Think you have to go out to enjoy spending time with your adult friends? Nothing could be further from the truth. When you spend your evening at home you get to actually visit, play a few games and spending time with friends is more economical and quite often more fun if you spend it at your house. A night out is still a night out even at your place, if you include a grill and a few steaks, a good bottle of wine and perhaps board games or card games.
One friend of ours frequently requests that we all get together and have a soup night. Everyone in the group loves to cook, everyone loves to share recipes and ideas so we all spend a great deal of time interacting in someone’s home rather than out in a restaurant. Now we’re not saying never got out to dinner, we’re simply saying it’s not necessary to have a good time.
The friends range in ages from 35 upward to 50 and are all career paths so this isn’t something that is not doable for anyone.
Everyone in our crowd might be what is termed old school probably since they tend to be comfortable bringing a tureen for dinner and chatting in groups as we clear away afterward so it may not suit every crowd but it is a money saver and it does encourage conversation and friendship.
For larger gatherings two couples bring dessert while others make the meal so that we can all relax rather than go somewhere that costs a lot and frankly, none of us can afford. To quote one of our less than diplomatic friends, “The company is better and at least we know what’s in the food”.( See why we don’t take him out often?)
The fact is that restaurants and other entertainment is going up in price and the quality of what you receive is frankly not as good as it once was, although it may not be as bad as it eventually gets. You see the point of it all. Entertaining at home is less costly, more relaxing and the fact is that you can spend a lot less and get a lot more.
We recently tested our theory. Buying four half pound steaks, a bottle of wine, four extra large baked potatoes in a food store in Las Vegas Nevada cost us about 35 dollars. The same meal in a restaurant here, which is famed for the low cost of dining out, was about 80 dollars. If you add into the mixture the cost of a few glasses of wine for the group as well as the tip and the valet parking, the cost was going to easily reach into a hundred dollars for an evening out that was okay but nothing really special.
By staying home, we got a meal that was equally good, shared the company of some good friends over a glass of wine and saved more than half the price of the meal alone, without including the added drinks. With several of the group out of work and others with hours cut, it was an expense none of us wanted or could adequately afford.
Tags: adult entertainment, cheap entertainment for adults, cost effective entertainment, cutting entertainment costs, entertaining at home, entertaining friends, how to entertain more cheaply, low cost entertainment