Money Saving Mom®

When money is tight, even the idea of practicing hospitality can feel overwhelming. You might love the idea of filling your home with laughter, connection, and community — but worry about the cost of feeding extra mouths or making things feel “guest ready.”

But here’s the truth: you don’t need a big budget or a perfectly styled home to offer meaningful hospitality.

With a little creativity, some realistic expectations, and a heart to bless (not impress!) others, you can open your door and create space for community without breaking the bank.

Many times, we think of hospitality as being when we’ll host another family or group of people for a meal. While that is definitely one form of hospitality, it is by no means the only form of hospitality.

We decided to ask our readers to share some of their best tips for practicing hospitality on a budget, and they came up with SO many great ideas!

Looking for ways to practice hospitality on a budget? Use this reader-sourced list of ideas to help you open up your home, feed your family/friends, and build community — all while maintaining peace of mind about how much you’re spending.

Here are some simple, budget-friendly ways to welcome others in — without the financial stress:

Frugal Hosting Ideas

Instead of hosting a 3-course meal or blowing your budget on takeout pizza, consider these less-expensive ways to gather your friends in your home on a budget.

• Enjoy coffee on the front porch.
• Plan a group meal with 2 or 3 friends (1 brings the main dish, 1 brings a couple of sides, 1 brings dessert and anything extra).
• Invite people over for dessert after dinner. This could be as simple as brownies, cookies, or ice cream, or you could ask everyone to bring a favorite dessert. (Or skip the dessert and just serve coffee and tea!)
• Meet at someone’s home in PJs (morning or evening) and bring whatever snacks you have on hand.
• Host a “Muffins and Munchies” party — Everyone brings a sweet muffin and a savory munchie to share.
• Serve cheese & crackers in the backyard.
• Set up a s’mores bar and bonfire.
• Host a potluck. There doesn’t even need to be a main dish if everyone brings something to share, such as a salad or dessert. This is also a fun way to get new favorite recipes as you all try each other’s food!
• Stock up on coffee cakes when they’re on sale and stick them in your freezer or make some freezer-friendly snacks, so you’re ready for last-minute hospitality.
• Offer donut holes and coffee/hot chocolate on a Saturday morning.
• Pop a variety of different popcorns and ask your friends to bring their favorite drink.
• Have a “Spring Fling” — Everyone brings a plant they split from their garden and an appetizer to share.
• Keep healthy and frugal snacks for kids on hand to give your kids’ friends when they come over.
• Invite friends over to play in the sprinkler and eat popsicles while the moms chat.
• Host a cereal night — Each person brings their favorite box of cereal with a variety of milks.
• Plan your company meals around what you already have on hand and what is on sale.
• Serve canned biscuits with jam and honey and ask your friends to bring their favorite tea.
• Plan an ice cream sundae social — You supply ice cream and ask everyone to bring toppings.
• Enjoy a game night and snacks — Everyone brings a favorite game and snack.
• BYO Takeout — Invite a group of friends over with instructions for everyone to grab their own takeout on the way.
• BYO Meat to grill — and everyone brings a side to share.

Remember that your friends want to visit you because of the conversations and laughter you’ll all have together, not because of the food you serve and not because your home is perfectly-coordinated or impressive.

I always keep it simple when we open up our home…mostly because it makes me stressed if I try to cook a fancy meal. I’d rather be relaxed and be able to fully focus on loving on our guests and investing in them so keeping things really simple is what works best for me! And the reality is that most people care more about spending time with you than about how amazing your food is. People just like to be welcomed into your home and included!

Frugal Meals That Feed a Crowd

These frugal meal ideas are a great option the next time you offer to bring a meal to a friend or host a group at your home.

• Spaghetti (or spaghetti pizza)
• Soup + salad
• Homemade pizza (everyone brings their favorite toppings)
• Breakfast for dinner (or Saturday morning breakfast!) — We LOVE serving breakfast for dinner at our house. Think pancakes, eggs, and bacon. Or a waffle bar with fruit, whipped cream, and chocolate chips. Or an egg casserole with cinnamon rolls and fruit.
• Hot dogs
• Chili — You could even have a chili cook-off where everyone brings their favorite chili to share!
• Taco bar
• Baked potato bar
• Breakfast burritos
• Sloppy Joes or Pulled pork (stock up when the meat goes on sale)
• Baked Nachos
• Roasts or rotisserie chickens (when on sale) + potatoes, carrots, and some bread.
• Leftovers — Challenge yourself to make a “silly” meal out of whatever you have on hand.

Note: My extended family gets together every summer for vacation and we cook meals for 25+ people! You can see some of our budget-friendly ideas and meals here, here, here, and here!

You can also click here to grab a FREE list of 60 simple meal ideas when you’re not sure what to cook!

Frugal Tips to Entertain for Less

Planning a frugal menu is only one way to save on hospitality; there are many others ways to entertain on a tight budget!

• Skip paper products and wash your own dishes.
• Look for pretty plates, stemware, vases, tablecloths, etc. at the thrift store.
• Buy disposable seasonal plates/napkins/cups on clearance after the season/holiday.
• Make paper chains from strips of construction paper or pompoms from yarn as cheap decor.
• Cut flowers or greenery from your garden and use them to decorate your home for any occasion.
• Have your kids color images relating to the theme of the gathering, then cut them out and mount them on colored paper to hang on the wall.
• Serve water with lemons, limes, cucumbers, mint, or even cranberries for a festive look without paying for pricier beverages.
• Keep homemade sweet tea in the refrigerator and always have ice for ice water.
• Borrow from friends when possible. Don’t have enough folding chairs or serving plates? You could borrow from a neighbor or ask friends to bring their own!
• Play happy, calm music to frame the mood.

Frugal Ways to Show Hospitality to Others

Showing hospitality doesn’t always require food or hosting in your home — and it certainly doesn’t need to break your budget. It’s much more about opening yourself and your heart to relationships with others, which doesn’t have to cost anything!

Here are several frugal ways you can show others how much you care:

• Pray for and send a card to someone.
• Fill a thrift store teacup with a few tea bags and give it to a sick neighbor or friend.
• Make frugal gift bags for neighbor kids — bubbles, coloring books, boxes of raisins, applesauce cups, and tiny toys.
• Pick up bagels and go to a park for breakfast and a walk.
• Bring brown bag lunches to a local park or community center.
• Many areas offer free concerts, festivals, or events that would be great for the whole family. Why not ask some friends to join you?
• BYO Snacks to a play date at a park.
• Use one of the ideas on this list of fun and frugal ideas, and ask some friends to do it with you!
• Invite someone to coffee. This is inexpensive (especially if you literally just order a cup of tea or coffee!) and can be a fantastic way to begin connecting with someone on a deeper level.
• Invite friends to meet you at a restaurant where kids eat free/cheap.
• If you have a little extra room in your budget one week, buy some ingredients to make muffins or soup to stick in your freezer and have on hand for taking meals to people. Or, double up your own meals when cooking and freeze one to share. You’ll be ready to help a friend in need, even if their need pops up on a busy day for you!
• Save your free samples and trial-sized items to make gift bags for neighbors or hostesses.
• Bring veggies or flowers from your garden to a few neighbors.
• Buy extra groceries on clearance and bring them to a family who could use them.
• Pair up with another friend to help your friend in need. If you know of another friend who might also be short on finances or time, ask if she’d like to help you with making a meal. One of you can make the main dish and bread, another the salad and dessert, and you’ve just pulled off a great meal for half the cost.
• Coordinate a birthday dinner at a restaurant (where everyone pays for their own meal), rather than hosting everyone at your house.
• Meet up with friends at a restaurant and take advantage of one of these family meal hacks at popular restaurants to save on an easy group dinner.
• Give a jar of homemade soup mix, brownie mix, pancake mix, cookie mix, etc.
• Offer to bring a friend some frozen goodies instead of a whole dinner. Instead of a full meal, you could make some banana bread, muffins, rolls, or a freezer-friendly dessert, and put them in a pretty basket with some notes of encouragement taped onto them. Bring it over and tell the family they can stick everything in their freezer and use them when they want to.
• Bake and deliver a dozen cookies to a friend or neighbor.
• Plan to make a double-batch of one meal each week and bring one of the meals to a friend or neighbor.
• Visit the elderly and shut-ins — even if you don’t bring any food along.
• Create a separate bank account for giving and hospitality and put a little into it from each paycheck.

Here’s the thing: hospitality isn’t about impressing others — it’s about making them feel loved and welcome.

You don’t need a fancy home, matching dishes, or a gourmet spread to open your door to someone. In fact, some of the sweetest memories are made in imperfect spaces with simple food and a whole lot of heart.

Want to hear something wild? I used to be terrified of hospitality. I wouldn’t ever open up my home to anyone. But then I read Jen Schmidt’s Just Open the Door book, and it completely changed my life. Now, I adore hospitality and our home is a revolving door of people, friends, teens, and kids! (You can hear more about this journey in my podcast interview with Jen!)

So if you’ve been waiting for things to be “just right” before you invite someone over…don’t! Hospitality isn’t about having more — it’s about sharing what you already have.

Start looking for ways to show hospitality and reach out to others and I bet you’ll begin to find them all around you!

Want More Financial Advice that Fits Your Real Life?

For more encouragement and ideas to manage your money while living in line with your priorities, pre-order a copy of my new book, The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women.

This book is something I wrote for each and every woman. It’s for the woman in college, the married woman, the single woman, the mom with lots of kids, the woman who doesn’t have kids, the empty nester, and anything and everything in between.

It is part memoir (sharing so many stories of my upbringing and how my parents and grandparents influenced me when it comes to money + lots of stories from our early years of marriage) and it is part practical handbook.

It is packed with my best time-tested advice on how to change your financial future — one step at a time — written in a very realistic, down-to-earth, encouraging style.

Whether you are struggling and stressed or feel like you are in a good place financially and would just like to fine-tune things, The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women is for you.

Other Posts You Might Like:

• How I Overcame My Fear of Hospitality
• Feeding Teenagers without Breaking Your Budget (100+ Ideas!)
• Crowd-Pleasing Meals for 25+ People
• Recipes for a Crowd of People on Family Vacation (26 People)
• Cheap Meals for a Crowd (Vacation Menu)
• Easy Meals for Big Groups
• When You Feel Lonely and Left Out
• How to Love Someone You Disagree With
• How to Find and Build Better Friendships
• Reimagining Church as Family
• Loneliness, Friendship Breakups, and How to Build Strong Community

What are your best budget-friendly tips for showing hospitality to others? Let us know!