About $110 compared to taking the same group out — that’s what you save when you host brunch at home for six people on $40 of groceries instead of meeting at a restaurant. A frittata, fruit salad, bakery muffins, coffee, and mimosas will run you roughly $6.70 per person at the grocery store versus $20-25 per head at even a mid-tier brunch spot.

This isn’t about the savings, though — it’s about knowing the upper boundary of what hosting costs so you can say yes more readily. Below is the line-by-line for a brunch that looks generous, tastes better than most restaurant brunches, and comes together in about an hour of actual work.

The menu and the math

The anchor is a frittata for $9. A dozen eggs ($3.50), a half-pound of shredded cheese ($4), and whatever vegetables you have left over from the week — half an onion, a bell pepper, some spinach, a handful of cherry tomatoes. If you’re starting from zero on the veg, add $2-3, but most weeks you’ll have something in the crisper that needs using. Olive oil, salt, pepper — pantry staples that don’t move the needle.

Fruit salad for $10. Three fruits, whatever looks good and costs less than $4 each. In summer, half a seedless watermelon ($5) plus a pound of grapes ($3) and a pint of strawberries ($3). In winter, two apples, two oranges, and a couple bananas ($8 total), maybe a pomegranate if you’re feeling it ($2). The point is volume and color, not exotic fruit at $6.99 a pound.

Muffins or bagels for $10. A six-pack of bakery muffins runs $6-8 at most grocery stores — blueberry, banana nut, whatever. Or a half-dozen bagels for $5-7 and a tub of cream cheese for $3. Add butter and jam from the pantry. If you bake, homemade muffins cost about $5 in ingredients, but we’re not assuming that here.

Coffee and mimosas for $11. A pound of decent coffee ($8) makes about 40 cups — you’ll use maybe 8-10 cups for six people, so call it $2. A bottle of Cava or Prosecco ($7) and a carton of orange juice from concentrate ($2) gives you a pitcher of mimosas. The math works if you pour three-to-one OJ-to-sparkling-wine, which is the correct ratio anyway.

Total: $40, and you’ll have coffee left over for the week.

What this looks like on the table

A 12-inch cast-iron skillet or 9x13 baking dish of frittata, sliced into wedges. A big bowl of fruit salad with a serving spoon. Muffins or bagels on a plate or in a basket with butter and jam nearby. A carafe of coffee, mugs, cream, sugar. A pitcher of mimosas and juice glasses. Cloth napkins if you have them, paper if you don’t.

It reads as abundant. No one walks away hungry, and no one feels like they got a budget version of brunch. The frittata is the kind of thing restaurants charge $16 for as an entrée.

Timing and prep

The frittata takes 35 minutes in the oven and about 10 minutes of prep. Start it when guests are due to arrive — it’ll come out of the oven right as people are settling in, and it’s fine to sit for 10 minutes while everyone pours drinks. Sauté your veg in an oven-safe skillet, whisk the eggs with cheese and seasoning, pour it in, bake at 375°F until the center is just set.

Fruit salad can be prepped the night before or sliced when guests arrive. If you have an early guest who asks what they can do, hand them a cutting board and a melon. It takes 10 minutes and gives people something to do with their hands while the frittata finishes.

Mimosas get built at the table. Put the Cava and OJ in a pitcher with ice, or let people mix their own. Coffee goes in a carafe or gets made in batches if you’re using a standard 12-cup machine.

You’ll spend about an hour of active work total: 20 minutes of prep the morning of, 35 minutes while the frittata bakes (during which you’re mostly setting the table and making coffee), and 10 minutes of slicing fruit. None of it is hard.

A note on the math

This assumes you’re starting with pantry staples — olive oil, salt, pepper, butter, jam, coffee filters. If you’re buying those from scratch, add $10-15, but they’ll last for multiple meals. The $40 figure also assumes grocery store prices in a mid-cost-of-living area; adjust up or down by $5-10 depending on where you live.

The comparison to restaurant brunch is real. Six people at a sit-down brunch spot will run $120-150 after tax and tip, even if everyone orders modestly. Hosting at home for $40 saves $80-110, but that’s not the point.

The point is that hosting cheaper means hosting more often, and that’s the actual savings — fewer $25-per-head brunches out because you’ve already seen your friends twice this month at your table.