Hot take: frugality gets easier when you stop making every hangout about food

I like hosting, but I think a lot of us quietly bleed money by treating every social hangout as an excuse to buy or provide food. In my shared apartment my boyfriend is big on "let's make it nice" when people come over, which usually means snacks, drinks, and some takeaway to "keep it simple." After everyone leaves I do my little decompress routine - tea, tidy, a bit of alone time - and then it hits me that we basically paid a convenience fee for socializing.

The biggest frugal win for us was changing the default expectation. Hanging out does not have to be dinner, and it does not even have to be snacks. If people actually want to see you, they'll show up for a walk, a board game night, a movie you already own, or just to sit and chat on the couch. If someone only shows up when there is food, that's not a friendship I want to budget for.

We started saying upfront things like "Come by after you eat" or "We are doing tea only." If we do food it's something simple and predictable we already buy anyway, like frozen pizza or chips, not a special grocery run. Some folks will call that rude. I find it ruder that we pretend spending money is the entry ticket to community.

Anyone else intentionally decouple social plans from food, and did it change your budget more than any coupon ever did?