This is a celebration in our family every year. We pull out the pumpkin carving tools, the fold out tables, and the everyone brings their own pumkin for our Annual Pumpkin Carving Sunday. It always is so much fun to have everyone to our house for this event. I wanted to share with you how we enjoy this time with friends and family and it not break the bank on our budget.
- First, everyone brings their own pumpkin. It is a BYOP Party. It is always fun to see what type of pumpkin they will pick out to bring. Personalities really shine.
- We use newspaper to cover the tables to where the mess is not too bad. Each table will have a bowl in the middle to collect all the pumpkin seeds for roasting. YUM!! ( and healthy)
- This year my daughter has requested that we do a pot of chili. I thought that was a great idea. This is also an inexpensive dish to fix for entertaining. We will have around 25 -30 people at the house so I will need to make around 3 gallons of chili. Here is how I will cut the cost on this dish.
- Buy dried pinto beans and soak them the night before to put in the soup. If you buy the dry beans, it is much cheaper per ounce and you don’t have to worry about recyling all the cans either.
- I am going to purchase 2 large cans of tomatoes from the bulk section of my store. These are the gallon size cans. They usually run around $3 per can. After opening the can, I will was it and use the cans on the tables to hold the pumpkin seeds.
- For my meat, I will use pork, beef and deer meat for the chili. Usually you can get ground pork very cheap so I will use 1/2 of the meat amount with pork and then use 1/4 of ground beef and a 1/4 of deer meat. Why do I do this? Well, most people like the taste of beef in their chili. I don’t want to fool them but if you have deer meat on hand and pork is cheaper, then I will use just enough ground beef to give it the flavor. If I was just cooking for my family, we would use the whole amount as deer meat. I plan on spending around $15 for the meat.
- Seasoning, will be used from my cabinet. I have tobassco sauce, hot sauce, chili powder and garlic powder to use to season the chili.
- Over all I shoul have less than $20 in the pot of chili for 30 people.
- I will have bread and crackers for a side along with cheese and sour cream all in which I only paid pennies for because these are items that I have stockpiled with using my coupons. The bread is french bread that I buy on discount or markdown and freeze.
- For dessert, I am going to make cupcakes with orange icing and a pumpkin face. This is more time consuming than cost. I can make 40 cupcakes for $6. I will plan ahead and on Saturday, I will bake the cupcakes and then frost them on Sunday morning.
With all said and done, I should have a meal prepared for my guest for right at $30. ( $1 per guest) We will drink kool-aid , tea and water and we don’t use any disposable tableware. There is always a way to have a party and entertain your guest without breaking your budget. Find ways and enjoy your friends.
The picture is of my precious two great neices. Don’t you just love the fall?
Here is the post that I did after last year’s pumpkin carving.
