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Frugal Luxuries #9

In Chapter 13 of Tracey McBride's book, Frugal Luxuries, where I take many of my ideas from, she discusses the idea of entertaining on a budget. She notes, "all that is necessary to pleasantly enjoy the company of family and friends is to
care."

I have decided to combine two desires into one grand idea. As many know, Bob loves to cook and he especially loves to smoke meats. We bought him a smoker a few years ago and we did a lot of it at the beginning and not any last summer. He expressed the desire to do more of the smoking starting this spring. My desire was to interact more with our neighbors. We are all busy people and barely know each other well enough to do any more than wave as we pass by.



So Bob is going to get his chance to smoke more meat while I invite the neighbors to a potluck at the house! We will be watching the meat sales carefully between now and summer. We can usually pick up the pork at around 79 cents a pound, so we can feed our neighbors for less than $15. What a steal!

How do you entertain frugally? What are your entertaining secrets?

Would you like to comment?

  1. Anonymous7:07 AM

    Terri I do remember you! I'm so glad you stopped by. I saw a comment by you someplace just the other day, with that cute photo of you and Bob, and said, "I know her!" I meant to follow the link and comment but got sidetracked. Thanks so much for the reminder. Let's keep in touch this time. ♥

    I'm in a new apartment since my hubby passed away in Oct. I don't know my neighbors yet, but hope to meet them soon. A cookout would be a wonderful way to do that. Yum! That burger looks awesome.

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  2. We have had some of our best "get togethers" using pot-luck. Contrary to some belief, I think people enjoy those and it takes so much off the hostess in expense and time. People just love getting together and they're willing to make a dish to share always. I also like to use themes - people really do get a kick out what you come up with! Bravo for you in getting people together at your home. We don't do enough of that in our society anymore! PAM

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  3. Almost all of our entertaining includes family and we have some huge eatin' guys in the group. Haven't figured out how to get a mass quantity of food super-frugally. I admire that you do so much advance planning.

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  4. Terri,
    I love your ideas here, thanks for sharing, I can't wait to see your summer party. I love the frugal you know. Cindy

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  5. Anonymous12:12 PM

    Hi Terri,
    I really love your idea for thinking outside of the box to entertain frugally. Sometimes we think it takes so much more, but Tracey's thoughts are wise, aren't they? (I must get that book for myself soon.)

    I want to thank you for your kind comments on my post on Manuela's blog today. It made my day. Take care and have a lovely weekend.

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  6. Anonymous12:17 PM

    Terri, I'll be back to visit your lovely blog again I'm sure. :)

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  7. Terri, as you know I'm from a fairly large family so quite often we pool our resources vs placing the burden on one person to provide all the food at our family functions(which tend to be fairly often)...anyway it's cheaper to serve brunch at times and with our busy schedules we find this works great at times...

    another idea, but suitable for the cooler months is to have a soup but have each person coming bring an ingredient...you could provide the crackers, cheeses and beverages...if you plan to have meat in your soup; you would need to have that already browned and as guests arrive, they "throw" their contribution into the pot...while the soup is bubbling you can visit with your family/friends...serve in mugs for quick cleanup and ease in serving

    And one we love in our family is to host a dessert station AFTER your friends/family have eaten their main meal at their respective homes...

    And an ice cream social could be pretty inexpensive during the summer months...

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  8. Our neighborhood does potlucks quite often....really fun.

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  9. Anonymous8:33 AM

    What a great idea! I love that you're making the effort to get to know your neighbors. Our neighborhood is similar in that unless you're immediate neighbors we really don't know each other and after living here 10 years I still don't know some of the neighbors by name! People are always rushing around and some seem to barely ever be home!

    I'm trying to think of something to interact and get to know my neighbors as well.

    Manuela

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  10. My husband is always armed with coupons...always buys in bulk...and freezes, cans etc....

    I am so thankful he enjoys being our chef! :)

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