Buy Enough without Buying Too Much

Did you know that there are hundreds of websites and recipe books dedicated to Thanksgiving leftovers? All of us have a tendency to overbuy just make sure that we have enough. One of the challenges for many people, besides buying too much food, is that we buy too many disposables. Can you relate?

One of the most common questions we get is how many plates, cups, napkins, and utensils should we buy. Well, just imagine how accurate you need to be when your dinnerware isn't disposable. At AAP, the majority of our events require china so we have to be really accurate on how much we need to buy to optimize our clients' budget.

So, we have a formula that we use that can help save you some money for your Thanksgiving gathering. Shout out to my girl Marley at The Party Goddess for helping us with this. Here's the standard formula to help determine how much dinnerware (disposable or china) you should have on-hand to be prepared for the Thanksgiving feast!

All you have to do is multiply the number of people attending and the item below. For example, if you want to know how many plates you need to buy, multiply the following:

If there are 18 people attending X 1.5 Entree Plates = 27 plates to purchase.

Now remember, nicer disposable plates are packaged in either 8 or 10 so even though we only need 27 plates, we may need to purchase 30 or 32 based on packaging.

Hors d’oeuvres Napkins: 2.5/person

Cocktail Napkins: 2.5/person

Entrée Plates: 1.5/person

Entrée Forks: 1.5/person

Entrée Knives: 1.5/person

Dessert Plates: 1.25/person

Dessert Forks: 1.25/person

Coffee Cups/Saucers/Mugs: 1/person

Coffee Spoons: 1/person

Napkins: 1.25/person

Now, these numbers aren't bullet proof but it is a fairly good place to start and we hope to save you a few pennies while you're shopping.