Everyone loves a good New Year’s Eve celebration. But playing host on New Year’s can put a real dent in your wallet.

I recently spoke with Leanne Italie and shared a tip or two on how to keep your budget in check on New Year’s. She shared my tip along with those of a few other folks. You can read the article here.

Hope you find few ideas you can apply to your own celebration!

Create your own decorations. As you can see here, I collected some empty wine bottles and spray painted them for center pieces. I added some tree branches from my back yard and ornaments from The Dollar Store.

Skip the champagne. Use ginger ale! You can enjoy a festive glass of sparkling ginger ale at the stroke of midnight. That way everyone can drive home safely. As long as small children are not present, add a small handful of fresh cranberries to each glass before adding the beverage for some holiday color.

Make it a potluck. There’s no reason why the host must do all the cooking. Ask everyone to bring a dish to pass. And if you don’t want to end up with 20 crockpots filled with meatballs, assign people to food categories. That way they can make what they want within the category.

I only mention meatballs because the first time I hosted a New Year’s Eve party many years ago, as a joke, everyone brought meatballs. At least we did not go hungry!

Have fun planning all of your holiday get togethers! If you have any creative ideas for planning a low budget celebration, share your thoughts below!