From 8p vegetables to ‘floorplan’ shopping, these budget-savvy mums reveal how they are beating the supermarket price hikes to dish up dinner for as little as £2.50 a head this Christmas
The pressure to deliver a “perfect” Christmas can often come with a staggering price tag. With the cost of living still weighing heavy on households, the traditional festive spread – complete with a designer turkey and all the trimmings – can easily spiral into costing hundreds of pounds.
However, a new wave of budget-savvy hosts are proving that you don’t need a massive bank balance to create the perfect Christmas dinner. Donna Vallance, 49, Mimi Harrison, 28, and Charlene Woracker, 34, have shared their expert tips for keeping costs down.
From cheaper meat to planning your prep in detail, these three women reveal their secrets to dishing up a full Christmas dinner for a fraction of the usual cost this festive season.
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Donna’s Tips
Budget: £20 for eight people (£2.50 per head)
Donna Vallance, a blogger from Essex, has mastered the art of the large-scale feast on a micro-budget. While many families spend upwards of £100 on the meat alone, Donna has managed to feed eight people for just £20 in total.
Her biggest saving came from rethinking the centrepiece. Having previously spent £100 on organic farm turkeys, she realised the cost was unnecessary. Now, she opts for Red Tractor-certified supermarket birds or value ranges, pointing out that buying a whole bird is significantly cheaper than buying a pre-prepared crown.
She tells the Mirror: “A whole turkey is often cheaper than a crown because people want convenience of not having the legs and wings. If you are after a bigger turkey, Lidi and Aldi release their fresh turkeys around five or six days before Christmas. Some other well known supermarkets such as Asda offer a value turkey that would easily feed seven to eight people.”
The mum-of-two’s second secret is all about timing. Instead of battling the crowds weeks in advance, she waits until Christmas Eve to do her vegetable shop. By capitalising on supermarket “price wars” – where staples like carrots and sprouts drop as low as 8p – and hunting for “yellow sticker” markdowns on high-end birds at stores like Waitrose, she slashes her bill by more than 75 percent.
She adds: “Most supermarkets have offers on really cheap vegetables up to Christmas Eve. If you want to be particularly risky get your cheap vegetables on Christmas Eve and maybe even a posh turkey from somewhere like M&S or Waitrose who slash the prices at the end of the day.”
Mimi’s Tips
Budget: £20 for six people (£3.33 per head)
Recipe developer Mimi Harrison, from London, knows that Christmas marketing is designed to make us spend. To combat the impulse buys, she uses a tactical approach to the supermarket aisles.
Mimi feeds six people for £20, including roast chicken, pigs in blankets, and bacon-topped sprouts. Her first tip is to abandon the “whole turkey” tradition if it doesn’t fit the budget. She recommends frozen, butter-basted turkey joints, which cook more evenly and cost a fraction of the fresh alternative.
She says: “You don’t need to buy a turkey. My Christmas menus that I’ve written over the last few years have included a roasted chicken, and there has never been any disappointment! If Turkey is an absolute must, you can shop around for deals and check out the frozen aisles of your favourite supermarkets.
“Something equally delicious, if not more delicious, is a turkey joint that you can get butterbasted and often comes with stuffing. These are a lot cheaper than buying the whole bird and you also benefit from the even cooking time.”
To stay on track, Mimi writes her shopping list according to the supermarket’s specific floor plan. By following a strict route and avoiding the “festive trap” aisles filled with expensive treats, she ensures only the essentials make it into her trolley.
She adds: “I make a list according to the supermarket layout so that I can get in there, get everything I need and not be distracted by any of the heavy marketing that they’ll be pushing around Christmas.”
Charlene’s Tips
Budget: £10 for four people (£2.50 per head)
For mum-of-three Charlene Woracker, the secret to a £10 Christmas dinner lies in breaking tradition entirely. While turkey is the standard, Charlene found that her family actually preferred a different roast.
By swapping expensive poultry for roast pork, Charlene can provide a full meal including potatoes, parsnips, red cabbage, and homemade Yorkshire puddings for just a tenner. She admits she used to “spend a fortune” on pre-made dishes, but switching to fresh vegetables and making her own sides from scratch made all the difference to her bottom line.
Charlene, from Sheffield, tells What’s The Jams: “I buy a pork joint for £5.85, pigs in blankets for £2.25, potatoes for £1.15, red cabbage for 75p and carrots for 10p. I make the Yorkshire puddings myself and they cost me around 40p.
“I can say with confidence that my Christmas dinner has much more flavour as everything is cooked from scratch.”
The mum says that the money saved on the oven goes straight under the tree, allowing her to spend more on her children’s presents.
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