This post is part of my ongoing series on hospitality.
For our family, sometimes the biggest challenge to showing hospitality is our limited budget. I have to be creative in order to feed our family healthy meals each week, and sometimes I wonder how I could make a “company-worthy” meal without spending any additional money that week.
I have found time and time again that God meets our needs and allows us to give to others of our resources and time.
I love these verses in 2 Corinthians 9:
“God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, ‘He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God” (7b-11).
The point of these verses is that God will give us what we need and bless our generosity towards others. Everything we have belongs to Him anyway, and cheerfulness in giving also applies to cheerfulness in showing hospitality. Let’s give freely of the blessings God has given us!
The truth is, as we discussed briefly before, our guests don’t expect us to serve prime rib. The best way to make our guests feel comfortable in our home is to treat them like family. Lately as we have had friends and family over, I’ve tried to make “normal” meals that our family typically eats, not extravagant recipes that cost a fortune and have me cooking all day.
On a practical note, here are some things to keep in mind when showing hospitality on a tight budget.
- Serve inexpensive foods, such as pasta or rice, but serve them in a delicious way (i.e. stuffed shells or a cheesy rice bake) and make plenty.
- Try making an easy bread recipe (this one is impossibly easy) and keep the bread basket filled throughout dinner. Or buy French bread from the store and serve that.
- Make a big salad that is large enough for everyone to get seconds.
- Other inexpensive recipes are soups of various kinds, chili, and spaghetti. Cooking any recipe from scratch (instead of using frozen or canned convenience foods) will help keep the cost down (i.e. homemade spaghetti sauce vs. jarred).
- Serve vegetables and fruits that are in season, or stick with canned/frozen veggies. Canned green beans are inexpensive and taste great when cooked all day with a few pieces of ham.
- Serve water instead of soda or tea. I almost always serve guests water when they come (often with lemon or lime), and no one has walked out as a result. 😉 I always serve brewed coffee during dessert, but the cost of that is minimal.
- Develop a repertoire of meals you like to make for company, and then shop for non-perishable ingredients for those meals when things go on sale.
- It’s okay to not serve dessert, if that isn’t something you can afford to do. On the other hand, there are a lot of easy and inexpensive dessert recipes which are fun to serve company (homemade cookies or brownies are always popular). Try not to go overboard on an extravagant (expensive) dessert. A trifle made with angel food cake or pound cake, fresh berries, and whipped cream can be lovely yet frugal.
- If your guests offer to bring something, say yes! It’s okay to be specific and ask if they would like to bring garlic bread or a tossed salad.
What are your best tips for showing hospitality on a budget?
Such great ideas! Cost has been a hardship for us too, but by doing things you’ve mentioned, it’s definitely doable!
Great tips! I especially like the idea of baking bread. When I visit, I enjoy being able to bring something to share so that I can contribute to the meal.
That’s a great point, Tina! By allowing our guests to bring something to the meal, we’re giving them a chance to be a blessing as well!
hospitality on a budget is definitely a heart issue for me. its a question of whether or not i am willing to trust God with what he has given us, and whether i trust that he will continue to give to us (even when my sinful desire is to hoard for our family only). i have to trust that the God who did the fishes and loaves miracle can also provide for us AND our guests.
on the practical side, here are a few tips that have helped us be able to have frequent guests, even when things have been really tight financially:
1. make things homemade. things i make from scratch include: bread, pizza crust, lemonade, iced tea, spaghetti sauce, yogurt, granola, mayonnaise, biscuits, pie crust, salad dressing, etc. the bonus is that making these items at home is also usually healthier, in addition to being less expensive. our guests are often really impressed that I make things from scratch, and comment that they taste better than store bought. little do they realize i do it more for affordability than to impress anyone.
2. use beans to stretch your meat (in dishes like tacos, chili, soup, casseroles, etc). to make it even more frugal, cook the beans yourself (from dry beans) instead of buying canned beans.
3. especially when you are cooking for a large group, have everyone bring a topping of their choice. we will often do things like “make your own pizza” where we provide the pizza crust (homemade!), sauce (homemade!) and cheese, but everyone who comes over brings toppings to share. we also do waffle bars from time to time, where we make the waffles and everyone else brings the toppings. you can also do this with tacos or burritos.
4. make ethnic food. many ethnic foods are pretty inexpensive, as they come from societies where people can’t afford fancy meals. we enjoy eating (and making) thai, indian, mexican and mediterranean food. all of these foods use small pieces of meat, beans and rice, which help keep costs low. the bonus is that it feels like you are eating at an exotic restaurant. 🙂
hope these are helpful!
Thanks for all these very practical tips! I especially like #4.
I love the cookbook, “More with Less” by the mennonite central committee–there are tons of tasty, inexpensive recipes. Definitely worth checking out–you can get it on Amazon. I checked it out from our library before I bought it, just to make sure it was something I would use.
I’ll have to look for that book!
That book is a classic where I live… In Mennonite country. My parents got a copy as a wedding gift, mostly as a joke because my Dad’s name is Les, lol!