Xmas meal for eight comes in at £21!

Happi

emweaver wrote: »

im sure it could be done cheaper and nicer

Agree.

The supermarkets will have offers on xmas food in the run up to it, good housekeeping were too quick off the mark with this.

Not everyone likes turkey either, i remember asda doing large beef and pork joints last year for silly prices like £3 to £4.

ghanagirl

I know we are here to get things as cheap as possible but i would not buy much of that stuff for my christmas table.
I will offset spending more for our family of 15 coming to my house for christmas dinner by saving on spends during the rest of the year, After all this is one meal you dont want soggy veg or vile mince pies.

I know some people dont have money but by visiting this forum and getting things throught the year i can spend an extra £30 or £40 on the christmas meal and trimmings, you know after this christmas get the reduced xmas stuff for next year.
todays Staples/NotW deal is a good chance to get £5 of xmas bits and bobs for a pound.

themull1

I don't do mash or yorkshires for christmas dinner, or mince pies. Mince pies are more of a snack with a coffee! But i like good gravy, bacon wrapped sausages, sausagemeat stuffing, goose and turkey, and a massive trifle, so wouldn't be able to do it on the cheap.

themull1

Allegra wrote: »

I can do better ALL food for the WHOLE Christmas week for four people for £25

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/planner-christmasweek.html

I notice its the same food for up to three times in a week!, wouldn't go down well in our family.!!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Flip i pay more than that for my turkey crown at the butchers...lol..

even though the choice of foods are not to everyone's taste... I think its to make people think and look around for the better value things, and not just to buy the big brands and spend for the sake of spending..

over the last few years i have cut back every christmas...and to be honest over the few years we have not missed anything.

I used to buy all the fancy trifles, sweets, cream etc...

but one thing i will not cut back on is the quality of my meat...which to me good quality meat makes a good quality dinner...and curry, and sanwiches, and a cold plate with pickle...with chips, and hten in the freezer to use up in january:rotfl:

We buy one tin of sweets a few separate bars of our favourite chocolate, nuts and some fruit and that is it....

The main thing about chirstmas is being together for that day....


Merry Christmas everyone..... and done let the retailers/supermarkets make you think that this time of the year is for buying things you DONT need!!!!!!:money:

Allegra

themull1 wrote: »

I notice its the same food for up to three times in a week!, wouldn't go down well in our family.!!

Blimey You (or whoever is in charge of the kitchen chez yours) must be a pretty great shakes to provide so much variety ! I try and have a different thing on offer every evening, but I'm afraid that lunches and breakfasts are rather samey most of the time - we do not mind though.

Would you mind saying what sort of thing you'd normally have, especially breakfasts/lunches, in order to provide that much variety ? Thanks

artybear

themull1 wrote: »

I notice its the same food for up to three times in a week!, wouldn't go down well in our family.!!

I've tried this one out, i think seeing a meal plan on paper is different to actually doing it. I certainly repeat things in a week, i.e I only have toast/weetabix for brekkie or sandwich or soup for lunch.

Do you have something different for every meal everyday?

xx

p00hsticks

Allegra wrote: »

I can do better ALL food for the WHOLE Christmas week for four people for £25

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/planner-christmasweek.html

It doesn't seem a terribly nutritionally balanced menu to me, with a lot of sugar and not a great deal of fruit or vegetables - for example the entire food intake for the first day consists of waffles and syrup, onion soup, toad in the hole and chocolate brownies.

Personally I'd prefer to see a bit more rice, pasta, fruit and veg and a bit (lot) less cake

Allegra

p00hsticks wrote: »

It doesn't seem a terribly nutritionally balanced menu to me, with a lot of sugar and not a great deal of fruit or vegetables - for example the entire food intake for the first day consists of waffles and syrup, onion soup, toad in the hole and chocolate brownies.

Personally I'd prefer to see a bit more rice, pasta, fruit and veg and a bit (lot) less cake

Onion is a veg And toad is served with sprouts, which also happens to be a veg (not an evil entity from another galaxy, as some would have it :rotfl:)

However - in the Christmas week ? Less cake ? Really ? Your family must have far more willpower than mine :eek: Generally, most people I know seem to say sod the nutrition during that particular week, and let's stuff our face with Quality Street.... The homemade chocolate brownies and Christmas pud at least win hands down nutrition wise when compared to tins of choccies

Incidentally, there is one single bag of sugar on the shopping list for that whole week - between four people, for the whole week, at Yuletide. I really do think that this is far, far less than most families consume at that time of year !

Of course, if you are one of those who do not, then I take my hat off to you

queen_of_string

Pooh sticks, if my bill for the whole week was reduced to £25 compared to what I usually spend, I'd have plenty left over to make some tweaks to the plan to suit my family!

With the good housekeeping plan, around xmas in the UK, I think you could probably right off a whole day to visit different supermarkets. I used to live 5 mins from a huge tesco, xmas week it's an hours queue to get in to park, ages to park, packed store and long checkout queues. That's half a day gone for starters! :eek: