A Cheap Christmas meal

man_of_faith

Am trying to plan and organise the cheapest possible meal for 4 adults and 2 kids.
Dont know where to start.
Any suggestions greatfully recieved.

jakes-mum

First step for me is always chicken not turkey! Make a sunday roast and add in pigs in blankets as thats basically the some cost as a normal roast, your not stuck with 10 tonnes of turkey after the 25th and you know what everyone likes

Ive been doing this for the last couple of years and its brought down the cost massively Also just get a chocolate roulade or a small christmas pudding from tesco for pudding with a bit of icecream or tesco own custard, dont be caught up in the 'you must have M&S £20 desserts and a £25 turkey cos its christmas':)

katiecoodle

make/get a soup for a starter. Having a starter is a sure-fire way to get people feeling absolutely stuffed & they'll want a break before pudding...makes the meal last longer & everyone feels well fed!

pollyskettle

We always have chicken as I've never really been taken with turkey. There are two adults and three children here and we buy the biggest chicken we can so we have a few leftovers for boxing day evening, when we get back from my parents, so that I don't have to cook. I also buy a 2kg ham for the same reason, but apart from that, we just make a normal roast with bread sauce, cranberry sauce (normally from whoopsied cranberries!), pigs in blankets and proper gravy. I don't buy into the school of thought which suggests needing ten times the normal amount of food just for the one or two days. I do bake a lot though.

I don't buy drums of twiglets either........bah humbug!!*

*probably because, growing up, my grandmother would buy so much food and snacks for the Christmas period we would still be eating at at Easter. I vowed never to do that!

roosterbean

They've got some really decent sized joints of pork in Asda that would feed a family plus some left over for pork and stuffing sandwiches or cold cuts the next day. I've squirrelled one away into my freezer ready for xmas :j

Owain_Moneysaver

man_of_faith wrote: »

Am trying to plan and organise the cheapest possible meal for 4 adults and 2 kids.
Dont know where to start.
Any suggestions greatfully recieved.

beans on toast?

If you must have turkey, then beans on turkeyburger on toast.

What's wrong with pizza? Everyone likes pizza. You can get cubed turkey cheaply in the supermarket if you want a turkey pizza.

augustsmummy

For the stuffing try tesco value stuffing 15p a box and it is lovely. Sainsburys have a value one at 15p too, but I personally prefer Tesco one as it has larger bits iyswim?
Last year we got a frozen turkey from Jack fultons, and that was a reasonable price and had enough to feed 4 adults and two children comfortably. Shop around if you want turkey.
My advice is do a sunday roast, rather than a "christmas stuff your face till you feel ill dinner". Homemade carrot soup is lovely and realatively cheap, just 1kg of carrots (2kg bag in tesco 75p) an onion, stock cube (10 for 12p tesco value) corriander and a potato.
hth

man_of_faith

Thanks for the suggestions
am trying to buy as much as I can with points before december gets started.

Tamster150

our turkey is from "The Sun" newspaper this year. Not sure if you still have to time to save the tokens though. Otherwise we would just have whatever meat I spot at a good deal. We had lamb last year, they were half price so I froze it & kept it for Christmas!

And yes try to keep in mind that it is just ONE day and not much different to your normal Sunday roast.

(we also spent our childhoods eating twiglets and Quality St till Easter!)

TimBear

For something a little different, I saw a three bird roast in Aldi for abour £6.99. Then aside from that you can just do the normal Sunday roast things to go with it to keep costs down.

rhodesRocks

I never forget that Christmas dinner is essentially a glorified Sunday lunch.