I think i would feel weird having people over and serving them leftovers. It would depend on who they are, if it's family no problem

Ugh, I promised to get together with people from my old work tonight. And then I'm moving on Sunday. It's going to be an EXPENSIVE weekend.

It's my birthday tomorrow ---I am having a b-day dinner. I haven't splurged in a while. I am going to Sephora for one item ---fingers crossed that I can keep it to one item.

OH bellaressa...GOOD LUCK!! LoL! I got a $40 gift card for my birthday and still ended up paying a lot of $ out of my own pocket Oh but it was worth it!! Makeup is my addiction! Happy Birthday too!

Ohh thanks FoxyJo --I even have a list. I hope I can exercise strong self control---does anyone really do that in Sephora?

ew the dinner party idea sounds gross

I tend to agree skigurl. even if I'm just having family or really close friends over, I want to serve them something fresh. And I'm not on board with pot luck anyway. If I invite you over for dinner, I'm cooking you dinner! It would be nice for you to offer to bring a dessert or wine, but I feel like it's kind of rude to invite someone over and straight out ask them to bring something.

I'm not sure about serving leftovers, but I love this idea. Sometimes though I do have an abundance of still fresh food (fruits, veggies, meat) I know I'm not going to eat. I'm going to keep this in mind for those times when we could have a fun dinner instead of throwing it out in a few days.

Also, lawchick, I used to feel that way about taking people up on their offer to bring something, but now I realize how much less stress it causes me and $$, too, when a friend offers to bring something and I take them up on it - usually I'll mention a side dish (salad, bread, etc.) and sometimes a dessert, unless I already have one on hand.

hmm sorry im going to st.maarten this weekend aka i wont be saving exactly! lol

im exciteeeeeeeeeeeedddddddddddddddddddddddd

it's not necessarily the potluck thing thats gross, but i am so grossed out by nearly-expired foods and leftovers. no thanks! plus, none of the stuff would "go" together so you'd end up with the most random assortment of foods

OK here's my version of an inexpensive weekend with friends:
(since im in NYC)
Wear comfy shoes and lets take a long @ss walking through the city, preferrably the village...bring your camera cause you may bump into a few 'celebs'. After a long stroll you'll probably be thristy so we'll head down to the nearest Mcdonalds and grab a Sweet Tea for $.99. That'll fill you up for a awhile.

THEN we'll window shop at all the cool stores; try on stuff we cant afford. After we'll continue our walk and point at Brown-Stones we wished we owned. By then it'll be pretty dark, all the stores are closing and nothing left to do - so for dinner we'll grab a quick 'dirty water frank' with whatever topping you want for $1.50, walk to the trainstation and go our seperate ways!

All in all you've spent $2.50! Sound fun to me!

I do it at least twice a year.

When we want to save $$ we go to the Drive-In and watch 2 movies for $7, and they're New Releases!! We bring plenty of snacks and blankets and have so much fun!

A cheap weekend for me is going to the beach. It's 5 minutes away (to the good beach) and as long as it doesn't rain you are set for most of the day. Bring a cooler with some food and drinks, an umbrella for when you want to get out of the sun for a minute, a radio and a beach blanket and you really can spend all day there. Once the sun starts to go down it's nice to go over to a friends house and use the hot tub or the pool to just relax in the water.

But, even though I live on the beach it seems like I can never actually make any time for the beach.

Sometimes, if I have the time to do it, I like to spend Saturdays as a sort of "home mini-spa".

Its cheaper than you think...green tea bags, a cucumber, yoghurt or strawberries and honey...your favourite manicure or pedicure products, some good body creams, music, and a pot of good quality herbal tea.

Its even better if you have a fun, fluffy book to read, or a stack of magazines to chill out with.

In the cooler months we have friends over for potluck and croquet or bocce.

My boyfriend and I spend every Sunday afternoon at a bookstore with a cafe. We both get a pile of books and magazines and a cool drink and just read and talk.

I'm frugal but I'm not serving anyone but hubby leftovers. I love my home so I stay home a lot and garden, cook and read, but not in that order.

I know if I invited people to a potluck dinner of leftovers I would panic just before they were due and I'd run out and get better stuff to put in the fridge.

i'm always looking for new thngs that i can do that don't cost any money - and well....i'm usually ok at it. i go to the gym a lot and i watch movies on TV a lot. my mom and i are in hershey Pennsylvania right now and we found a few things to do that are 'interesting' that don't cost money - so that's a nice thing

if i had more friends - i would invite them over for a girls night and watch tv/movies and gab but i don't. i have to get on that cause it's expensive when you have to go out all the time - and being in NYC - there's a lot that's expensive

i usually skip eating out on weekends if i want to have a "cheaper" weekend. i usually cook with my fiance.. it's much cheaper than dining out.. and after dinner we would usually just rent a movie or go out for a drink or go to bed

The cheapest thing we do on the weekends, is hang out at a friends house or invite them to hang out over here. Everyone always brings their own booze so it's like a $25.00 night for us. not bad, but we can;t do that every weekend or it would get boring. We are looking for a fun game to play with every but so far no luck...if anyone knows of any good ones let me know! (not cranium, or taboo or trivial pursuit.) most of our friends are not american so it makes it tricky playing games that are centered on american pop culture.)