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The Super Bowl is coming up this Sunday!!! If you’re planning to stay home and host a Super Bowl game, but don’t want to spend a lot, no worries! There are many ways you can throw a fabulous Super Bowl party on a budget which I’ve rounded up here:

Tips for a Frugal Super Bowl Party!

Serve simple finger foods. Appetizers and other “pick up and eat” foods are easiest to prepare, serve and clean up after.

Serve dips! These offer a variety of ways to enjoy the same food. Try chips with taco dip, bean dip, cheese dip, salsa, and guacamole, to name a few! Plus they can be cheap (and yummy) to make yourself.

Take advantage of sales and coupons. Stores offer great deals on Super Bowl fare at this time of year such as chicken breasts, chicken wings, brats, chips, salsas, candy and everything else on your list. You can also find great coupons and combine them with sales for even more savings! (Looking for coupons? Find coupons for everything on your shopping list with my Coupon Database, or browse and print available grocery coupons on my Printable Grocery Coupons page!)

Buy in bulk. If you have a warehouse club membership, prepping for a party is a great time to use it to stock up on water bottles, paper towels, etc.

Don’t buy the party tray at the grocery store! Buy raw vegetables in bulk such as carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, and cut them up yourself.

Put together your own cheese and cracker tray and shape the cheese into football shapes.

Have a potluck! Host can provide the “main” dish, everyone else a side.

Serve food “buffet” style with a chili bar, baked potato bar, or taco bar. This is simple and everyone gets to pick the toppings they want.

Instead of ordering pizzas, buy frozen pizzas and shape the pepperoni on top into a football shape before baking. (This is basically what the delivery places do and charge extra for!)

Go generic. Buy store brands and put it out in dishes or on plates and your guests won’t know the difference. ALDI and Mike’s Discount Foods are great places to find generic brands for the lowest prices.

BYOB – Bring your own beer (or beverage)!

Have a SOUP-er bowl party! Serve one or more varieties of soup. It’s frugal, filling and (usually) healthful. Just add warm rolls, drinks, and desserts.

For dessert, try baking a cake or cupcakes with a football design on top. Or use these free printable football cupcake toppers and other snack or food containers.

Decorating

• • Plan if you’re going with a general football theme or with the colors of the playing teams. Then get football-themed plates from the dollar store or just use plain colored paper plates in your team’s colors.
  • Decorate with helmets, footballs and other football-themed items you or your friends already have.
  • Amazon.com has some fun football party banners and other decorations for cheap.
  • Decorate with these fun free printables.
  • Check out these free party printables for little table banners and more.
  • I love these printable football bottle wrappers. Here are also some free printable water bottle labels.

Super Bowl Activities

Of course, the main event will be on the TV – but here are some other activities you and the kids can do too!

• Trivia! Here’s a site with some good Super Bowl trivia Q & A.
• Scavenger hunt! Hide football-themed items around the house like a football, helmet, pom-poms, etc.
• Football or Super Bowl Commercial bingo! Check out these free Football bingo cards I found that you can print. Or try these free printable Super Bowl bingo and Super Bowl Commercial Bingo cards! The commercial bingo cards are great for everyone including those not as excited about football – it gives them a fun way to participate! Or create your own cards!
• Word games! Make the Super Bowl educational for the kids with this free printable Super Bowl word scramble or this Football Terms Word Search.
• Have a football-themed photo booth with props like a helmet and #1 fan flags.
• Simple crafts! The kids can put together this fun paper chain or these game day pompoms before or during the game.
• Paper crafts! Provide brown construction paper, crayons or markers and decorating supplies like glitter and stickers and let the kids cut out football shapes and decorate them.
• Even the littlest kids can color this football helmet printable.

Food

Here are some ideas for foods to serve that are easy crowd-pleasers;

• Chicken wings or drumsticks
• Burger sliders
• Taco Dip
• Potato skins with bacon and cheese
• Chex Party Mix
• Crockpot meatballs
• Pigs in a blanket

Desserts

• Cupcakes with football design on top (chocolate frosting with white icing laces)
• Root beer floats
• Sundae bar
• Chocolate-covered Strawberry Footballs
• Brownies shaped like footballs
• Chocolate football pretzel rods (dip rods in chocolate and paint on white laces with icing)
• Hot cocoa with marshmallows
• Popcorn or caramel corn

Easy, Budget-Friendly Recipes

Velveeta RoTel Queso Dip

Melt together a 16 oz block of Velveeta cheese, diced into cubes, and a can of RoTel diced tomatoes with green chilies (or substitute another brand of canned diced tomatoes). Goes great with tortilla chips!

Crockpot Meatballs

Combine a 6 oz jar of grape jelly and 12 oz jar of chili sauce in a crockpot. Mix in a bag of frozen meatballs and heat on low for 8 hours.

OR, if you want to make the meatballs from scratch instead of using frozen:

Mix together the following and form into small meatballs:

2 pounds of ground beef
2 beaten eggs
1 clove garlic or 1/2 cup onions (or both)
1-1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp, pepper
1/2 cup crushed corn flakes

Crockpot Garlic Chicken Drumsticks

This one’s from my friend Nancy – I’ve made these many times and they’re perfect for a party!

You’ll need:

Olive oil
Paprika
Salt
Pepper
4 cloves garlic (or garlic powder)
chicken drumsticks

1) Spray crockpot with cooking spray
2) Slice 1/2 of an onion into slices, and sprinkle them on the bottom of the crockpot.
3) Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl and toss to coat with hands.
4) Put all in the crockpot, cover, and cook on low for 6 hours.

The meat will be so tender and flavorful!

For my list of Super Bowl Party Essentials (like my favorite grill and slow cooker) check out my guide here.

What recipes, tips and ideas do you have? Share in the comments!

Also, check out my segment on WCCO!

(Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links that help support this site at no cost to you. All opinions are 100% mine.)