Mindful shopping, minding your budget

The Memorial Day weekend is coming quickly and if you haven't done so, yet you will be shopping for food. Remember to be mindful when you are shopping of your budget. Remember, you are now in control of money and money does NOT control you!

A great suggestion is to plan your event -- plan a menu. Even if this is with your immediate household. Let's take for an example a family of 4 and they invited a few other family members and friends. A total of 10 people are planning to attend. You can first look at your spending calendar and see how much you may have left over from the early part of the month. This can tell you, also, if you can sponsor the event or if you will have others participate by bringing items to the event.

Now that you know how many people you are planning for -- 10 people, and you know much you have to spend. You can consider what foods you would like to have on the menu.

Cheeseburgers, potato salad, ribs, hot dogs, green salad, beverages (sodas and water) plus fruit for a dessert possibly. I spoke with my husband; as a butcher, he has experience in catering events. Here's his take on this:

You can feed 10 people (family and friends) on the low end $6 a plate per person and high-end $15 per plate/person. So a $6 to $10 a plate would look like two packs of hotdogs at about $10, two cases of beef burgers (total of 20 burgers) approx. $20 and $25 for case of chicken legs or thighs -- a total of $55 for your meat alone. Then you will have to buy the sides and the accessories -- paper plates, cups and utensils would have to be in the cost. So depending on how much you have to spend (taking account of your budget) you can share the cost with family and friends who are attending or you can fund the whole event!

Something to think about, if you end up spending less than what you have budgeted, consider adding the balance left over to your savings account! It would have been gone anyway; you mind as well put it to savings and see your savings increase!