For those of you who followed along with Meredith and me yesterday, we were able to share our philosophy on Entertaining with a Budget. Today we’d like to offer you the links to browse around on your own. We’d love to hear back from you, especially if you take up the Challenge that we offered, so please email us any time! Again, thank you A Woman Inspired, for allowing us to participate in such a meaningful ministry.
How Sandy and Meredith met:
Just like Meredith
Guess who’s coming to Dinner?
What is efficiency?
Time: Parties that use what you Have
Money: Living Well on Less
Family: Trying so hard to be Perfect
What is authentic hospitality?
Gift of Hospitality
Benefits to our Families
Benefits to Others
How to make hospitality work on a budget:
Use what you have/Keep it Simple
Different approaches to Budget Menu
What is it about Image?
Keep beauty in Perspective
Creative ideas:
Choose Simple Menus that work with your Resources
Simple Desserts
Creative Tables don’t start at TJ Maxx
Indoor/Outdoor Locations
Top 10 Yard Sale Entertaining Finds (Sandy’s)
10 Yard Sale Entertaining Essentials (Meredith’s)
Conclusions:
When you think about it, serving up LOVE and a GENEROUS SPIRIT to your guests – costs you nothing!
Our Challenge to You:
Invite one new person or one new couple to dinner in the next month.
Feel free to dig around in our archives, where you’ll read a lot about hospitality, simplicity, yard sale bargains, food, gardens, and so much more! And if you were a part of A Woman Inspired yesterday, we want to thank you for joining us!
What makes entertaining hard for you?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi! Can you get me Meredith’s “recipe” for the breakfast cups her children were fixing for the homeless? We have a lot of homeless where I live. I think that is something I could do for the homeless.
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Sandy Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 8:08 am
Earlier this year we started attending a small, historic Catholic church in downtown Nashville. Unlike our previous suburban mega-church, the route there takes us right past dozens of homeless men and women. We had gotten in the bad habit of stopping for McDonald’s on the way there since just getting there by 8 am was a challenge.
The disparity really gnawed at us. So, as a family, we pledged to fast from fast food during Advent and cook a hot breakfast to share instead.
The base of the breakfast cup consists of grits, which is a Southern hot cereal. One box costs about $2.25 and makes a huge pot. I try to get the butter or cheese flavor. We also scramble 2 dozen eggs ($2.50). I buy a sleeve of 25 cups for $1.
Similar to the Krystal restaurant’s breakfast bowls, we layer a big scoop of hot grits, a scoop of eggs, and a sprinkle of cheese on top. Then we put a spoon in and cover the box of cups with foil and a towel for insulation. Later I switched to using a muffin tin like an oversize cup holder.
We found one area where a lot of women congregate after the Rescue Mission turns them out at 5 a.m. It only takes less than a minute for the cups to disappear. Non-perishable items or McDonald’s vouchers are supposed to be preferred by the homeless, but this solution worked for our family’s specific situation.
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The above response is from “Meredith” on the breakfast cups!
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I think what has made entertaining hard for me in the past are expectations. I felt like I didn’t have a nice enough house, matching serving dishes, etc.. silly things really, tight budget. Now entertaining is not so hard. When it all comes down to it, no one really cares what I served the potatoes in, or if anything matches. They don’t care if my house isn’t the latest and greatest in furnishing or decor. They’re coming to spend time with our family.
Now the thing that might make it hard is time..with the busyness of life it’s hard to coordinate with people to have them over. The youth and young adults in our church are easier to have over since they’re a little more free. But having other couples and families over is tricky.
Kirstin´s last blog ..Photo Playing
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Wow, thanks for pulling all these together into one post!
Natalie @ Naddy’s Blog´s last blog ..Wednesday reading…
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