There is so much going on at this little place here lately that I barely have time to check my email, let alone sit down and write posts for the blog. I'll be back, I promise! Hang in there; after this week is over--and DS2's graduation open house is done--I should be more regular in posting again.
For now, here's a few tips on cutting costs when putting on a graduation party.
1. If you have the space, have the party at home instead of renting a hall. Our garage is large enough to seat about 60 in inclement weather, and we have a large yard for outdoor seating.
2. Check with your church/religious institution about borrowing tables and chairs instead of renting them. Ours loans certain tables and chairs at no charge to members. We are saving about $200 by borrowing them from church rather than getting them from the local rental place.
3. If you have the time/space/talents, do the food yourself, from scratch. I haven't tallied up my grocery bill for this party yet, but I'm banking on it being about 1/2 the price of buying prepared heat (or chill) and serve foods. Mother-in-law has raised the pig for us--it is over 200 pounds (translating into about 120 pounds of meat) and started as a $20 30-pound weaner pig from an Amish man. DH built the pig roaster four years ago out of an old fuel oil tank he acquired for free. I think we invested about $50 in parts into retrofitting it with a grate/rack for holding the pig, hinges, and a handle for the lid. (The roaster will be used for all future open houses we put on--2 more graduations after this--and has been used for family reunions.) We will be using a small amount of charcoal (about $15 worth?) and lots of free wood to provide the heat. The rest of the food I am making from scratch, which will take a few hours of active work on my part, and several more of cooking while I'm doing other things (like weeding the flowerbeds!).
4. Beverages don't have to be fancy. Like we did at DS1's graduation party four years ago, we are serving soda (Faygo, cheap but tasty and a large variety of flavors) in cans, ice water in 5-gallon cooler jug (ice made in advance, bagged, and stored in the deep freezer and water right from the tap), and homebrew. Total beverage cost for 168 cans of soda, and 10 gallons of beer: about $80 (and will return the soda cans for 10 cents each, reducing the cost to about $63). The water and ice are basically free; costing only pennies for the electricity that drew the water from the well and froze it into ice cubes.
5. Decorations don't have to be fancy. If you drag out pictures of the graduate growing up, and pics from any sports or extracurriculars they have done over their life time, plus any awards/trophies/certificates they've received in their childhood, you will probably have quite a display. I'm going with cheap rectangular table covers in the school colors to tack up on the garage wall behind the table where DS2's diploma, framed graduation picture and basket to receive cards will sit. On those table covers on the wall I will mount pictures and other 2-dimensional memorabilia. The tables themselves will have white table cover (bought in a 100 ft roll for about 13 cents a foot; leftovers will be saved for the next child's open house) and a twisted streamer run down the center, the length of the table.
6. If you bake, you can make the cake yourself instead of buying it. When DS1 graduated, I invested in a sheet cake pan and decorating tips for doing frosting. I think it was about a $20 investment, and I made a cake that would have cost more than double that from a bakery (cake for 100 people). So, for the younger three kids' graduations, my only cake cost is in ingredients. And I've had a lot of fun playing with cake decorating and can go into doing custom cakes for other people (and cash!) if I so wish.
7. Plan ahead as many details as possible. For instance, I know that I need lots of ice. Ice for the water jug, the coolers the pop will be in, and to keep the cold food cold while it sits on the buffet for a couple hours during the party. I could buy ice at roughly $3 a bag (and need about 10 bags), or, with planning, I could use the ice my fridge/freezer makes daily in it's icemaker. By investing in a box of large plastic storage bags, I can dump the ice from the icemaker into bags, and store in my deep freeze. The icemaker will keep making more ice unless the bin is full, so by regularly emptying the bin, I get a constantly remade supply of ice. By starting this enough days in advance, I will have all the ice I need for the party without buying any.
No comments:
Post a Comment