Elizabeth emailed in the following tip:
A lot of the entertainment in our household revolves around food. On his nights off, my husband and I enjoy eating at nice restaurants, either alone or with friends. During the week I love to relax with my friends over wine and cheese. My Saturday mornings are spent catching up with my parents over breakfast at our favorite restaurant.
As we’ve looked to trim our budget, finding ways to continue to enjoy our food pursuits inexpensively has been forefront in our plan. While I love seeing my parents for breakfast, if the kids are along, my bill at our favorite restaurant will creep up quite fast.
One way I’ve been able to reduce my budget is to bring our Saturday morning breakfast to our house.
Breakfast is the one meal that is easy to make and relatively inexpensive to serve. There are a lot of different options and you can linger over your coffee/tea without the waitstaff getting antsy. It’s also the one meal that you can serve with very little prep work if need be. There have been times when I haven’t started my menu planning until about 30 minutes before my parents arrived!
When deciding what to serve, I choose one or two options from each of the categories listed below. Most of the time my choices are based on what I have in my refrigerator or pantry.
Starters
- Fresh Fruit
- Smoothies
- Pecan and Craisin Granola
- Orange Juice
Protein
- Eggs – cooked to order
- Frittatas
- Breakfast bowls
- Bacon or sausage
Carbs
Going out for breakfast (if my children are there) usually costs well over $30 with tip, that’s not including my parents bill. However, I’ve found that, on average, I’m able to cook breakfast for all of us for less than $10 — depending upon the menu I choose.
By bringing breakfast to our house I’ve been able to save all of us quite a bit of money!
In addition to being a wife and mother of two adult children, Liz works outside the home and blogs at Wonder Woman I’m Not — a home management blog for the busy woman striving to find balance in their lives.
Kelly Cox says
Great idea! We love to hose family and friends but it can get pricey. We really do enjoy offering a nice meal to them though. The idea of a breakfast or brunch is a great way to offer yummy food but less expensively. Thanks for this tip!! 🙂
Beth says
We like to have people over often as well, and I like to serve breakfast for dinner for the same reasons you mentioned! It’s cheap and everyone usually loves it. Just an idea if Saturday mornings don’t work 🙂
Leighann says
Wow, the idea of going out to a restaurant and only spending $30 after tax and tip is astounding to me! If my family of four (me, husband, six year old, four year old) goes out to eat at, say, IHOP, the bill by itself is gonna be higher than $30! Drinks, refills if the drinks have no free refills, an entree for each of us, sometimes an appetizer or dessert…. WELL over $30. And we’re big tippers, too (almost every server in America makes less than $3 per hour and regularly winds up paying for a table or two to eat each week because of complaints, dine and dash, not getting tipped, etc. so we’re very generous) so in the end, dining out is usually more than $75….which is why we might do it once or twice per year. Our favorite time to dine out is Halloween night. That’s our anniversary, so we go trick or treating, get a nice dinner somewhere, and come home and go to sleep!
Elizabeth @ Wonder Woman I'm Not says
Ihop is one of our favorite restaurants too! I would agree that if our whole family was eating out the bill would be significantly higher. My husband has his own Saturday morning routine so this is my special time with my parents. It’s also pretty rare for both kids to show up so the $30+ bill is for two of us. The problem was that was getting expensive and I wanted to find a way to keep enjoying the time with my parents without spending a lot of money.
How fun that Halloween is your anniversary! What a great tradition for your family.
Michelle says
I love this idea. Sometimes having people over for dinner is hard to get scheduled because of activities, small groups, etc.
Jennifer says
I’m not a fan of breakfast foods–I’m a Fiber One and skim milk girl but my husband and son love breakfast—so I like to make it at home.
The last time we went out for breakfast at a diner, the bill came to over $60 for the three of us. It’s nuts! And that didn’t include anything really great like mimosas!
Elizabeth @ Wonder Woman I'm Not says
Love mimosas! Fortunately they’re easy to make at home and Barefoot Champagne is pretty cheap 🙂
Susan in St. Louis says
We recently have started having other families with young children over for Saturday breakfast/brunch, and it’s worked out great! Our double waffle iron (from Costco) keeps waffles hot and ready, and some easy sausage and fruit round things out. Easy-peasy, and no need to worry about little ones having to get down to bed right away. It really is a great way to be hospitable! 🙂
Reelika @Financially Wise On Heels says
That’s a great idea! I love hosting family and friends. Typically I host dinners, but why not a breakfast sometimes. I guess it makes more sense to have a breakfast get together when having the children with us as well, because they tend to get too excited in the evenings.
Elizabeth @ Wonder Woman I'm Not says
I have one friend that the only time we can get together is for breakfast. Schedules are so busy that’s the only time we can meet.
JJ says
Saturday mornings we try to have a bigger breakfast than usual. I have awesome memories as a child of having big breakfasts on Sundays. My favorite–waffles! My 2 year old loves to “help” mix it up, and we have so much fun. That’s great you get to have breakfast weekly with your parents. I’m sure they cherish the fellowship!
Elizabeth @ Wonder Woman I'm Not says
It’s an excellent way to keep in touch and we all look forward to it. My kids love waffles too, fortunately I can make those. If pancakes were on their wish list I’d be in trouble 🙂
Nancy says
I love entertaining at my house as well, it usually is the cheapest of the options as it’s fun for me.
I’m with you girl on the cheese- as a kid I hated cheese, turns out I love expensive cheese.
And I hope this post doesn’t get too much hate from people who can’t afford to go out. I think spending money is all about what areas of your life are a priority- and being a foodie is a great choice! 🙂
Elizabeth @ Wonder Woman I'm Not says
Thanks for the kind words. To keep costs down for our wine and cheese get togethers we take turns hosting with each person bringing whatever it is they want to drink (not all of us are wine drinkers) and some kind of snack. It’s a fairly inexpensive way for us to enjoy each others company 🙂
Good food is one of our few vices. LIfe is short and I like to find ways to enjoy it within our budget.