Where do you spend the most when it comes to parties?

[NyaChan]

Food & drink are what I spend on.  If my decor is not so eye-catching or the conversation falters, I figure at least people will be well-fed.  I will admit though, that I do plan my initial lists/shopping, but once I start running back for things I forgot, I have spent $150ish on food/drink for less than 10 people (though I had leftovers for a week!). So $280 for your party of 25 sounds awesome.

I spend less on alcohol if the focus is on the food, but even when the focus is on alcohol, I save costs by buying beer/liquor at Sam's in bulk and making a mixed drink in large quantities to supplement the beer (like sangria or gallon margs) which I've noticed people tend to gravitate towards because it is almost like trying another "dish" and the bigger bottle saves a bit of money.

[siamesecat2965]

For me, food and booze.  Although I don't really throw parties, and when I did with one group of friends, it was potluck a lot of the time...but that's just how we do things.

I think in this case, as she doens't really cook, it was proablay more of a "wow, I had no clue stuff costs that much!"

[blarg314]

For normal parties, I probably spend the most on food. It's pretty standard for people to bring a bottle of wine, or a six pack of beer with them, so I get enough alcohol to start things off, and have some extras in the back if needed.

If I'm hosting everything, drinks would come out as the most expensive.  I can save on food with a combination of good cooking and reasonably priced ingredients, doing most of it myself rather than buying pre-made stuff, but that doesn't work well for alcohol.

[SoCalVal]

Just realized I forgot to answer the question.  I spend the most on food.  I'm really not a drinker so I'd never spend a lot of money on alcohol.  I'm not really into giving parties so I wouldn't spend very much, if anything, on entertainment.  I'm very much into cooking, baking and eating, so food it is!

[miranova]

Well, I just spent about $250 for a party for 10 people.  This included 3 apps, a salad, a main, bread, a dessert, and 5 bottles of wine.  I didn't include the liquor cost in that because that's harder to calculate.  The guests who drank liquor instead of wine did not drink a whole bottle of anything so it's harder to figure out what that actually cost us. 

So, my vote is that $280 is quite a bargain for 25 people!!!