Where to spend and where to save on Christmas dinner is the trick to making a feast on a budget, says MoneyMagpie Editor and financial expert Vicky Parry
Christmas is only a few weeks away, and the big feast will start playing on your mind if you’re hosting this year and trying to stick to your Christmas budget.
The good news is that there are plenty of ways to cut costs on christmas -dinner>Christmas dinner without seeming like you’ve cheaped out. From choosing wonky veg to discussing desserts, try these tips to keep your Christmas dinner bill under £30 for six people – that’s just a fiver a head.
Spend on the turkey
Or the main protein – whether that’s goose, chicken, salmon or nut roast. This is the crowning glory of Christmas dinner, so allocate the largest amount of your budget to it. However, while your local butcher might have pre-orders open already for the finest turkey in town, you can still save with savvy supermarket shopping. Aldi says it is officially selling the cheapest turkey this Christmas, at a cost of £8.38 (£4.19 per kg) for a small one that feeds 6-11 people.
The trouble with fresh is that you have to time it right – Aldi’s turkeys aren’t on sale until 19th December, for example, and that means shopping it the Christmas rush. Their frozen turkeys are much cheaper, at £2.78 per kg. You can pick one up now and leave it in the freezer – reducing the Christmas grocery stress as well as saving money.
Buy wonky veg
Avoid pre-packaged vegetables to save serious pounds on your Christmas dinner grocery shop. While it’s tempting to choose pre-cut Brussels sprouts, you’re paying around three times as much for the privilege of preparation. Tesco peeled sprouts cost £1.50 for 200g, while it’s only 95p for 500g – that’s 3.49 times more expensive per gram for prepared sprouts!
Opt for loose veg that you choose by weight where possible, too. You can select exactly what you need to avoid food wastage. You can also check out wonky veg packs for supermarket deals – these are vegetables that don’t meet commercial aesthetic standards, but still taste perfectly good. Because they don’t look like a perfect carrot or parsnip, the price is significantly reduced.
Once again, frozen is your friend here, too. You might find some veggies don’t have as pleasant a texture – carrots and sprouts can go a bit mushy from frozen, for example. But parsnips, swede, and especially carrot and swede frozen mash can save a lot of pennies AND a lot of hassle, as well as reducing food waste as you only use what you need.
Cheat on sauces
Sauces used to be cheaper to make from scratch – but these days, as ingredients rise in price, it’s more cost effective to buy ready-made or sachet preparations.
Colman’s bread sauce mix is just 95p plus half a pint of milk (85p for a whole pint). Gravy is a Christmas roast staple, but Tesco’s gravy granules are just 75p and save a lot of time. Cranberry sauce costs 69p from Asda, while fresh cranberries are £2 for 250g at Tesco – and you need more than one punnet to make enough sauce.
Skip the starter
Do you really need a starter for Christmas dinner? Spending more of your budget on the main course is more satisfying – there’s nothing worse than cooking all morning only for people to fill up on snacks and starters and not finish their main.
If you do want a starter, opt for something light and inexpensive. Homemade veggie soup is always a good bet, and easy to adapt for dietary needs of a crowd. The BBC Good Food websites has a whole host of easy and inexpensive starter options to kick off the feast on a budget.
Discuss dessert
Before buying a massive Christmas pudding, talk to your guests. Do they even like it? Many people eat Christmas pud without being a huge fan of it – so there could be an alternative dessert to choose if the consensus is that it should be avoided.
If you’re a Christmas yule log family, consider wrapping that into your Christmas dessert – serve with cream or ice cream, getting your yule log fix in before everyone feels too stuffed to the rafters to have some later on! The top ranges in supermarkets are around £6, which is cheaper than buying the ingredients to make from scratch.
Unless you have huge cheese fanatics attending your dinner, there’s no need for a cheese board, either. It can be very expensive and much left uneaten. On the other hand, if you all love cheese, find out if people would prefer it instead of a sweet dessert. You could always serve up luxury hot chocolates later on in the evening for the sweet toothed among you.
Ask for alcohol gifts
While you can supply the Bucks Fizz and champers, if you’re footing the entire bill for your Christmas dinner, see if your guests will bring a bottle of their favourite to accompany it. This way, if they want something in the luxury bracket, it’s up to them – not your wallet.
If you don’t feel comfortable asking people to bring a bottle, consider alternatives and research your award-winning cheaper options. Lidl ’s Montaudon Champagne Brut beat Moet et Chandon in a taste test, at £14.99 a bottle instead of £37.99 for the Moet.
For those into mulled wine, it’s much less expensive to make your own – and you can tweak the recipe to your taste, too. But Aldi’s Gluhwein was on sale last year for £5.99 per litre and topped many best-tasting lists, so that’s worth a try, too!
Adding it all up
So, still not convinced you can cook Christmas dinner for six for under £30? Here’s a breakdown to show how it’s done. We’ve taken the lowest prices from the main six supermarkets, but these items are all similar prices in each. It’s also worth noting that these are current prices – many items are likely to be reduced closer to December 25th.
- Fresh turkey 2-4kg: £8.38
- Brussels sprouts 500g: 95p
- Bread sauce: £1.38
- Cranberry sauce: 69p
- Ingredients for Yorkshire Puddings: £1
- Wonky carrots 1kg: 53p
- Wonky parsnips 500g: 55p
- Potatoes 2kg: £1.79
- 12 Pork chipolatas: £1.97
- Streaky bacon: £2.29
- Yule log: £6
- Cream: £1.15
= £26.68
That leaves you £3.32 to buy extras – more sausages, cabbage, or even a small Christmas pud!
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