The Cost of Dinner Parties (Or, Should We Just Go Out to Eat?)
Last year, I went to dinner with a couple friends that I had not seen in a while. “We should do this more often!” we said, and one of the girls suggested we follow through - we’d continue to go out to eat the first Wednesday of every month.
This sounded great, but also expensive given my tiny restaurant budget. So I was relieved when the friend suggested having a rotating dinner party each month instead of going to a restaurant.
Now, I’m not really a cook, so I was a little spooked during the first dinner party at my friend’s house, where everything was homemade and pictures were taken for her food blog. But, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find myself mostly capable, even if I do try to choose desserts and salads that I can make ahead of time so there are fewer opportunities to screw up!
What I was unpleasantly surprised by was the cost of making a “fancy” dinner.
Here is the menu I put together the first time I hosted:
Cafe Caramel Fondue
Creamy Restaurant-Style Tortellini
Cheesy Garlic Bread
Individual Grand Rasberry Trifles
Francis Coppola Merlot
Notice that there is no meat in any of these dishes, but I still ended up shelling out close to $100, plus the half day I took off work to cook and clean!
Obviously, I needed a lesson in fancy-schmancy dinner party budgeting. So, one year and three hosted dinner parties later, here’s the menu I’ve put together for this month:
Bruschetta and Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Italian Garden Salad
Squash Sautee
Banana Split Pie
Iced Tea (We’ve pretty much stopped serving wine since we live so far apart and can’t drink a whole bottle)
While I’ve done much better this month by purchasing the chicken and cheese on sale a few weeks ago and freezing it, choosing the pie based on a sale on strawberries and omitting the pecans, etc., total cost is still about $35, not counting the things I already had on hand like milk, tea and salad dressing. Sure, it will feed five people, but I usually spend much less than $7 per person.
I guess the good news is that I’ve finally reached the break even point for dinner parties versus restaurant meals. $35 every three months vs. $12 every month…?
Of course, now, we’ve decided to alternate restaurant visits and dinner parties. I wonder why? 
(This post was an editor’s pick in the Carnival of Money Stories, hosted by Living Almost Large.)
Photo Credit: Elegant by Pinelife, used under Creative Commons licensing.
9 responses so far
I *love* reading about what people use at their dinner parties, so this was so interesting to me, especially since you included links to the recipes. The chicken sounds fab–have you made it before?
As far as the cost of entertaining, you’re so right. Though, as you’re demonstrating, a little planning goes a long way (as with everything! sigh!).
Yes, the chicken is one of the few recipes I’ve made multiple times. It’s really good, but it’s more moist if you cover it with foil while it’s in the oven. A lady at my work also makes it, and she says it’s just as good reheated in the oven the second day - so it would be good to prepare the night ahead of time, if I wasn’t always spending the entire night cleaning! (hmm…so much for advance planning - between football practice, watching gymnastics, cleaning and making pie, it’s now after midnight - sigh)
I guess that good food is just expensive. I mean if you think about it, although restaurants have to pay the staff and make a profit, they also have economies of scale.
Because hosting is always pricy! You forgot beer and whine. And you forgot that in a restaurant you can eat an entree and talk home half. At a dinner party you have appetizer, entree and dessert!
When my DH and I entertain it’s pricy. We’ll smoke pork ribs, grill salmon, buy beer and wine, make appetizer, side dishes, and apple pie. $100 easy!
Excellent post! A friend who is THE most awesome cook invites people to dinner all the time remarked that her partner was getting crabby a) at the cost and b) that none of the guests were returning the favors. Then she (friend) told me how much one of those dinners costs. Gasp!!!
I immediately asked them over to my house. Matter of fact, I need to do that again. Right away.
[...] among the Editors Choices but a tale near & dear to my heart, Finance Girl’s story about what it actually costs to entertain friends with a nice dinner! Meanwhile, at Value for Your Life Amanda is determined to have her cake and eat it, too: she [...]
FAM - You’re so right! I feel guilty about all those dinner parties a couple we’re friends with used to throw that we never reciprocated. I always just rationalized that I wasn’t a very good cook and didn’t have time to do such things myself…little did I know how much they cost!
Here you’re not exactly comparing apples to apples if you’re only spending $12 on a restaurant meal. My husband and I find that we can throw a dinner party for 5-10 people and still save money vs going out to eat, since we’ll drink wine and probably have an appetizer or dessert at either.
That’s true, but I don’t typically order alcohol, appetizers and dessert at a restaurant since it is just for me and I’m cheap! However, I don’t feel I can just serve my friends a main course and a water… But you also have to consider the time that goes into preparing the meal, versus just plopping down in a booth and ordering.