As part of Walmart’s eleven moms, I am often asked to submit money saving tips on various subjects. They just love to pick our brains!
Here is the latest request:
“Everyday something new and helpful is added to the Money Saving
Moms community. Our latest addition will be a page that features
all the seasonal content that you gals are providing for us. The
first seasonal promotion we are going to be rolling out will be
“Game Time,” and will focus on saving money on parties and
tailgating this football season.
If you have any tips for saving money this football season,
please post those up on your blogs and let us know about them.”
Now, I have lots of money saving ideas, but football season? Y’all, I am the wrong person to ask. I grew up in a little beach town in SoCal. Before that, I lived in Hawaii. In both places, checking the surf is more important than checking the score of the game.
Somehow, I ended up in Texas, where football is KING! Don’t get me wrong, I love the game. But I have no tailgating experience on my resume.
So, I am tapping into the best resource I know: my awesome readers!
Please share your ideas and tips here in comments. How does your family enjoy Football Season, frugal style?
sorry…I’ve got my ONE good video idea and I’m using it!! But hang in there – you’ll come up with something! 🙂
Ok, here are my thoughts for tailgating:
*You could talk about organizing a potluck tailgate party, chili cookoff, etc where everyone coming brings a dish to share: very economical! 🙂
*You could talk about stocking up on grillables, snack foods when they are on sale and then pulling them out for the football season.
*Find some great recipes that use frugal ingredients and show one of those, or do something with make at home for take out style food (lots of Rachel Ray recipes at foodnetwork.com for things like this)
*You could show how to make decorations at home for a football themed party.
*Talk about using Evites.com to send out electronic invitations instead of having to send paper invitations.
That is what I can think of off the top of my head. I’ll post more when I think of them.
Here are just a few of my intial thoughts. I’m sorry if I’m repeating anyone else’s ideas here 🙂
As far as saving money on the games themselves, season tickets are a best bet for the big football fan. Much better than buying per game if you plan to hit all the home games. I know this is especially true for high school ball, which you know is a BIG deal here in Texas.
As for food, I’m sure you’ve noticed the abundance of snack food type coupons. These are one of the easiest things to stockpile because matching coupons with sales makes them really cheap or even free. An example is we are still eating free Chex Mix from a Kroger sale last year. So, you could talk about stocking up on tailgating snacks as inexpensively as possible.
Also, sharing frugal recipes is a great idea! I’ll send you some recipes via email of our football time faves.
I’ll keep thinking about it. Good luck!
Hi Alyssa- Here in Knoxville, TN our blood runs orange for Tennessee football. It’s pretty much a normal weekend activity to tail gate or have a football gathering.
Here are a couple of things I do to stay on the frugal side when planning a get together:
Use store brand stuff when making dips, etc. For example when I make cheese dip… I will buy Velveeta, but use store brand tomatoes and chilis to cut down cost. Most other dips I use store brand stuff completely.
When I make some items such as spinach dip, I freeze a batch. The recipe I use is more cost effective to make in a little larger batch, it make enough for 2 large dips, so I just freeze one for next time. It’s more cost effective to make the larger amount and then it’s a time saver because it’s ready to just heat in the over for next time.
I do the same thing with white chicken chili, red chili and lots of other items that freeze well.
Another thing is I will serve orange punch or kool-aid type drink in addition to soft drinks. I have found that people tend to drink it more since they don’t normally drink the junk at home. It’s really cheap to make and it cuts down on soda cost, plus is festive and goes with team color theme.
Also, shopping all year for plates, etc. on clearance that match team colors.
Hope these ideas help.
Cover charge!! (kidding) 🙂
Seriously, a tailgating/football game watching party really consists of two things – watching the game and eating. So my tips would be:
1. Have finger foods only (no silverware needed).
2. Make a list of snacks you want to serve before you go to the store to avoid impulse buys.
3. Serve tea and water instead of sodas.
4. Find plates and napkins at stores like Dollar Tree or on clearance. You can also find inexpensive decorations there.
5. Make it potluck!!
I think a great tip would be to use real dishes, cups, and cutlery. Save money and the environment. Two birds with one stone. Load all the dirties in the cooler or designated box before heading home. Yeah, you have to wash dishes, but in the name of frugality, give it a try.
mccannfam5@gmail.com
Okay, here is our idea of tailgating/football game watching at our house – we set up the front room just like a stadium viewing box – we move all furniture we can out of the area and bring in chairs along with the couch for everyone to sit down on. I have a football shaped chip and dip server – I have everyone that comes over to bring either plain, ridge type chips (cheaper the better) or tortilla chips – I use one side for chips and one side for tortilla chips and two dips in the middle. I get 4 packages (using coupons to reduce my cost) of lil smokies. I get a bottle of barbecue sauce (another cpn purchase) and heat up the smokies with the sauce and then serve with little toothpicks. I wrap crescent rolls with little smokies to make pinky pigs in a blanket (I use a cpn and cut the crescent to even smaller for the lil smokies. In addition to these we make a garbage pizza (scratch) using food we have purchased with coupons. I make 4 of these pizzas but only bake them as needed – if I do not bake a couple then they are easily frozen for the next time! Desert is brownies and cookies shaped like footballs. Drinks are served in re-useable drink bottles (found them on sell 2 for a dollar and purchased several for this and other occasions). I serve kooleaide punch, sprite with fruit flavor, tea, and good ole water. I ask if they would like any other type of soda that they bring what they would like to drink. This way there are no spills on the carpet.