how to entertain people on a small budget?

Question

i am have a welcome home/christmas party on the 21st. The welcome home part is for me and my friends who are coming home from college. anyways i dont have any money. i mean i have some but not enough to buy a whole bunch of stuff. there are going to be like 10 or us. i have asked them all to try and bring something like a pack of soda or a bag of chips. just something small. i am gunna get a few things but i cant feed 10 people. so what should i do? in past parties i have asked people to bring food and some have and some havent. what do i do to have a great party but still be able to have some money left over?

Answer 1

weeners and sauce, or try baking, things like garlic bread, or crackers and dip.

Answer 2

Katie,
You can make a lasagna big enough to feed 10 people for very little money. Have a friend bring a salad and ask a couple friends to each bring a bottle of wine, I'd suggest Cabernet or Merlot. Maybe someone else could bring a garlic bread or just an Italian bread. Here's the easiest. cheapest way to make a big lasagna. First, get the largest rectangular pan you can find. Next, a couple packages of lasagna noodles (maybe a $1.20 each), two of your favorite jars of pasta sauce (look for something creative), a pound or two of ground meat (depending how meaty you like your lasagna), two large containers of ricotta cheese, some grated mozzerella and if you'd like, some parmesan.
Brown the meat then stir in the sauce. Pour 1/4 cup water in one of the empty jars, close and shake to get all the juices, transfer the juice to the other jar and do the same. Pour the juices from that jar in the bottom of your pan and spread to coat the bottom. Layer uncooked noodles, meat sauce, ricotta and mozzerella (and parmensan if using it) over and over until you run out. Let your last topping be mozzerella (and parmensan if using it) and if you want to be really festive sprinkle the top with fresh chopped parsley for that holiday red, white and green look.
Have a great time.

Answer 3

Honestly, you can feed ten people for pretty cheap. I can tell you right now how to whip up a baked ziti and its so easy and cheap. All of the ingredients are about 30 dollars.

Ok, you need one box of ronzoni ziti-rigati 1. You need one package of spicy sausage. You need a big bag of mozzarella cheese. One glass container of sauce. You need a big jar of ricotta cheese part skim. You also need some pam spray, tin foil, and a lasagna throw away pan you can buy at the supermarket.

Ok, this is what you do. Its so easy and everyone will love it. You boil the ziti. For 10-12 minutes whatever the directions on the box are. Then you put the ziti in a bowl. In the meantime you take the sausage out of the casings. That means you take a knife slit down the middle and take out the inside of the sausage. Put it in a pan on the stove until it is slightly brown. Add the browned sausage to the bowl with the ziti. Add 3/4 of the bag of mozzarella cheese. Add the container of ricotta cheese. Now add enough pasta sauce to make the mixture pink (about 1/4 the jar). Ok, now mix it all up.

Take the aluminum pan and spray it with pam. Add the mixture to the pan. and spread it out so it covers the whole pan. Now, add the rest of the mozzarella cheese to the top. Take a tin foil and spray it with pam and cover the ziti. This is so it doesnt get stuck to the cheese. Bake it in the oven on 400 for 45 minutes. Then, take the foil off and continue baking until it gets brown on the top.

This will feed all your friends. Now, you can buy 2 bags of salad the one that comes with the ceaser dressing.

You can also buy texas toast in the frozen foor section. The total meal will be under $50.

Good luck to you!

Answer 4

We often have spur of the moment parties, usually on Friday night. Invariably what I serve up is home-made make your own pizzas. I do a batch of dough in the afternoon, then toss the dough and put it onto cookie sheets when it is time to eat. We set out bowls of thinly sliced onion, green &/or red peppers, mushrooms, a package of sliced pepperoni, a couple of hot Italian sausages that I cook and dice pretty fine, a tub of crumbled feta cheese, a bunch of shredded Mozarella (which you can mix with Monterey Jack if you want to stretch it a bit further), some fresh thyme & basil leaves and pizza sauce (canned.) Sometimes I add ham, salami or diced/crushed pineapple and olives to the mix - if those things happen to be handy.

People come into the kitchen as I get dough ready a couple at a time, make whatever flavor/style of pizza they want and throw them at the oven. (For thin dough, about 5 min, rotate the trays top to bottom and cook about another 5 minutes on 500F.)

There's always plenty of time for chatting, catching up on things, playing video games and so on and the entire evening (for what usually ends up to be about 8 people) runs just over $20 - less than it would cost me to get a single pizza delivered. Sometimes there is even enough "fixings" left for one last pizza to serve up cold for breakfast!

Answer 5

Make it a potluck -- everyoen bring something to share. Tell half the guests to bring food, the other half to bring cokes/ice.

Or, make a big pot of spaghetti. You can skimp on the meat if you like, but ground beef is pretty cheap, so is pasta. Maybe a salad if you can swing it, or ask guests to bring "something to go in a big green salad" and let them help you assemble it when they arrive w/ lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cukes, avocado, whatever they bring for it!

Answer 6

you can feed 10 people pasta, with store bought sauce for under $20, you can throw in a loaf of french bread to go with it and probably stay under 20 as well. then it's Box O wine time lol

Answer 7

I would go with the meatless spagetti option also...
make your sauce homemade..
get a couple of long bread sticks and make garlic bread under the broiler.. and the idea of asking guests to bring veggies to add to a salad is great.. or make it an antipasto platter. like each guest bring something like mini carrots, cucumbers, pickles, etc etc. and one can bring a dip... or you can make a cheap home made dip.. with 1 sacket of powdered onion soup to one 16oz container of sour cream.. this makes a very tasty dip.. (and cheap)

for appetisers... make toast out of bread, cut into 4 triangles (like bread points) and spread with cream cheese and top with things like olives or pickles, or cucumbers, or nuts(on top of the cream cheese)...

Answer 8

Have a desert or christmas cookie party,ask everyone to bring their favorite and swap