02
Aug
How frugal should you be when hosting guests?
My wife and I had some family over last night for dinner. We generally eat very frugally when it is just the two of us. We eat a lot of inexpensive cuts of meat including chicken, ground beef, and certain cuts of pork. We don’t have things like steak or lamb very often because these meats are much more expensive.
When we have guests over, we tend to splurge a little more. Last night we made a whole tri-tip (for those not familiar, it’s a cut of meat that I’ve only ever seen in Southern California. It’s a very juicy tasty cut from near the rear. It’s probably my favorite cut of beef.) This cost us a lot more per person than our average meal, and we had more people over. But we like to share good food with others.
For us, there is always the question of whether to serve our guests our normal food or whether to serve them nicer food than we normally eat. We generally tend towards serving our guests nicer food than we normally eat. It’s a treat for us and for them. Sometimes we serve our normal food because for them it might be special. But we love to entertain and there is something fun about dressing up the meal.
This ends up costing us more than it would if we just treated ourselves occasionally, but in our minds it is worth it. If we ever needed to, we know we could scrape a few dollars out of our entertaining budget, but for now we are lucky enough not to have to worry about that. For yourself, it just comes down to evaluating your financial situation. If you are struggling to pay your bills and you are behind on some debts, then if you have guests, serve them what you normally eat. Like I said above, for them it might be a treat to have pea soup (or some other inexpensive meal) because it is not normally on their menu. The point of being a host or hostess is not to serve restaurant quality food, but to make your guests feel comfortable and well taken care of. A good meatloaf does can do that just as well as a fillet mignon.
August 6th, 2007 at 5:03 am
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August 6th, 2007 at 10:28 am
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August 6th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
I make a lot more effort when I have guests, that sometimes means spending more on the main meal, but more often its spending more on wine, or pudding (dessert) and other additional things that I wouldn’t bother with if it was just me.
August 7th, 2007 at 7:34 am
Another way to make things special for guests is to make foods that require more time or effort to prepare than your usual foods. For example, homemade baked goods are very inexpensive.
August 7th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Debbie - That’s a good idea, but I’m not much of a baker, so the home baked goods don’t work too well for me. =) But we do tend to put in special effort, even if it is just a better presentation (we had a guest last night and made pasta, but made it look pretty, so it seemed more special.)
Plonkee - Dessert is a good way to treat guests, too. We rarely have dessert at our home (beyond fruit), so it’s a treat for us, too.
August 7th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I try to cook something that I can make well…a recipe that I’ve cultivated myself…none of which require expensive ingredients…I think it is a good idea to splurge a little bit when guests are over. It makes it more of a festive party!
August 7th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
I don’t have friends over for the moment due to the house needing some work that takes time to save up for, but I find my friends fall into different camps when I’m visiting. One friend likes to cook rather upscale. It is something of a surprise that the next scheduled visit will involve her cooking a ridiculously large frozen lasagne. When it’s my turn to do food, (we alternate who handles it) I splurge on a couple of fresh-to-cook pizzas from this place near me that makes incredible pizza. You can order it such that they will make it, but not cook it, it gets wrapped in plastic and boxed. I take them with me on the visit and its unwrap-and-heat.
One couple I know does not go crazy for cooking when I visit. Grilled burgers/hot dogs, macaroni, pizza from scratch, and similar simple-but-solid food. It helps that they know that my tastes run to the simple, so they don’t feel pressured to be fancy. Yet another friend also keeps it simple. He does amazing things with noodles and Spam.
I find I prefer it when people go simple, then I don’t feel that I’m putting them to extra effort.