New Year’s Eve party on a budget

Posted on by Forest in Budgeting, General, Opinion, Saving Money & Finances

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A New Year’s Eve party on a budget is absolutely possible….

It’s New Years Eve tomorrow as I write this and you may be wondering how on earth you are going to pull off the party you are being expected to hold without spending too much cash. Anyway get your budget ready and don’t go over it, I am almost certain a decent party can be organised on any budget.

Your New Year’s Eve party on a budget

The planning of a party isn’t the costly part, in fact that is mostly free and I think pretty easy. See my post on how to plan a New Year’s Eve Party for ideas in that area. However there are specific areas that require spending pay to look at in more detail and make sure you don’t blow the budget you planned completely.

Inexpensive Good Champagne

If you really don’t have the budget for Champagne I suggest you don’t supply it or only supply 1 bottle and tell people to bring their own midnight drinks. However don’t blow away the idea of Champagne just yet. It’s midnight on NYE not a Champagne tasting afternoon so the best Champagne is by no way required. If everyone has been drinking it is unlikely the taste will mean anything anyway at that point and most people would probably admit in private that they don’t like Champagne that much!

A reasonable Champagne can almost always be picked up for sub $20 per bottle and on occasion sub $10. Alternatives can come in the form of Sparkling White Wine (essentially the same thing!). At this late stage I suggest you visit your local wine warehouse (I love Cheese Traders in Williston, Vermont, you may have something similar) and talk to their wine experts. They can advise you and help out a lot. If you want an idea before you head into the store then search for cheap good champagne online and see what people recommend.

Inexpensive party food

The cheapest way to organise the party is to ask people to bring stuff either main dishes and deserts like a pot luck or nibbles and buffet plates. Supplying food by yourself stick to foods that are not too exotic. People don’t mind on New Year’s Eve as this is not a dinner party, it is a party. Supplying nice chips (Pringles are always a hit), peanuts and chocolates like M&M’s or Maltesers (available in giant bulk bags) around the house is pretty cheap and then a few buffet plates of things like cheddar cheese sandwiches, bread sticks, vegetable sticks, homemade hummus (throw chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice and a little olive oil in the blender) and other dips like baba ganusch (easy to make at home just like hummus from eggplants instead of chickpeas). People also love mini sausages, sausage rolls, chicken drum sticks and other easy nibbles that you can buy in bulk frozen bags from your local supermarket. If you have time to homemake more stuff you can really go gourmet but even things like boiled new potatoes tossed in garlic and butter give off gourmet taste on a low budget.

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Inexpensive New Year’s Eve party decor

I was talking with our party host for tomorrow (I am helping organise) and we were discussing decor. Much of the decor can be on the guests and not necessarily your home but still you can make some banners using nice off cuts of paper, some sparkly craft paper and some string. Basically use the nice paper to make the words HAPPY NEW YEAR and glue them to individual paper offcuts squares. Join it together with string and hang around. You can buy these pretty cheap too but I am much more a fan of homemade things. You also should sprinkle party poppers everywhere, it is terribly wasteful but once a year won’t hurt too much! Tell people to bring party hats but supply some paper ones yourself and even some fun paper masks if you want.

Now keeping the interior minimal decorated is fine but one addition always changes everything and that is balloons. You don’t need fancy balloons just a variety of colors and things people can pop. Buy loads and leave them around for people to blow up too. Long balloons and even some around suitable for balloon animals are fun too.