Planning for our frugal party- part I

 I started this blog just before our Sky modem gave up the ghost last wednesday night, so I'm on catch up. I have some photos too but am struggling to load them.

This is how we have a "careful/frugal" party for 200.
When I say "We" I mean our two daughters and ourselves. We only ask people we like/love and are comfortable with. That sounds obvious, but it isn't really.
The planning starts at the LAST party.
Foodwise,
What hardly got touched? What was popular? What will have to be bought? What can we make ourselves?
.
Over the years several people had asked if they could contibute to the party. Many people have a signature dish which they enjoy making.. Never say No! They really mean it. Offer to buy the ingredients for any dish someone offers to make. and ALWAYS ensure everybody knows who made what "The lemon drizzle? Yes isn't it good ? Agatha made that."
We make a rough list that notes these dishes, set up a google account that we can each access and load the list onto this account. As we purchase, make or are donated an item we note it on the list
We also set up a facebook event page, Where we invite everybody and then keep them informed on how the plans are going and what we plan to do for entertainment. This also serves for a forum for people to offer advice, ideas and help and generally wind each other up looking forward to the day!
Over  the three months before the party we -
-Buy dry and canned goods when they are on offer.
-Clear the freezers for space and ask friends if they can help with space too.
-Use a cash and carry card.
-Bulk cook whenever we can. When I say "we" here I mean YD and I, as ED doesn't do a great deal of cooking- she's good at shopping though!
-Whenever we make bread or pastry, we make extra for the party to save on fuel and time. For instance, when making cake I always do some extra sponge which I freeze to use in trifle, extra pastry is made into blind-baked quiche cases. A bag of Lidl bread flour will make two huge tear and share loaves.
-Grow what we can for salads, garnishes.
- Don't get too fancy, probably one of the favourite dishes for children is plain boiled pasta! If you have your own hens or can buy from a cash and carry, people really enjoy hard boiled eggs.

I could go on and I have probably forgotten lots, but I reckon you in frugal land could probably teach us a thing or two.

Entertainment is important for a party which is held over a longish period of time. We have a large number of children to our festival, many of them camping ( with their parents of course!)
We also like to put on some entertainment for the grown ups too.
I'll cover entertainment in my next post. (hopefully, I will be able to put some pictures up here)
That's all for now as I must organise and write up the agenda for tomorrow's Civic Society members meeting.
Isn't it HOT here ?!
Hello Never too Old, welcome to my blog... good to meet you!
back soon
Gillx