I stumbled upon your site while surfing, and found your advice to be quite wise. Here's my situation. My wife and I have been constantly struggling to stay within a budget. Food expenses have been particularly high. But we found out a neat solution to cut food bills. We have been inviting friends over for dinner. Invariably, once they are invited, they ask "What should we bring?" Here's where the big savings come in. We ask them to bring something, of course, but we invite enough guests that they end up bringing all the food! There is, of course, that awkward little pause between the time I ask one guest "Could you bring the main course?" and the time they invariably say "Um...uh..er..yeah, I guess so."
So far its been working great! It has been more of a challenge to invite couples over for breakfast, but you'd be surprised how relatively easy its been to get breakfast guests to even bring a few sack lunches for the kids school. Last month we only spent $3.65 on food!
So here's my dilemma. We are
running out of friends to invite over. We were thinking about moving
to Dallas. What are the real estate prices like?
Your friends,
Chuck and Cindy,
Raleigh NC
Dear Chuck and Cindy,
Wow! You people
are geniuses! But why pick up and move to Dallas? Real estate costs are
above average for the nation here. I think if you just get yourself a big
calendar, and space everyone you know out over the course of a month's
time you'll be fine. Organization is the key here. If you run a little
thin on people some days then suggest one item meals. ie.."How about bringing
a big crock of Vegetable Beef Soup and a French Loaf.." See how that covers
the entire meal with one person? On days when you can get a larger group
together, have people bring extra desserts or bread items, which you can
freeze for later meals. And I can understand how you may feel you need
to enlarge the "friendship circle" so that you don't tire of those same
old meals the guests are bringing month after month. So maybe every now
and then suggest having each friend bring someone you've never met before
with their favorite dish. Another idea may be making inroads with
people in the restaurant industry or joining gourmet food clubs. Won't
their dishes be fun to eat! And try to remember that you are doing a service
to all these people, too. Everyone likes to feel they are special enough
to be invited to a dinner party. Its a no lose situation I think!