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03/30/2010

Affordable Ways to Feed a Crowd on a Holiday

Family Holidays can hard on the family budget – especially if everyone is coming to your house for dinner. Here are some ideas for feeding a crowd without going broke.

Potluck
Ask friends and family to share the wealth. Offer to provide the meat, dessert and drinks and ask your guests to bring their favorite holiday side dish. In addition to saving money, you get a wide variety of foods and you may even learn something about your guests. As the dishes get passed around the table, ask your guests why the dish they brought is their holiday favorite. Is there a tradition they can share with the group?

Plan Ahead and Shop Sales
The earlier you know you’ll be entertaining a crowd, the more cost efficient you can be. Make your menu ahead of time and start shopping weeks in advance. If there’s room in your freezer, buy a ham, turkey or roast when it goes on sale and freeze it until you’re ready to cook it. Stock up on frozen vegetables when they go on sale or even fresh produce that lasts a while like potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, onions, etc. Buy as much as you can on sale and/or with coupons, and keep the menu reasonable. Just because people will eat 10 different side dishes doesn’t mean you have to make them all.

Food Made to Order
Many grocery stores and restaurants sell meal packages during the holidays which come complete with meat, side dishes, dessert and sometimes beverages. Super Target is currently offering three such meals which range in price from $35 to $60 and feed up to 10 people. If there’s not a Target near you, check with your local grocery store for similar deals. These can be cost-efficient solutions even if you have to buy two of them for really larger crowds. They’re also time savers, because most of the food just needs to be heated. It’s already pre-cooked. You’ll most likely need to order these kinds of meals several days in advance if not more.

Of course, if feeding a crowd just isn’t in the budget this year, ask someone else to host the holiday meal this time around. If you’re not comfortable talking about the cost factor, tell them you just need a break from the added stress of holiday preparations this year. True friends and family will understand.

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