Use this thread for all your Frugal Hostess and Party Planning tips. How do you decorate you space? do you make your own invites? What tips can you offer someone with a large family? What are some simple and inexpensive ways you can create a festive space? What types of foods do you serve? What is your focal point? How do you create it?

Every entry in our contest in this thread, qualifies you to win our GRAND Prize.

Don't forget to include with every entry:

• Your budget
• The resources you used
• The time it took to create
• A picture of the finished product.


Good Luck!

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Just a reminder that this is for the grand prize!

We'd love to see some photos! If you need help posting one, please refer to this thread How to: Post Pictures in the Gallery

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I'm not sure where to put this, so move it if I put it in the wrong category.

As soon as it gets cold outside we start making apple cider with apple juice and wassail spices. The best part is the way the house smells so after we drink the apple cider, we leave the spices in a tea ball in a pot of water and let it simmer on the stove all day. It make the house smell delicious and it lasts for weeks if you change the water out occasionally.

We use wassail spices from Williams-Sonoma so it was probably $10 for the canister, but we just use 1 Tablespoon. We've had the canister for a couple years.

The tea ball is from Williams-Sonoma as well and was about $5.

*Budget: free because we reuse the apple cider spices
*time: 1 minute
*Resources: tea ball - not required you can just float the spices in the water.

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I just saw this on the Williams Sonoma website and thought they were too cute not to share!!!

Budget: The cost would be VERY inexpensive a it's just ice cubes with plastic spiders sticking out. (just a $1 or $2 depending on where you buy your bag of plastic spiders).

Resources: Just a bag of plastic spiders, and ice cube tray filled with water, and whatever drink you choose to put the ice cubes into....punch for kids, alcoholic drinks for adults, etc.

Time involved: Minimal as you just place the spiders in the ice tray and then freeze the water.



Instructions:
Plastic spiders from a toy store transform ordinary ice. Wash the spiders with dish soap and cool water. Fill an ice-cube tray with cold water and arrange the spiders so they seem to climb out of the ice. Freeze overnight and add the cubes to punch or any beverage.

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I am so going to prank my sister with this during the holidays! THANK YOU!

I KNOW!!! I think they're SOOOOO cute!!! Great for a party!!

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Ok, so this idea is mostly geared towards a "holiday party"...probably something you would have between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well I, personally, like to include EVERYONE in the holidays. But it's hard to cook for everyone, plus my house isn't that big and it's obviously too cold outside for anyone to hang out there.

So my idea is to simply have an "Holiday Open House."
If you do an "e-vite," they are free...you just send invitations out to whomever is on your email list.
You make the party from say, 6pm-8pm..or something like that, so that it's after dinner-time, so you don't have to serve heavy food. Plus, usually people will stay after 8pm and hang out...however you don't want people actually showing up after 8pm and staying all night..so a 2 hr slot is good.

For food...I would simply go with a " chocolate fondue fountain." You can buy small ones that work just fine, for about $25. Or, if you ask around, I bet someone would have one. They sell them everywhere this time of year! So basically, you melt the chocolate on the stove and stir in the cream, then you set up the fountain in the middle of a table, preferably round or square (so people can reach the fountain from all sides). Then around that, you would arrange all of the "dipping items." Your list: (for every 30 people or so)

Small festive paper dessert plates - $5 (Dollar Tree)
Small festive dessert napkins - $5 (Dollar Tree)
clear plastic forks - $3
3 bags of giardelli chocolate chips - $6
2 pints of whipping cream - $4
1 bag of large marshmallows - $1
1 package of grahm crackers - $2
1 pound cake mix, to bake yourself, then cube - $1
1 bag of large pretzel sticks - $2
1 pan of rice crispy treats, make yourself, then cube - $4 (store brand ingredients)
1 pk of biscotti (8 pack), split in half - $2
2 16oz pks of strawberries - $6
4 apples, sliced and dipped in water and lemon juice (to prevent browning) - $2
4 bananas - $1
TOTAL: $43

Then, to drink, you set up a smaller area with a basket of bottled water, and next to that, a crockpot of hot cider! You can also have candy dishes and small bowls sitting around with salted nuts and any other goodies you can think of! That way, people can snack while they talk!

Bottled Water, 24 pk - $4
paper Cups - $2
2 gallons of appler cider - $5
cinnamon
2 cans of salted nuts - $6
TOTAL - $17

So, then, as far as decorations go...anything you have around and would normally use to decorate! I would set the mood with nice holiday scented candles...like apple spice, pumpkin pie, etc. I would use as much lamp light as possible (for a cozy atmosphere). Light a fire if you have one, and play holiday music! Just set the scene for a cozy, relaxed atmosphere where people can talk and catch up! You can even have a children's Christmas movie going in the family room so the kids are entertained!

I love this idea because it's so much easier than having a huge meal with sandwhich platters and fruit trays. It's alot less work too! Once everything it out of the table, you just have to restock the hot cider and the chocolate every half an hour, or so! This way, you can enjoy the party as well! That's the whole idea, a chance for people to get together and enjoy the company. As long as you have something good to snack on, everyone will be happy!

Budget (excluding cost of fountain and any optional decorations):
$60 (That's roughly $2 per person for the cost of food)
*food costs were based on sale items, you can also shop bulk for a large party, thus saving you more money!

Time to Create: Including shopping and the small amount of baking, probably 6-8 hrs (doesn't have to be done all at one time, most ingredients can be bought way in advance)

Have a fun party everyone!

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Budget: about $15 depending on what you already have on hand.

Resourcesaper bag, (items to put inside them), 1 ballon or plastic bag, paper mache, gue and string. Chocolate pudding mix, gummy worms, and oreos.

Time:about 1 1/2 hours

First of all, there are so many cheap and fun ideas for making your halloween party super fun! Some of my suggestions is finding what you already have in the house that you can use. Be creative. For instance... do you have paper bags? Great; then you can play the paper bag guessing game. We played this at a playdate recently and all the kiddos loved it! Basically put whatever you want into the bag and the kids have to feel it and guess what it is.You can use things like, wet spaghetti noodles, lilttle plastic bugs that you can find at most dollar general stores...etc.
You can also make your own pinadas. All you need is a balloon (or plastic bag blown up and tied off), glue and water mixed together, paper mache, string and maybe some glitter. dip the paper mache in the glue solution and place it on the balloon untill fully covered, let it dry for about an hour, pop the ballon inside and cut a small door for the candy or little party favors. add a string and you're done!
Some of the treats that go over well at these parties include the famouse dirt pie with gummy worms. It's so simple; just take plastic cups (clear) add chocolate pudding to one layer, crushed oreos to another, and repeat and then garnish with gummy worms! If you like to bake, may I suggest baking pumpkin cookies! They are really yummy! You can find the recipe at:

Iced Pumpkin Cookies - Allrecipes

And for all other decorations you can always hit up dollar tree stores!

Here's a cute and inexpensive treat for a Halloween party or to give to Trick or Treaters! I'm putting it here under party tips because the cute poem that goes along with it is perfect for visitors!

Buy clear plastic gloves ($1 for 100 at Dollar Tree), a bag of candy corn ($1 or less a bag - free if you made it to CVS's sale), popcorn ($1 and up depending on what type you buy) and spider rings (I got mine for $.25 on clearance after Halloween last year, but you can usually get a bag of 50 for a $1). Put one candy corn in the tip of each finger of a glove. Fill the rest of the glove with popcorn. Put a spider ring of the ring finger. Tie shut with whatever you have on hand - yarn, ribbon, extra twist ties. Makes an adorable treat! I didn't have a pic but here's a link to another set of directions with pics and a cute poem you could add. These come in at about 15 cents each depending on how well you did gathering your materials. And, they take about 10 minutes to prep.

Popcorn hand from CraftSayings.com

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This Contest Is Over. Thank you!

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