You may have tried the everyone-bring-a-plate trick. Maybe you nabbed a 10 per cent discount on a half-dozen drops from Drnks. Maybe you’ve spent the whole day slowly cooking a cheap cut of meat, or kneading, rolling and grilling all your flatbreads from scratch. These are all time-tested – by yours truly – great ways to save, but to keep hosting on the reg you’ve got to get savvier and sneakier.

I’ve done the legwork, team. Follow my tips to have excellent dinner parties more often, with not a sad bank account in sight.

Theme it

A well-thought theme is a winning way to turn your cheapness into chicness (because we can have both). Disguise the fact you’re relying on a pantry-items-only chickpea curry by theming the event. I present: Tin Can Dinner. You’ve got the main covered, so your friends can bring tins of Perello olives for Martinis and gildas, and you can task someone with the challenge of creating something outstanding for dessert – pear tarte ta-tin, like the goodie in the Flour & Stone cookbook perhaps?

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Now for entertainment: have one of your favourite nominees from a past Cannes (get it?) Film Festival flickering on the telly in the background. Fun? Very. I’ll accept an invite, thanks.

Veg first

Save your fancy steaks for dinner for two. When you’re pulling out the stops for a party of many, keeping it mostly veg will stretch your dollars further. Lankan Filling Station’s O Tama Carey lays out loads of impressive veg options (hello pumpkin curry, cabbage mallung and a pandan-forward dal) in her cookbook Lanka Food. To make things even more streamlined (and save you from buying heaps of different spices) you can pick up her curry powder blends from the Riley Street restaurant in Darlinghurst (or online). Bonus: this flavour-packed menu also ticks most dietary boxes if you have an eclectic mix around the table.

Carb-loading

The method used by many a mother of teenage boys: carbs. Not only the superior food group, but one made for BIG dinner parties. A generous bowl of rigatoni glossed up with tomato and eggplant sauce and a showering of Parmigiano-Reggiano is… just as good as it sounds.

Plenty of rice, potatoes, bread or grains not only makes prep simple and grocery bills low, but also relieves you of fears that there won’t be enough food and your friends will go hungry (my constant nightmare).

Shop smarter

When you’re at the shops, be flexible! If you're doing the aisle dance with tunnel vision, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’re missing out on simple ingredient swaps that could help your bottom line. Not only that, but you could be sacrificing a more interesting, inventive menu. Say you’re making a salad, as you do, and you reach for your dependable, crisp cos lettuce, an avo and some plump cherry tomatoes. Stop. Take a look around. The in-season fennel might be just a fraction of the price. Slice it super thin and toss it with a segmented grapefruit, olive oil, a big squeeze of lemon, flaky salt and cracked pepper – congrats, you've just levelled up your salad game.

Gemma Plunkett is a Sydney-based dinner party tragic. She works as a food writer, recipe developer and content strategist. Find her (but mostly food) in pictures or fortnightly in your inbox via her free newsletter, Ding!