6 Ways to Treat Your Family to a Fancy Dinner
People eat around 70% of meals outside the home, but that doesn’t mean you have the chance to have a fancy dinner often. If you want to go all-out to treat your family, you may have to save up for the occasion. Luckily, there are a few ways to save up for an extravagant dinner for your entire family. Then, you’ll make memories to last a lifetime by treating yourselves to whatever you want.
1. Commit to a Low-Spend Month
You may need to cut back on your spending to hit the target budget you want for a fancy dinner. Opting for a low-spend month can help you scale back on unnecessary spending. A low-spend month means that you severely limit your spending on things that aren’t necessities.
If you want to take it a step further and save even more, commit to a no-spend month, which has you spending on only the essential items you need to live, like groceries or rent. You can customize your no- or low-spend month to your personal needs.
2. Rely on Gift Cards
While trying to save money for a special dinner, you might look for unconventional ways to save money. It might be time to dig through a pile of gift cards you may have received for birthdays and holidays in years past. Gift cards can help you at the specific restaurant you plan to go to, or they could help you with miscellaneous purchases while you save up to treat your family to a beautiful dinner.
You can use your gift cards just about anywhere, and they may help you buy groceries or get household purchases while you’re tightening your budget. You won’t need to put any extra money into something you need and instead can contribute toward your savings goal. It’s a simple, easy way to make a difference in your spending.
3. Know Your Stuff
As soon as you and your family pick out a restaurant, make sure to peruse the menu. Going to a fancy restaurant means you might encounter things you’ve never tried before, so you should do ample research beforehand to know you’re getting something you’ll like. Knowing what’s offered ahead of time can also help you plan a budget around this luxurious family dinner.
You can also take this time to brush up on food and wine pairings that will make the experience unforgettable. Learning the menu ahead of time and knowing what everyone plans to order will help you plan out the wine to get for the adults at the table. A common misconception is that red wine and fish don’t go together, but if you do a little research, you’ll know that it pairs exquisitely with white fish, a combination you may not have tried if you didn’t know your stuff.
4. Prep Your Meals Outside the Home
Just because you won’t be at home for certain meals doesn’t mean you should dine out. You can save money by preparing your family’s lunches at home, then taking them with you to work or school. By ensuring you eat all your other meals at home, you can save the money you’d usually spend on meals outside the house for your fancy dinner coming up.
One way to make meal preparation go quicker is to create a different variation of the same thing. For example, maybe a few of your meals for the week feature mashed potatoes, while others feature boiled diced potatoes. When you’re cooking the same thing in a different way, the chore of making food for the week goes by much faster.
5. Keep a Budget Journal
A budget journal can be a physical reminder to stick to your budget. It can list your financial goals and any expenses you’ve made in a certain time period. If you haven’t felt responsible for your finances recently, a budget journal can put you back on track and help you juggle your responsibilities and ensuring you don’t neglect any part of your budget. Over the days, weeks and months, you can track your progress toward giving your family the fanciest dinner you can manage.
6. Fine Dine From Home
Sometimes, you may not have the budget for a complete dining experience in a restaurant. However, you can still make a fancy dinner from the comfort of your home for your entire family. Dress up the dining room table with some nice linens and invite everyone to wear their finest clothes. You can still dress up fancy even if you’re not dining in.
You should also choose whether you want to make food or pick it up from the restaurant. It is cheaper to order food to-go from a fancy restaurant, then dine at home and enjoy your dinner experience that way. Otherwise, you can buy ingredients at the store and make your own dinner, which could result in a fun family bonding activity.
A Fancy Dinner Is A Treat
Something you should remind yourself, especially if your family doesn’t go out to fancy dinners often, is that you deserve a treat once in a while. You and your family deserve to go all-out on a dinner that everyone will enjoy to make memories that will last forever. With a bit of budgeting skill and some perseverance, you’ll save enough money to dine at the fanciest restaurant you can manage. Whether you eat in the restaurant or at home, it’ll be an experience your family is sure to remember.
