9 ways to save on a Superbowl Party

As i promised yesterday i am bringing you a special edition of counting coins that is going to focus on spending less but still having the same quality super bowl party.  Most, if not all of these tips can be applied to other occasions where there are large amounts of snack food and beverages (such as when teenagers hang out, of course the beverages are non-alcoholic in that case).

1. When planing your menu you should consider buying snacks you enjoy.  this saves money in two ways, if they are snacks that you enjoy you will not be wasteful in just discarding the leftovers.  You could also take this a step further, if you have specific snacks that you buy every week, you could consider just buying a larger size bag.  Not only does the price per Pound go down when you buy larger sizes but this will combine your typical weekly household snacks and your party snacks all in the same bag.
2. Don’t buy team merchandise.  If you already have team merchandise because they are your absolute favorite team than be proud and wear it.  But for me, this year are two teams i am not entirely interested in.  Rather than spending money on a jersey that i will at most wear once a year, but realistically much less than that cause teams in the Superbowl tend to change every year.  Instead you should consider wearing the team colors which will show your support and you most likely already have clothes that match the team colors in your closet.
3. don’t waste money on Kitchsy decorations.  they always show on the TV people with there houses decked out with footballs every where and streamers.  while these ideas can be rather cute they are not cost effective.  In fact there really is no need to decorate people are there to watch the game, not look at your walls.
4. buy only one type of beer. I am sure all of you are screaming saying “but i want my custom brewed fancy beer”  to bad.  If you really want to save money the easiest way is to get a larger pack of one type of beer, preferably more than enough from one party.  and you can use it through out year at all the parties you throw.
5. go easy on the diet soda.  Unless you typically drink soda or diet soda i would not advise buying tons of it.  at a typical gathering with 30 people you tend to go through about 1 bottle of diet soda, 2 bottles of regular soda a bottle of juice and a lot of beer.  if your family does not typically drink soda at all you could consider buying seltzer water to mix with juices or you could get ginger ale (which can come in handy for relieving stomach aches after you stuff your face with food)
6. why not do it potluck? this can save a ton of money, everyone makes food they enjoy and you usually end up with a good deal of leftovers, that if you do not want you can pawn off on your guests.  This saves a great deal of money because you only have to worry about one dish.
7. Skip the betting.  every year my dad signs up for a Superbowl grid where you are essential betting on what the final scores will be.  there are 100 different possibilities.  while putting in 5 dollars and getting 200 back sounds pretty good it is not worth it.  Your odds are only a 1% chance of winning where the pay off is only 40x your input.  This means theoretical you would have to put in 1000 dollars before you win  ( i am going to elaborate on this more next week)
8. only let guests use on bathroom.  you save electricity and water in the long run.  additionally do not leave the light on so guests can find the bathroom, put a small night light in there for the day so they can find the switch.
9. confine the party to 1-2 rooms. as many of you know parties where people get excited and create a raucous tend to also leave the rooms messy and needing cleaning.  rather than having to waste money and time to clean the whole house limiting the part to a few rooms makes clean up much easier.

i hope some of these tips are helpful for those who are planing on spending tomorrow sitting in front of the TV noshing on chips.  i hope you all have a wonderful Superbowl, may your favorite team win.

Until next time