Apparently it's now a thing for dinner party hosts to ask their guests for money to help with groceries. Eater reporter Amy McCarthy says that's not OK, and offers some suggestions for cutting costs if you want to host but can't afford to. What's your experience with this? Pick as many answers as apply and share any fun stories in the comments.
Seems like we poorly constructed our poll on whether it's ok for dinner party hosts to ask guests for a financial contribution, since more than half of respondents chose the "Something else" option. And what a consensus we found in the comments: Almost every person said that the solution is a potluck. Bagsy the chips and dip!
Never, ever ask a guest to pay. They're no longer your guest then. If you can't afford to feed your friends, ask them to bring a covered dish, aka potluck. I prefer that since I feel no obligation to repay them in kind. I can't reciprocate, but I can make some food and bring it, sure. 😋
@CultureDesk@Eater@eater I am including the donation jar in this. We've hosted a number of larger gatherings in the past with one, and we've been invited to a lot of larger gatherings with a donation jar. It's just something that's kinda always been there.
@CultureDesk An informal gathering (including dinner party) with a lot of people. It can be a social group, a group of people from a club - whatever. We used to do "Homeless Waifs" Thanksgivings that way too, since so many of us were queers or pagans (in some cases and/or exvangelicals) whose parents had disowned/disavowed us or whatever too. Those all had donation jars.
@moira We've been to many of those waifs-and-strays gatherings over the years. Love how they evolve, expand and shrink and create their own traditions and stories. ❤️
@teajaygrey We go to far more potlucks than dinner parties these days — though because of where we live, there's inevitably an enormous amount of quinoa and kale and not much else!
It's never OK to ask people to pay for something you've invited them to. It's always OK to ask people if they want to chip in and pay for something you do together.
You've invited someone to do something they may not be able to afford and put them in a bad spot for your own satisfaction. People will say no because they don't want to be in that spot if you don't make things clear.
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