£19 for Christmas dinner. Bargain!

[Neverbeme]

I’ve bought a whole Christmas dinner for £19 and I was amazed when I went to pay at the till that is wasn’t a lot more.

It’s only me and one teenager for dinner this year but the dinner would probably feed four.

I got a large turkey joint in Tesco for £12, potatoes and various veg for 29p a bag, turkey gravy, bread sauce, smoked salmon mousse as a starter, fresh cream and a few other things.

They had run out of Christmas puddings but Morrison’s had a mini one for £1 each.

There won’t be any waste as I will do a big fry up with the leftovers the next day and enjoy that even more.

Normally I would go to M&S or Waitrose and spend way more than that with a lot of extra luxury foods but there is not a lot of point this year with no extra visitors and I didn’t want to queue up in different shops this year. I can’t believe how much money I have saved.

Have you spent as much as usual this year?

Ahh that's lovely, OP. Enjoy!

We are spending a bit more than usual but on takeaway for Xmas Eve as I'm too tired to keep cooking!

We've not spent as much as we usually are hosting so as there's just us, it's half the number of guests. I have ditched the turkey though, we only have one each year because my MIL loves turkey (she's lovely, it's never been demanded but I know she'd be disappointed without one). So it's a joint of beef and a nut roast for the veggies. Looking forward to it being a lot less cooking hassle!

I spent more.

Sainsbury's shop was £230, but that did include Christmas Day outfits for DDs. And alcohol.

At least it was Scan & Shop and I didn't find out at the checkout.

Oh yes no alcohol included. I’ve already got a bottle of baileys and a bottle of port.

Theres 3 adults here. I got a chicken and a lamb joint (we don’t like turkey) for around £10 and veg, gravy Christmas pud etc was probably another £10. My money has gone on things like alcohol, party type food (for our party of 3!) fancy Yule log, stollen etc.

Oh and £200 for a combi microwave/oven as the interior glass on our previous one exploded on the 22nd! Timing could have been better! But at least it didn’t happen midway through cooking Christmas dinner!

Fantastic

Only three of us we having beef (no one likes turkey)

I bought two puddings and a selection of cheese and two bottles of wine that’s it so maybe £30 more than a usual weeks shopping

It's always just the three of us here for Christmas, as our family lives in America and we can never get away. But this year's feast will definitely be cheaper for us as I've managed to score a few of our big ticket items (gammon and a beef joint) reduced at M&S.

DH and I usually go to either set of parents along with our siblings’ families, so it’s the first Christmas dinner in our ten years together with just the two of us. We don’t normally buy food, just alcohol and treats like stollen, chocolates to take to the hosting family.

This year, I’ve probably bought more food than we need - DH is vegetarian and I wanted meat and pigs in blankets, so he has M&S veggie cocktail sausages and some sort of veggie main - but we’ll freeze a good chunk of it all to eat at a later date - it’ll probably do us another two roasts if we add fresh veg.

I’ve got more sprouts than a couple needs, but have a nice recipe for a sprout, kale and blue cheese risotto so that can be Boxing Day’s dinner. I’ve tried to avoid buying too many of the usual treats as I don’t want to be endlessly gorging - we will have no cheese board this year which is a bit sad, but it seemed extreme to buy a selection of cheeses!

We spent £50 in M&S and £100 in Sainsbury’s today, but a good chunk of Sainsbury’s was our normal food/household shopping. Neither shop included alcohol as I forgot licensing laws when I went shopping far too early this morning. We’re fairly well stocked with booze anyway and we won’t drink much, just the two of us.

i have spent a bomb on food this week but the main christmas three course dinner has come to around £50 thats for 5 adults that consists of
pate or prawn cocktails for starters with iceberg lettuce brown bread and butter
turkey crown and gammon (from iceland)
roasties, parsnips, carrots and sprouts
stuffing, pigs in blankets, yorkies
gravy and cranberry sauce
either black forest gateaux or strawberry gateaux with cream