All the Leftovers

I was up this morning doing a spot of house work and took out some recycling and garbage. The neighbor boys grad party is later today and I could see a tent up in their back yard and a lot of scurrying between the front of the house, the back yard, and the garage. Oh the memories of a week ago! We'll go over tonight after DH is home, but I've got four others to stop at before. 

I know my neighbor is busy with last hours stuff, creating trays of food, worrying if they have enough. I only recall one person running out of food and that was my niece who held her sons two years ago in a park. Being a vegetarian, she was unprepared for the amount of pulled pork and buns she would need, particularly since it was on a Thursday night and people were coming from work. Plus, there were no other parties for her sons friends to attend so all ate there. She ended up having pizzas delivered. That was not the case for me. 

I used 50 pounds of hamburger and ended up with 13, 3/4 full gallons bags of  packaged Sloppy Joes. We went through five and 1/2. The other 1/2 bag was used on Fathers Day, but I am left with seven frozen bags. It's hard to say how  much each package will serve. By plate count, 120 people had meals, but there were also those going for just another sandwich on a small plate. From what I looked up on-line in planning, 50 pounds would feed 220 people, but I guess 220 people with really big appetites as I shouldn't have had quite so much left. I estimate each bag will make 20 decent Sloppy Joes. Fortunately, I didn't buy quite as many buns, figuring I would just send my son if we needed more. We ended up with 7 packages of 8 buns left, freezing two, freezing one at the lake, and the rest have been used as bread this past week for sandwiches, toast, and a French toast bake. The Sloppy Joes will keep through the summer and will be used 4th of July week, for a potluck at work, labor day weekend, a card night, and when DD2 has friends  up to the lake. I'll probably put the  joe's on in a crock pot the week before she goes to college and invite friends for a last fire of the summer. 

I did better on fruit and vegetable buying, but still had a lot left over. I froze the peppers for future fajitas. We'll be nibbling on the carrots and cherry tomatoes as part of our lunch's, and they are good for another week or so and will also toss in the freezer before expiring. We made Buffalo cauliflower for dinner Tuesday night. I made a broccoli, grape, bacon, and sunflower seed salad, but there is more broccoli left, so into the freezer with that as well.  The bananas, strawberries, melon, and grapes have been eaten for breakfasts and lunches, plus smoothies. I bought just enough tortilla chips, but have loads of cheese sauce left. Besides buying more chips, I made a nacho mac and cheese to go with burgers. I'm sorry to say though, some might still end up going to waste, unless I figure out if it can be frozen. Thoughts? Its about four cups worth. The chocolate will be used over the summer and then for holiday baking and treats. The coolers worth of beer went to the lake with my older kids, and the cooler of pop and water we'll use through out the summer. I've been sipping on the white wine, but will finish next weekend, perhaps with friends and family, the remainder as it is supposed to keep a couple weeks. I also had a lot of paper ware, but will use the open stuff as we need for picnics and such. The unopened napkins and small desert plates in school colors went to a friend who's party is next weekend. I really hope to not waste or avoid it as much as possible. 

I still need to figure out exactly what we spent on the party, from invites to thank you cards and postage, and all the food, decorations and everything in between. I am going to estimate about $1,100, but considering how many people came, less than $10 a guest. I'll also be cutting down on future groceries as I use up the leftovers, so perhaps really more like $1000. Yes, it was a lot of work, but much of the preparation was stuff we should have been doing on the house all along. Considering to rent a space, even for just a few hours on an afternoon would have been several hundred before food, I think I did pretty well budget wise. What's your take? I know a few of you host events regularly. Did I pull it off successfully or where would you have done things differently? Do you feel I overspent, or spent enough considering it was an open house with no specific RSVP list? Please join in the comments.