Cheap Christmas Dinner?

nzmegs

Once again this year xmas is rolling round and I am wondering how we are going to afford it. We have decided (the adults at least) to focus on the kids for the presents and to have a nice meal together.

What I am wondering is how many ideas can we come up with to keep the meal costs down to a minimum. I don't mean having cheap and nasty food - but places to buy cheaper turkeys, stuff you can make yourself and avoid buying, stuff you can buy in advance etc. Anything anyone can think of to make it cheaper for our family.

We have anywhere form 6-10 people coming plus kids....eek it is always a scary thought doing all that cooking!

Lets see how many ideas we can come up with....

Mrs_Thrify

Cheepest is to get invited to someone else's house.:rotfl:
Next cheepest is to ask people to bring the starter or pud.
That leaves you with just the roast turkey dinner. I would stack the plates with plenty of veg and cut back on the meat. Saying that I would try to buy a boned and rolled turkey and ham to put on my food slicer as it makes a little go a long way as the meat is thinly sliced.
Decorations used are the ones comming down from the loft.
With children I would set them a craft task like making all the party hats.
In the sales which now start before Christmas I would buy the crackers etc for the table.

tryingtoruletheworld

We usually have roast beef/pork, much cheaper and tastier than turkey! (no one in my family is a big fan of turkey, and they are soooo expensive!)

People really over-estimate the size of joint/turkey you need, lets face it, by the time you have loaded your plate with roast potatoes, stuffing, veg, pigs in blankets, yorkshire puddings, bread sauce and anything else you fancy, there isn't a lot of room for meat! And you need to leave room for the christmas pud!

Also, if you like to fly by the seat of your pants you can get stuff reduced in M and S just before they close on christmas eve. But then the family might not be impressed if all you can get hold of is a seafood platter for dinner!

MrsBartolozzi

Does it have to be turkey?
I only ask because for the last 4 years (might be more) we've not had turkey for xmas lunch. Last year, admittedly we had no guests, the boys (inc OH) wanted pizza - it's a celebratory meal so why not have what you like I suppose:rolleyes:. I had a lovely stuffed duck roast I got from Sains for almost nothing on xmas eve:D!

fluffybunnies

we almost always had chicken for our christmas roast- that was serving at least 7 people (more if grandparents/people from church were there)...but my Mum was always a bit stingy with the meat anyway....

valk_scot

We usually have a big chicken plus two sorts of stuffing, pigs in blankets, roast spuds, Yorkshire pudding (my DD's favourite with any roast), roast carrots and parsnips, peas and sprouts. I can easily stretch that to eight people using a Extra Large chicken from M&S at about £9 and the rest doesn't add up to mega money, plus it's a lot tastier than most turkeys anyway.

For starters I make a choice of soup or prawns + smoked salmon + veg crudites + brown bread and butter. For pud there's Xmas pud or nice ice cream.

I bought the Xmas pud, crackers, gift wrap and cards in January, tbh, when they were all silly low prices. Sorry not much of a tip for this Christmas but keep it in mind for next!

I find it's the extras that can push up the Christmas food budget so I do think twice if I really need them. None of us really like brandy butter or cream on our pud, just custard, so I don't buy them unless we've got guests and even then it will just be single pouring cream. I don't buy lots of nibbles or cheeses or even mince pies, because once again we won't really eat them. If guests are coming I'll knock up a batch of cheese straws or dip to eat with vegetable fingers and bread sticks. I buy or make some pastry for the freezer and usually have a jar of mincemeat somewhere so I'll make mincemeat pies if needed, otherwise I'll use it up later with no waste. None of us like Christmas cake much so I don't bother. We have wine and beer in the house, because that's what we drink, and that's what guests get offered. I don't feel the need to stock up with spirits or port or whatever on the offchance one single guest will like one glass of something that normally they wouldn't drink anyway.

Makes me sound a bit mean with guests? Well, I think my guests get fed and watered pretty well...plenty of food and drink, but not the entire choice of what the TV ads say we need, no! Anyway I think folk get a bit sick of a couple of weeks of "traditional" fare. So if I have guests on Boxing Day they might get lasagne or curry, tbh, or something else we like and would eat normally anyway. It's the hospitality and sitting round the table to enjoy the company that really counts, not making it look like the M&S or Iceland Christmas food ads.

Olliebeak

I usually buy a turkey but we don't always have it for Christmas Day. If it's just OH and myself, we've been known to have Minted Lamb Shanks, Beef Wellington, Haggis or even Cottage Pie - depending on what we decide on OR what whoopsies I come across in the weeks before Christmas. The Beef Wellington was whoopsied to £1.50 .

The Turkey gets cooked on whatever day DD and dgk's come around for a meal.

I have another 2 'family days' (one my family and one his family - too many for the house if we mixed it up!) where it's all buffet-style/help yourself.

ubamother

I think that often its the Christmas Day "extras" that can inflate the cost - almost without you noticing. Things like nuts, chocolates, mints, sweeties, crackers, table decorations can easily cost as much, if not more, as the food.

I agree with asking guests to bring something - if you're not comfortable with this for food, asking each guest to be in charge of something - after dinner chocolates, crackers, a liqueur, candles - often guests feel bad if they don't bring something and if you don't ask you might end up with endless bottles of red wine and bunches of flowers (which is obviously wonderful, but may not so helpful!!) If you are silly like me, pick a colour theme and ask them all to bring something in that colour - red crackers, red wine, red-wrapped sweeties - much more fun involving them this way than you feeling you can't afford to entertain them.

Olliebeak

ubamother wrote: »

...... Things like nuts, chocolates, mints, sweeties, crackers, table decorations can easily cost as much, if not more, as the food.........

These are the things that I try to buy in from around August to November - usually get crackers, party plates etc in January if I can find them.

I've had 'gold themed' decorations for about 10yrs now and just buy a few new ones every year - have to admit that I've had to gradually increase the size of my tree. Now on a 7ft one that only just fits in my bay window - so can't go any taller .

Caterina

Be adventurous, do the veggie thing, it saves a fortune (and a few lives too)!

Re. Christmas tree, last year we used a lovely old dried apple tree branch and decorated it with stuff that we have collected over the years, including dried orange slices (look lovely when pierced at the top, with a ribbon through the hole as hoop).

Our Christmas wreath is a metal ring that comes from my cooker (it is the old burned element) covered in foliage and kept together by red yarn and decorated by ribbons that I have saved over the years, from packets of sweets and other gifts.

I think that if all the family is in agreement it is possible to do a very frugal, very fun Christmas.

got-it-spend-it

I agree that it is the extras rather than Christmas dinner itself that ends up being costly. Christmas dinner for us is masses of veggies (carrots, parsnips, peas, sweetcorn, cabbage), none of which are particularly expensive. We also have plenty of roast potatoes, home made yorkshires and some kind of veggie loaf- usually lentil. I appreciate that this isn't everyone's idea of a good Christmas dinner, but it always goes down well in our non-meat eating house! I admit I do buy a Christmas pud, but only a bog standard one so that's only a few pounds.

For the extra nibbles, which seem to be what push the costs up, I always keep an eye on the cheapy Poundland/ 99p store type shops as you can often pick up some great treats. I also try and get things from about now, up until Christmas when they're on offer.

I also make my own mince pies. Even if you were to buy the pastry and the mincemeat you get many more for your money than if you buy them.

Nibble are also easy and cheap to make for Christmas tea or boxing day. I buy a slab of frozen puff pastry and add various cheese fillings with chutneys. Home made pizza dough is easy to make, and can be kept frozen until needed. You then just need to add some passata and grated cheese and it doesn't take much longer to make than baking ready made ones.