Charging relatives for Xmas dinner

3v3

candygirl wrote: »

A family friend is hosting Xmas dinner this year and is apparently charging everyone £30 a head, and they still have to take their own beer ....

candygirl wrote: »

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... we are also going for a meal out at £25 a head, can't chuffin wait:T:T:T

So, you choose to pay £5 less? What's the other difference?
By the time you add on drinks to your £25 per head, at restaurant prices, I think your meal out will cost far more per head than your friend's meal and BYO booze

candygirl wrote: »

I wouldn't do Xmas dinner if you gave me a grand per person:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

And, perhaps, the people who go to your friend's feel the same way? Perhaps it is worth £30 per head to them?

Fuel is expensive (cooking a meal over a couple of hours will rack up the fuel bill, as will heating her home). Food is expensive; she is spending her *time* on the preparation, service and cleaning up.

Not sure why it is an issue to you? Looks to me like you just want to ridicule her way of doing things and its a way of doing things that *her* guests are comfortable with complying with!

Just as you are compliant and comfortable paying £25 per head for your own Christmas feast

savvy

LOL my mother once invited me and my mate round for Sunday dinner when we were starving teens, we thought wow she's being nice and couldn't wait for a decent slap up meal.................then about the day before, when we were well and truly sucked in, she charged us £2.50 each, that was in about 1985 and we barely had any money! Yet all our friends Mum's used to invite us round or send us food parcels bless them

But £30 per head really is taking the pish tbh, I'd tell everyone that I couldn't afford it and that I'll have an open house on Christmas as long as you bring something yummy or alcoholic with you, which is what we do for our BBQ's and is easier with all the dietry requirements

SPARKY16 wrote: »

I know someone her husband and her dont drink coffee so when her son and family go to visit they have to take their own, they take a jar and leave it there and she tells them when it is getting empty so they can bring another one :eek:
So there is people like this Talk about tight !

LMAO hey I do that! :rotfl::rotfl: Well okay my brother does, he got fed up of me either not having any or only the decaff sachets I nick from hotel rooms We just don't really bother with coffee in this house, so whenever I bought a little jar just in case somebody may possibly want a cup at some point.....it used to go all hard and horrible so ended up wasting loads SO my brother brought a jar up in protest at the beginning of the year ha ha, and was stunned it was still there 6 months later................umm and is still there now :rotfl:

savvy

LMAO oooo I dunno! ;)

3v3 wrote: »

Fuel is expensive (cooking a meal over a couple of hours will rack up the fuel bill, as will heating her home). Cheaper to cook for all those people than a small number. Food is expensive;She'll get to keep all the left overs and feed her family for free for a couple of days. she is spending her *time* on the preparation, service and cleaning up.I'm sure the army of family will clean up for her and she gets off on being the hostess with the mostess so feeds her ego at the same time - she's probably a wannabe Nigella........oh and then there's all the bragging she can do about her 3-4 holidays a year too, win, win for her

Westywoodpecker

candygirl wrote: »

A family friend is hosting Xmas dinner this year and is apparently charging everyone £30 a head, and they still have to take their own beer:eek::eek:She is even charging her own Mum who does everything for her:eek:

This thread has bee an interesting topic this evening! I really cannot believe she's charging her own mother :eek:

Cherryjack

oh wow lol.. well i also have a ''friend'' that does this.. drives me up the wall.. She planned her birthday bbq and came out with a 35.00 fee each lol.. no one turned up..
Then she did a hen night bbq, and sent the invites out with a £35.00 fee... at the time i couldnt eat very much with sickness in pregnancy, nor drink.. and being diabetic even the sugar drinks were out.. i asked if i could just bring a few veggy sausages and a bottle of diet coke with me lol.. it didnt go down well!!
Thing is i did a party the same year and laid on everything.. my party my expense.. people could have eaten for weeks.. so her charging was just horrible.
Mum is skint and doing xmas dinner, so i recon me and OH will give her some cash before we leave so she can top up her shopping, but she would never dream of asking.
Someone mentioned that richer people seem to do this.. so TRUE!! if i look at my well off friends/family, never a xmas present does arrive lol.

BlueFox

We cook christmas dinner for us, MIL & SIL & usually share the leftover turkey with them and for past couple of years we have all split the cost straight down the middle, so we buy everything needed for the dinner & tea (as they stay for the whole day, last year till midnight :eek:) & they pay us half (2 of them 2 of us) and it works, it's an arrangement everyone is happy with. Me & OH have to do all the food shopping, preparing, cooking, dishing up, clearing up & washing up & they turn up, eat & sit down all day whilst we are rushing around like blue a*** flies

In these times of austerity we all have to chip in, christmas is an expensive enough time as it is & sharing the cost of all the food & drink just makes things a bit easier & fairer

candygirl

As i've said before in this thread I am all for people contributing, whether it's bringing a course or a bottle, but imo charging people as though you are a restaurant is plain wrong and greedy:mad::mad:
To think she charges her own 80 year old Mum is awful imo:(:(

sugarwalsh

As a parent if my kids start charging me, when they are old enough, for Christmas meal I would wonder what on earth I had done. On the otherside, as a parent if I didn't offer some contribution towards the meal I would also think I had failed as a parent.

MEgan

BlueFox

I don't know anyone could actually "charge" people to come for christmas, I agree with others in saying a contribution is fine, or as we do agree in advance that we will split the cost (only 4 of us anyway), but charging people is crossing the line

3v3

candygirl wrote: »

As i've said before in this thread I am all for people contributing, whether it's bringing a course or a bottle, but imo charging people as though you are a restaurant is plain wrong and greedy:mad::mad:
To think she charges her own 80 year old Mum is awful imo:(:(

Totally get that, but ... her Mum must be prepared to pay it or she wouldn't go?

If I were 80yo and it was a toss up between hosting dinner for the family or paying £30 to be wined, dined and see the family ... I'd be thinking £30 is a small price to pay for the least hassle. What's the alternative? Being alone?

Either way, it really isn't worth you busting a blood vessel in anger over It clearly works for this particular family you are posting about - even if it isn't a recognised "norm" for the majority