'll meet my budget. :) And of course, if you've got any useful information, tips, ideas, criticisms, etc. please comment away!
Tip 1: did you buy your paper goods on July 5 last year? :) (The things I learn from you...)
ReplyDeleteCaroline, right after last year's barbecue, I was so hot (it was 100 degrees) and so totally wiped (a lot more people showed up than we were expecting) I thought to myself, I'm never doing this again. So I didn't raid the stores. That said, we don't go overboard on the patriotic decor. I'm going to do red and white plastic tablecloths with navy blue plates and probably those big clear plastic cups (mostly because I have a whole bunch of cups left over from Pesach). For the plates, I have some leftover from last year and I'll just raid the Party City 99-cent solid color section when their next coupon pops up. For tablecloths, the dollar store. For silverware, just the plain white stuff that comes in the giant Costco blue box. But it's nice to know that you're paying attention!
DeleteI think you can do it if you stick with chicken dogs for the kids, and chicken and beef kabobs for the adults, plus rice and lots of filling sides. You can get ten lbs of chicken for forty dollars and five lbs of London broil for another forty. That will easily feed all your guests if you mix that with veggies...yum.
ReplyDeleteSelena, I just found out that Rabbi Crystal has closed his business and is working for the ESKD and I'm a little nervous. Do you know when Erin's husband is doing another meat co-op? We were also getting our kosher ground beef from Omaha ($4.69/lb) and that business was also sold and it's $5.88 per lb. Last year, we did 5 lbs. of ground beef and three lbs. of chicken (no meat). I can stretch that ground beef by adding a little matzoh flour and eggs and the chicken by doing lots of veggies on the skewers. Ironically, the chicken breast will be a lot cheaper than hamburger meat. What is the best place in town for chicken or turkey dogs, Target?
DeleteTarget and KS are the same price for chicken/turkey.
DeleteI think you can do it if you stick with chicken dogs for the kids, and chicken and beef kabobs for the adults, plus rice and lots of filling sides. You can get ten lbs of chicken for forty dollars and five lbs of London broil for another forty. That will easily feed all your guests if you mix that with veggies...yum.
ReplyDeleteEven though bbq is the plan for the day, you can stretch the food (and the budget) a lot by focusing on salads. You can even put chopped meat into the salads to feed many more people on a smaller quantity of meat. A local produce market can also help. I just found a new produce market near my new job, and I bought all of our Pesach produce for under $20--disclosure: we hosted one seder but no other YT meals, but we ate REALLY well all week.
ReplyDeletelooking at your list, you should go to costco for the produce- i haven't really found anywhere that beats their price on lettuce (romaine hearts, you gotta do the work), mushrooms, tomatoes, etc. also, get a nice watermelon, always on sale the week of the 4th, cut it up yourself, best BBQ dessert fruit.
Deleteregarding the ices, the ice-pop in bluebox has a $2 rebate on the bottom, 100ct box. so go for that.
also, check out beer rebates- dont know abt colorado, but NY is a no-beer purchase required state, i ordered a rebate $25 off $40 purchase of beef, chicken, seafood, tortilla chips off ebay for $1.50 (dos equis, food must be purchased by 5/31). cash-back on meat?! awesome, right?
regarding litle things you have there like ice- you can make your own if you are diligent to fill up the trays every day, dump into a ziploc and repeat.
regarding salad dressings- make your own! i have great recipes for caesar dressing, greek, and garlic vinaigrette, very cheap cause you prob have all the ingredients already.
good luck, interested in seeing how you do :)
Toby, all fabulous, frugal suggestions! I'm actually hoping that my friends will bring most of the lettuce based salads, but I am going to need tomatoes, zucchini, onions, peppers, etc. for the kabobs. It's a tossup between Costco and a local veggie stand here called Pete's, where I can buy stuff in bulk and he'll give me a nice discount. We'll see. The quality at Costco is better though, but if all these veggies are going on the grill, I'm not sure if it will make a difference. I probably will buy a watermelon at Costco though. What do you mean by "ice pop in bluebox?" As far as beer goes, last year, a friend brought beer and almost no one drank, so I'm thinking of doing a non-alcoholic event this year, but I'm intrigued by this rebate; do you have a link? It sounds like you got back $25 for a $1.50 investment? Please send the info. As far as ice goes, we have an icemaker and a spare freezer, so yes, I'll be filling garbage bags of ice the week before. Email me the dressing recipes pretty please? frugalskate at gmail dot com. Thank you.
Deleteso i'm supposed to be studying for my exam which is in a few days and coupon blogs are my distraction (bad girl!)... so i promise to email you recipes but next week (your bbq's in 2 months, so i hope that's ok :) )
Deletego on ebay and search beer rebate, multiple things will come up. look for dos equis this is the one i bought. not sure the status of colorado on the no-beer purchase thing but i've gotten back about $60 now from various beer rebates from heinekin ($20/$80 groceries, $10/$15 salty snacks, etc). its a great way to get back a few dollars on things you'll buy anyhow.
the ices are called flavor-ice, they are in the skinny plastic and you can freeze as many as you like. they aren't fancy though but fancy costs $$
Caroline, great thought, and that's easier to do with a YomTov/Shabbat meal, but we want to do a traditional barbecue with burgers, hot dogs and kebabs. I will ask friends who offer to bring salads and desserts, but that's mostly because I hate checking lettuce and baking. We will definitely have a plethora of salads, but it's a bbq, so the focus will be on the meat. If I need to spend more money on meat, I'll create margin in other areas, as long as my total is under my budget.
ReplyDelete