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No one wants to give up their social life to save money. Having friends and hanging out with them is beneficial, it makes us feel good. So as you sit and look at your social calendar and compare it to your pocket book instead of calling and canceling plans, get creative and host a “night-in” at your place.

I can give you more reasons than just saving money. When you are with your friends it is nice to be able to hang out and laugh and joke and talk. At a restaurant you are constantly interrupted by the server, and if you ask them to not come back until you call them, they tend to get offended. Plus, if you are not buying more food or drinks you may be asked to pay so that they can use the table, especially if they are busy. You also have to take into consideration the people around you. Plus what do you do once you are done eating?

Most groups are going to go back to someone’s house, possible play cards or other games. Why not start at the house and stay there? This will insure a better time by all, and less money is spent. There are a number of ways that you can do this. You can host a cook out at your place, and ask everyone to bring a dish to share. You can offer all the food and ask everyone to bring drinks to share or you can just have a potluck where everyone brings food and drinks to share and you hang out.

My spouse and I have done all three. They all work out really well, and the really nice thing is that someone always offers to host the next one because it is so much fun. If you are concerned about having enough food to feed everyone and not break your pocket book consider grilling inexpensive foods. No one is coming to your house expecting steak and lobster. Marinated or BBQ chicken legs are great on the grill along with roasted corn on the cob. Hamburgers and hot dogs are also great.

You can also kick in the house. A big spaghetti dinner is a wonderful way to feed everyone inexpensively and so is chili. Think about the cost of a night out with your friends at a restaurant. You have appetizers, drinks, main dish and possibly dessert and if you are having a really good time figure that you have 3 hours there. After the food, how many drinks are you going to consume. I have friends that can consume 4 or 5 drinks in that time, and I have friend that only drink 2. At $4-$12 a pop, that can add up pretty quickly.

Now looking at the alcohol alone, you can buy a bottle of rum for around $18, which can make more than one drink. That would be money saved, even if you drank the entire bottle in one night. If you are a wine lover, then you know that a bottle of wine can range anywhere from $5 all the way to hundreds. However the ones that are served in restaurants like TGIFridays, they aren’t going to sell the $300 bottle of wine, they are going to serve the less expensive wines. You can buy them by the bottle or the glass. You also know that if you buy by the glass you are going to pay for that entire bottle in two to three glasses… and you will end up paying more.

When you have friends over, you are free to hang out as long as you want. There aren’t any servers asking if everything is okay. There aren’t people at other tables that you could be bothering. You are home or at a friend’s house, enjoying a leisurely less expensive evening with your friends.

Neil Bartlett is the founder of CheapInsider.com. Cheap Insider provides everyone with Tips and Techniques for saving money and finding bargains. To learn more INSTANTLY grab his FREE report “10 Money Saving Tips”

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