Drinks
One option worth considering is staying in and inviting your friends over. It will give you an opportunity to clean you place and show off your cooking skills. You’ll also save a lot of money on drinks and food. How much does Strongbow Dark Fruit cost in a pub? Five pounds? That’s four pints for 20 pounds! You can buy Lidl brand of dark fruit cider, which tastes very similar, for only £2.69. And I mean four cans of it. Now let’s say you go out in a group of four and everyone orders two ciders. As a group, you spend £40 on drinks, ten pounds each. Whereas if you invited three friends over and you bought eight cans of cider at Lidl, you would have spent only £5,38! Allow me to rephrase that: a group of four having two drinks each – at home £5.60 and out £40. Instead of spending £10 on your two ciders in a pub, you can save over 4 pounds and still buy ciders for your friends. Mind blowing, isn’t it? But that’s just drinks.
Food
When it comes to food there are other advantages of eating at home, than simply saving money. Off the top of my head there’s knowledge of exact ingredients used. When you cook, you control what’s your food made with. This gives you confidence in what you eat, if you are a vegan, vegetarian, or have some other specific dietary requirements. You also control cleanliness in your kitchen and freshness of ingredients. The fact, that it is also cheaper to cook at home, is just an added bonus.
Of course there are benefits of going to the restaurant. It would be difficult to prepare different meal for every person. Also, there may be a mountain of dishes to wash afterwards. But, if it supposed to be a Sunday roast and everybody intends to eat the same dish, why would you overpay? You can be a wonderful host and inspire your friends to organise dinners at their places. That’s socialising as well, but cheaper and better. Better, because dining at home allows you to nourish your relationships and to build healthy habits of hospitality within your group of friends.
And everything else…
Going out is not only about eating and drinking together, but about having fun too. While dancing at home is possible if you have enough space, there are some more suitable activities that could successfully replace expensive ones in town. Gaming, watching old films, board games… All this can be done for free. Night out also means dressing up, taxis and other expenses. When you add it all up and compare to home party, you may discover a massive saving opportunity.
What are your favourite ways to spend time at home with friends? Do you think it can reduce going out to special occasions only? I know I wouldn’t quit my cinema and pub time completely, but maybe you would? Or maybe you have other ideas how to cut costs of weekend fun? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
