Urban Survival Guide: Throwing a Party on a Lean Budget

 

Throwing parties can be quite expensive, especially if done frequently. However, parties don’t have to leave your finances in ruin. Here are a couple of ways you can throw a party on a lean budget:

 

Host a house party

 

Hosting a house party in your home is often a cheaper alternative to holding a party at a hired venue like a club or restaurant. By doing this you won’t incur the expense of hiring a venue and you’ll also not spend on other costs like transportation. However, one downside to this is the risk of people pilfering things from your home. Be cautious about who you let in your home.

 

Create a guest list

 

Yes you don’t want to be a party pooper by barring people from attending your party, but to cut down on costs coming up with a guest list is inevitable. Doing this will not only prevent party crashers from crashing your party, but it will also ensure you invite people you know well. Keeping the headcount small means less people to cater to. It may earn you the reputation of being a killjoy but at least you’ll have made some savings.

 

Get people to chip in

 

The key ingredients to a successful party are: interesting people, enjoyable things to do and good food and drinks. The last two cost money. Request the people you’ve invited to the party to carry snacks and/or drinks to the party. A BYOB or a BYOS (Bring Your Own Snacks). Do this in advance to ensure they don’t forget and come empty handed. This will bring down the cost of holding the party.

 

Make punch

 

Make punch as opposed to serving or allowing people to serve drinks individually, especially if there is alcohol being served at the party. Alcohol is often one of the most expensive purchases for a party. Making punch will ensure you reduce on the amount spent on alcohol while at the same time enabling you to provide more alcohol. Talk about killing two birds with one stone! But, remember to be considerate of people who don’t drink alcohol like children by preparing a non alcoholic punch.

 

Buy wholesale

 

When buying things in bulk for a party, it would be more advisable to buy things on wholesale. Goods are cheaper on wholesale and wholesalers often give discounts for goods bought in bulk. For example buy sodas for your party at the depot which is cheaper.

 

Cook your own food

 

Instead of buying food for the party, prepare your own food. Outsourcing a caterer is likely to be pricier since not only will you pay for the food, but you’ll also have to pay for the cost of labour as well.

 

Eliminate unnecessary expenses

 

Not all parties have to be elaborate. If you aren’t hosting a fancy party eliminate unnecessary things like decor. As long as you have interesting people, fun things to do and good food and drinks people are unlikely to care about decor much.