Budget BBQ

One of the greatest pleasures of summer (apart from the no snowsuits) is the ability to cook and eat outside.

Before you throw out your BBQ shingle and invite the whole neighbourhood over, realize that hosting a BBQ can be a costly endeavour. 

Here are some tips to help you plan ahead and stay on budget:

Meat money

While you may savour the thought of breaking into a juicy Rib Eye steak, now, along with a dozen of your friends is not the time, especially if you are on budget.

Everyone loves a burger or a hot dog. If you’re looking to go slightly more haute cuisine, choose less expensive cuts of meat, like chicken legs over breasts, and tougher cuts of meat, like flank steak. Flank steak, when marinated for several hours, grilled and cut against the grain is one of the tastier treats out there.

Delegate the side dishes

Every good leader knows the value of good delegation in the success of a project. The same principle applies to the frugal cook’s successful BBQ.

Although we know you can do everything, there is no reason that you have to do everything.

Assign everyone a dish, so that you don’t have 25 salads and no dessert. Make it interesting and include a theme- like a dish from a certain country, or one of your favourite childhood dishes.

Empty your kitchen cupboards

One of the sneaky costs associated with feeding a crowd are the plates, cutlery and cups. Save on these costs by breaking out all of your dishware, even the stuff in the very back of your cupboards, that haven’t seen the light of day since college.

Not only is this cheaper and more environmentally friendly, it’s very chic. Eclectic, mish-mash tableware is very in.