Save Money in Daily Life – Tips, Tricks and Practicalities

With the warm summer days, come those fantastic hot summer nights, which are perfect for entertaining. But, during this economy crisis, even the most hip and fun hostess is trying to find ways to become a frugal fashionista and still host a fabulous soiree. It’s a dilemma shared by many, but the solution to this little pickle is as easy as 1-2-3.

If you still want to have a fantastic time, try these 3 fabulously frugal ways to have a fun event without breaking your budget:

1. Buy for cheap all of your decorations. One of the cheapest ways to accessorize and dazzle a crowd is with loads of candles. Candles are one of the best decor additions that you can always buy for cheap. From the long slender candlesticks to the chunky pedestal candles that you can embellish with sparkly things that you can also buy for cheap.

Instead of paper products, buy for cheap a pretty set of real dishes that you piece together and coordinate just by the colors. They don’t have to a perfectly matched set, but the colors and designs should be complimentary. These items you can buy from the dollar store or you can check out your local thrift store for pieces that can make a real splash.

You should also consider recycling some stuff that you have around the house to make decorative items like placemats. If you are not that “crafty”, you could also buy for cheap plenty of pretty placemats at your local dollar store. Just by using a pretty placemat, some cool candles, and nice plates, you can make a real fabulous impression on your guests without spending beyond your means.

2. Use frugal recipes. From your appetizers to your main dish, find and use frugal recipes that are delicious, impressive, and yet very, very cheap to make! Also, when you are purchasing the items for your frugal recipes, buy for cheap as much as possible with sale items, and by using coupons. Nobody has to know that you got the cheese for less than $1 a bag. What matters is the end result, the taste, and appearance.

Embellish the food with cheap accents such as nut slivers, fruit or vegetable slices, pretty green and black olive slices, and chocolate bar shavings for dessert. All of these items, you can buy for cheap, and yet they will make very huge impact on the appearance of your food. Do some research online to learn how to make them work.

Finally, while you want to entertain your guests, you also want to keep the cost of the fun to a minimum! Keep everything as simple as possible by pulling out old favorites such as board games, a deck of cards, and some old music videos for laughs. Another possibility is to put your iPod to work with a set of speakers. This is an extremely cheap way to keep the music flowing without having to pay a DJ! Your guests will enjoy themselves just a much with these simple things than they would doing something that is really costly. You will set the tone of the evening and your guests are most likely to follow your cue. Keep it light, fun, and friendly!

Being a frugal fashionista hostess takes a little practice, but once you get the hang of it, you will be able to pull off all types of gorgeous summer fun gatherings without going broke, during an economy crisis or anytime.