Money Moral Dilemma: Should we pay our friends for hosting a party?

vonvonvon

By your own admission you had a 'wonderful time' and you call them 'friend's; personally I would chalk it down to experience but make sure next year, financial arrangements are clearer.
Even though my budget is very limited, my conscience would have led me to offer my share of the food cost BEFORE I'd been put in the embarrassing situation of having to be asked for a contribution.
I think it would be very charitable of the hosts if they STILL consider YOU as 'friends' in view of them having to ask you for a contribution; I'm afraid I'd consider you as a bit of a 'user' and not invite you next NYE.

onwards&upwards

brewthebear wrote: »

How tight go to a NYE party and only take a £9 bottle for two of you. Wouldnt be inviting you again. Where can anyone go NYE and only spend £9 that really is a cheek....

Even if the guests have been stingy, you don’t respond to rudeness with more rudeness, you learn from the experience for next time.

In my group of friends we do ‘pot luck’ and the crucial part is it’s planned in advance, you can’t issue invitations and then decide to charge after the fact!

LesD

Empty your purse/wallet and pay in loose change!

Pixie_Cosmo

So my view is this. I quite happily host a New Year's party for my close friends - 10-12 people. I do a small buffet and get some drinkies in. My friends bring a bottle or two as well and we all have a great time. I usually end up with a couple of bottles in hand post party. I enjoy hosting as it's way better than cramming into a pub and it's cheaper overall. I wouldn't expect my mates to contribute cash, but gifts in kind welcome. The important thing is we spend time together and have an epic time!

Frogletina

The last party I went to we all took food to share.

I was always under the impression that one took a bottle/s or cans to a party equivalent to what you would drink there. I went on my own and took a bottle of prosecco, and I was quite content with drinking that. I only had 3 small glasses of it myself, and drank nothing else there.

But, I'm probably in the minority, usually I only drink a 20cl bottle at home, I never open a full bottle on my own.

frogletina

lambourne

Why not send them a reply saying something like ‘wow that was amazing for around £6 per head,would you like something toward it?’ That way you know for sure whether they are wanting a contribution or just saying how great they were to provide all the hospitality for such a reasonable sum.

bertiewhite

Seeing as this year NYE was on Tuesday then yes, they are quite within their rights to ask. If it was a weekend, that's a whole different ball game altogether.

Dineen33

Two of you had a good night out with food and drink for a cheap bottle of plonk and a "bill " for £12. an absolute bargain, pay up and hope they are daft enough to do it next year.


We had a food fuddle in the pub, I spent £50 over the bar, at least.

Pollycat

lambourne wrote: »

Why not send them a reply saying something like ‘wow that was amazing for around £6 per head,would you like something toward it?’ That way you know for sure whether they are wanting a contribution or just saying how great they were to provide all the hospitality for such a reasonable sum.

Very clever suggestion ^^^^. :T
According to the 'dilemma', they've not actually asked for payment.

MSE_Sarah wrote: »

We had a wonderful time with friends who hosted on New Year's Eve. We brought a £9 bottle of prosecco as a gift - they supplied drinks and food. We then got a message mentioning that the food cost was £6 per adult, implying they wanted payment. They hadn't indicated before that we'd be paying for food. Should we pay up or make a fuss?

Vils

You say yourself that you had a wonderful night for £4.50 each? The best answer is for you to host the next party!
Hosting parties is expensive and time-consuming. That's people think twice about doing it - particularly when (some) guests take much more than they give. 🙃