The Dinner Club

I love, love, love the idea of the dinner club! This should be the frugal persons’ way to socialize because it’s awesome! The idea is to choose a group of friends, choose an evening a month, or more if you are adventuresome, to get together for a homemade delicious meal, centered on a theme, where everyone helps out. Maybe you rotate homes each month, or travel from home to home for your different courses, but everyone shares in the meal preparation.

The most common meals involve appetizers, salads, main dishes, and desserts! Themes could center on anything from cultural foods like Mexican, Italian, or Indian, to Finger Foods, Different Fish, Vegetarian, Vegan, Grilled, or anything you can imagine!!! One thing is certain; there will be fun involved!

Dinner Clubs are kind of a new take on a very old and wonderful custom! Entertaining our friends! Most of us rarely do that anymore! We are too busy with life! Soon, we realize that we really don’t have friends that we socialize with at all! Many people I meet rarely plan any fun into their lives! Dinner clubs seek to bring back the lost art of entertaining!

Tips for a Great Dinner Club

Choose a group of friends that you would like to socialize with! Check out how many friends you can comfortably serve seated in your home. 8 to 12 friends is a great number and they do not all have to be married couples! Mix it up, invite some friends you do not know well, and get out of your comfort zone!

Present the idea to your chosen friends, and if they agree, the group is a go.

Plan the themes for the year, or each month at the current club. I hate planning, so I would rather do a few months of planning at one time. I think this is easiest too, because everyone comes with their calendar in hand. When the dates are planned, you plan the rest of your life around your party! Easy!

Choose a host for each month. It’s easiest for the host to prepare the main dish! Other members can bring the other courses. You can do this however you choose though! Maybe the host does nothing but prepare their house for the party and everyone else brings the food. Maybe your club decides that the host will prepare all of the food and really go all out for that month, but just relax on the other months! That is the beauty of the club. You can do it however you like!

Meals should be exciting. It is awesome to try new foods and recipes that you have not done before! Once again, get out of your comfort zone! Exciting does not have to be a meal involving tons of extra work. A barbequed meal where all of the courses were cooked outdoors could be a simple fun meal. Maybe you choose an unknown country, research their cultural traditions and foods, and try that out. Maybe you try a soup club where all of your courses are actually soups! Your club can be anything at all. You are only limited by your imagination and creativity! Healthy diet habits should be planned though! The goal is to leave feeling happily full rather than stuffed to the gills!

The goal of dinner clubs is simply fun! Fun does not have to take a lot of time. The important lifestyle solution is to learn to entertain and make new friends! Life might just look a little brighter! Happy Clubbing!