Summertime is here and the days are longer and much hotter! Summer is a great time to throw a barbecue. It’s a nice time to connect with family, friends and neighbors! It’s also a great time to be cooking outdoors more often anyway. Less heating inside the house, means the air conditioner doesn’t have to work as hard keeping the house cool.
Barbecues are great fun for people to attend because they can bring their whole family, kids included. Fun and low cost entertainment.
The best part is, barbecues are not expensive if you do it the right way. You don’t even have to have a huge BBQ pit or make expensive meats.
I’d like to show you how.
If you don’t have a barbecue pit, that’s the first thing you need. But the good news is, discount chains offer table top units for pretty cheap! It will be the best money you spend all summer!
Here are some tips to make barbecuing just a bit easier and less expensive.
- Purchase charcoal briquettes when they are on sale. Try to stock up on them and have them available when you are ready to cook. Look for coupons and specials all over the place and keep them available.
- Most kids love hot dogs so always have them available. You can get packages for .99 at the store all the time. Watch for sales on hamburger meat or buy a bulk package from a wholesale store like Sam’s Club or Costco.
- If you provide the meat (hamburgers and hot dogs) ask each person coming to the barbecue to bring a dish. Assign them so you don’t wind up with three of the same thing. You can assign things such as potato chips, cookies, watermelon or any other fun side dish or ice cream.
- Whatever you do, don’t purchase a bunch of special napkins, paper plates or plastic cutlery. If you don’t have enough dishes, just invest in some inexpensive plastic dishes (check out wal-mart) and throw them in the dishwasher. For napkins purchase a cheap roll of paper towels (approx. $.79) and you won’t even use the whole roll!
- Use regular silverware. If you don’t have enough of something, ask friends or neighbors to bring their own.
- Ask your company to provide their own chairs. I know that most of my friends and neighbors have the nice “camping” style chairs or folding chairs that are really easy to throw in a trunk and bring with them or sling over an arm to carry across the street.
- The most important and final tip I have for throwing a successful barbecue is – HAVE FUN!! Enjoy your friends, family and neighbors and remember to do it often!
Suggest that you each take turns hosting it! It’s fun and frugal entertainment!