Cocktail Party for a Pittance

'Tis the season to be throwing a cocktail party - and I'm no exception. I'm sharing host responsibilities with my next door neighbors, but still, even with spreading out the costs, we're trying to keep the overall pricetag to a minimum.

Since we're asking folks to bring along a favorite beverage along, we're gonna limit our alcohol purchases to five bottles of red and five of white, a case or two of beer and a few sundry bottles of booze (vodka, scotch, triple sec), as well as mixers.

The larger issue for me is really the food. (Big surprise!) I'm so used to throwing full-blown dinner parties that I have a hard time holding myself back when only drinks and finger food are to be served.

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep cocktail party costs to under a hundred dollars. Nice thought. But, clearly they don't like to party down in D.C., since they planned for a total of only 12 guests. I think we might end up with 60 or so. That would be a cool grand, if I attempted to whip of the spread Beltway style.

My co-hosts already think I'm going overboard, but here's my cost-conscious gameplan:

*Two big bowls of spinach dip surrounded by crunchy melba rounds

*A platter of cheeses with sliced salumi

*Several small bowls of mini-pretzels and/or cheese or pretzel goldfish (admit it, those goldfish are addictive)

*A platter of crudite with baba ganoush and hummus for dipping

*Homemade banana, chocolate, nut bread sliced, surrounded by a bevy of chocoolate cookies

*Small bowls of M&Ms strewn about the room (admit it, they're addictive too)

Thinking that should do the job. If anyone else has a suggestion, send it my way. I'll take it under consideration.