The Single Mom's Guide to Affordable Entertaining (or Anyone Else)

Does the idea of having a few friends over a la Sex and the City seem out of reach for you because of your dwindling finances? Entertaining on a budget doesn't have to mean plastic utensils or hotdogs and chips. Gone too, are the days were pot luck means pork and beans, green bean casseroles, and red jello with sliced bananas. You can make your next get together fun and flirty or host a sexy cocktail party without going broke.

Here are a few of the get togethers that I have hosted this year:

-Game Night

-Sex and the City Night

-Casual Cocktail Party

-Luau Night

The reason that this single mom was able to host these and other get togethers successfully and still have rent money at the end of the month is because I use what is available to me. When you have buckets full of money you can totally start with a theme or idea and then go around and have a shop-a-thon to gather the neccasary items and food stuffs.

What I do is just the opposite of that.

For the Luau Night I didn't decide on that as a theme at first, I instead decided to ask some questions. I remembered that a co-workers cousin had a carribean themed reception, so I asked her if there were any leis left over that I could buy on the cheap. If she's have said no, I would have brainstormed and come up with something else. However, that one question netted me decorations, leis, plastic photo op cut outs for pictures, netting to hang from the ceilings, photos of hula girls, a limbo stick and more, and the best part, it was all free! And with some strategically placed white christmas lights (that I had in the basement), I was in business.

She suggested I pick up a cook book for food and drink ideas, but there was no way I was shelling out 24.95 for a cook book or even 5 bucks to get a used one. Since I work full time getting to the library is hectic, I then turned to my trusty friend, the internet. Literally millions of recipes and all gratis. My motto is, "If it's for free, it's for me", so I printed a few interesting ones and I was on my way.

I ended up making a delish Sangria with 2 bottles of wine I was gifted for Christmas and another I asked my brother to pick up on his way, canned fruits from Aldi's and some seltzer water. I also had water, juice and soda on hand. For food it was all about the pork and the fruits. Fruit salad, green salad and roast pork. We had some hawaiin music I picked up at the dollar store playing in the background, and can I just tell you, it was a BLAST! Everyone had a great time, I got complimented on my decorations and the sangria was a big hit.

Running total for Luau night:

Decorations/Ambience - $2 (For cd's from the dollar store)

Invites: Free (email)

Sangria - $ 3 bucks for canned fruit and water

Water/juice/soda - $10

Roast Pork and salads $19

So a wonderful night was had by all, and for $34 bucks I was able to feed and provide beverages for 17 people plus myself.

TIP: to reduce your own contribution you can include an easy recipe card in each of your e-vites or traditional invitations and your guests will provide the finger foods. Just make sure not to send the same recipe out twice.

Game Night:

I was watching Simply Delicioso on the Food Network one night and Ingrid Hoffman was cooking up some yummy looking sweet potato fries and putting them in home made cone cups and I thought, "Hey, I can do that". So I did.

I went home and dug up a pack of playing cards, made some black and white copies of the king and queens and made my own paper cone, comfortable in my now proven artistic skill. I then put aside the rest of my copies and started inviting people over for that Saturday. I just text messaged my invite, and the response was 100%, everyone wanted to come. In the text I requested that anyone with a cool game should bring it with them.

I already had my my tried and true playing cards, a Sex and the City trivia game and a soduko board game. I also opened up a wooden Scrabble game I got myself for Christmas and had yet to use. After a few phone calls informing me that we would also have:

Scene It

Candy Land

Bingo

Taboo...

I started on the menu. This being a casual event I thought I would try my hand at the spicy sweet potato fries that I'd seen on the show, instead of plain ole potato. I went and grabed about 5 rather large sweet potatoes from the supermarket and a family pack of chicken legs. I already had a huge bag of mixed salad at home. I then got some drinks for the kids and a few bottles of Red Cat wine. I decided to grab a cake mix to make my infamous pistachio cake, and I was set.

I made the cake the night before, I rearranged the couch so that we could play scene it more easily and set up some of the board games in the dining room and on my kiddie table I asked my sister to bring over. As an added bonus she brought a pasta salad which was great. The kids especially just adored the paper cones with the fries and I set up the salads, chicken and cake, buffet style.

Once again we truly enjoyed ourselves. I am now addicted to Scene It! and the reigning champ of my living room, no matter what my brothers girlfriend says! I also had a great time returning to my child hood and playing Candy Land.

Running total on Game Night:

Games: Free

Food and drink: $42 (25 of which was for 3 bottles of wine)

Invites: Free

Including kids, I had a house full, as I count it out right now I'm shaking my head, 23 people, OH WOW!

TIP: IF you've asked around and no freebies ar eto be had, check out some garage sales, I've seen some really great stuff there. People have parties and then just store the stuff, you can totally benefit from that.

The next time you wish you could have a little party, just think outside the box, be willing to ask around and remember that most people are more than happy to bring a dish or a bottle of wine, you get help and they get a fun filled night out.

I do hope this artcicle on enteraining on a budget and the chronicle of two of my own get togethers was helpful.

Happy Partying!