Cheap but Amazing Tailgate Food

Here in Florida it is about that time…

Can you feel it?

The air is beginning to feel a bit less hot… you know 85 instead of 105… Ha

Its college football season!!!

Wait… I know what you are thinking…

Why is Eric talking about college football. This is a personal finance blog for families not some sports blog…

Ha. Yes, as much as I would love to write a sports blog, this is not one.

But one of the things that Michelle and I run into during college football season is tailgating or watching the game at a friends house.

The typical conversation goes something like this:

“Hey we are watching the game this weekend, do you all want to come over?”

Sure!

“Great just bring a dish to share and it’s BYOB…”

Don’t get me wrong. I love watching the game with a group of friends and I love some buffalo chicken dip…

But did you catch that one thing in there… Bring a dish to share…

I don’t want to be the guy to show up to the party with a stalk of celery or the bag of Doritos that were on sale for buy one get one free…

But I also don’t want to blow the grocery budget making a $25 dish every Saturday…

So Michelle and I found some great BUDGET friendly tasty tailgating food…

Cheap Tailgate Food

Taco Tailgate Bites

From GroceryBudget101 Taco Tailgate Bites

These delicious bite size snacks of taco meat, diced tomatoes and cheeses are AMAZING…

Not only are they quick and easy…

But you can use your leftovers to make them…

On Friday nights we make extra taco meat for dinner but then use all the extra toppings that we didnt eat. Every time we had tacos we would have half a tomato left or olives sitting in a can for weeks…

This fixes that.

Bacon Wrapped Sausage Bites

From Call Me PMC Bacon Wrapped Sausage Bites

Ummm BACON….

If you have spent anytime around here you will know that I absolutely love bacon…

These little treats are delicious!!!

Touchdown Cheese Ball

From Kudos Kitchen By Renee Touchdown Cheese Ball

What is better than bacon???

Ummmm Cheeseee and BACON….

This cheese ball is sooo good. It takes about 15 minutes to make and includes all sorts of cheeses. We try to buy the store brand cream cheese and substitute the different types of cheeses based upon what’s on sale.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Crackers

From Kudos Kitchen By Renee Peanut Butter Jelly Chocolate Football Crackers

Ha… I know what you are thinking… but these little things are so good. Our little guy thinks these are the best part about college tailgating…

You do have to prepare a little bit because they need some time in the fridge but other than that… these things can be whipped up rather quickly and cheaply.

Old Bay Cream Cheese Dip

From Cupcakes and Cutlery Tailgate Best Dip Recipe

This is one of the quickest dishes you will find on our list of best budget tailgating recipes…

We almost always have all the ingredients in the refrigerator so this is one of our go-to recipes…

Give it a try.

Chicken Buffalo Dip

From All She Cooks Chicken Buffalo Dip

Ok… what tailgate party is a party WITHOUT a great chicken buffalo dip… Literally I believe tailgate parties were invented so we could eat chicken buffalo dip…

Here is one of the best we have found out there.

To save money and time we purchase and cook our chicken in bulk. So if we know that we want to make this for the weekend, we try to cook chicken ahead of time and set aside some for the weekend.