After an exciting post season, the Super Bowl is here and ready to rock delicious food and hilarious commercials…oh and FOOTBALL! If you’re one of the 181 million Americans that watched the game last year, it’s reported that we spent over $12.3 billion on our parties combined, based on a survey by Prosper Insights and Analytics. Keep your finances in check with these Super Bowl party tips:
1. Use Online Invitations – Create a facebook event and invite your friends. If you want a more formal approach, try using free services like evite or paperless post where you design your invite and upload your guest list’s emails.
2. Go Potluck Style
Announce that you are going to provide a certain facet of the party like the meats or main course and ask that your guests bring the side dishes and drinks. This will also give you more time to coordinate other aspects of your party like cleaning and decorations.
3. Buy in Bulk
Put your warehouse membership to use and get your favorite snack foods in bulk like crackers, chips, pretzels, nuts or desserts. If time is not on your side, get the pre-packaged appetizers like meatballs or sandwich wheels.
4. Utilize the Dollar Stores
Stay away from purchasing officially licensed NFL gear such as paper plates and cups because they jack up the prices. A lot of the time, the dollar store will have football or sports inspired items around this time of the year, or at the very least paper and plastic products to match the team colors. Try getting creative with plain supplies.
5. DIY Decorations
Some of our favorites:
Free printables from Hostess with the Mostess
17 Sweet Super Bowl Ideas from Babble
DIY tassle garland + chalkboard from itsybelle
See more ideas on our Pinterest!
6. Go Classic BBQ Foods or Taco Bar (Try Walking Tacos!)
Cook burgers and hot dogs for a old fashioned BBQ. If you follow #3, you can get these super cheap at a bulk store. OR create a festive taco bar! Use individual chip bags for easy clean up.
7. Cheap Snack Route
Things like chips and salsa, popcorn, taco dips or veggies trays are fast and cheap options. Opt for a complete snack bar with this amazing buffalo chicken dip recipe from Feeding Forever:
- 3 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
- 2 12-oz cans of chunk chicken
- 1 cup ranch dressing (I use blue cheese crumbles instead)
- 1 package shredded cheddar cheese (about 2 cups)
- Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (there is no substitute!)
- Scoops tortilla chips
8. Create a Selfie Station
We are obsessed with selfie stations at the credit union. This could be as simple as getting a football inspired fabric from a craft store and hanging it on the wall for a quick photo-opt to more elaborate designs of your favorite teams logo printed. Use fun football inspired props and everyone will have a ball!
9. Play Super Bowl Commercial Bingo!
Print the cards and play along with your friends. Give little prizes each quarter to the winners. Perfect to keep kids or adults entertained while you’re entertaining!
If you’re the invitee and you’re tapped out of ideas for what to bring to your friend’s house, check out our Pinterest for plenty of creative dishes aimed at pleasing any tailgate crew. And may the best team win!
