To ask how much your Christmas dinner costs?

[Merryoldgoat]

We’ll be 5 adults, one 5yo and a baby who doesn’t count.

My PIL are buying the extremely expensive joint of beef so fir us it’s trimmings, pudding, snacks, booze, games sweets, chocolate etc.

What would you budget for the day?

We’ve budgeted £300 which I think is plenty but saw a thread where someone said they’d spent £500 and I was a bit shocked.

I was secretly hoping we’d spend half of the budget and have money for a New Year treat!

Dm made our pudding.
I spent roughly €70 on alcohol but we are unlikely to drink it all - but I want to be able to choose between a nice bottle of bubbles and a nice bottle of wine when we get to it.

The dinner -
Turkey, veg, potatoes, sausage meat, streaky bacon...
A few lemons and herbs and extra butter

Already have plenty of bisto and dried herbs and oil etc so not adding those

But do need a couple of packs of M&S party food for starters
And a couple of bags of crisps for nibbling while the turkey cooks
And some nice chocolates for later

Including a full turkey, I’m probably going to spend about €100 absolute max - and likely a lot less. Turkey is usually about €20-30.

Oops, just realized I forgot cheese - add another €30-40 for that (but we’ll eat that all over the season and none will be wasted).

12 of us, including 4 kids. I think £280 in total for the day. £100 for an organic turkey. £25 for all the trimmings. £30 cheese, chutneys and crackers for the evening. £20 for smoked salmon and eggs breakfast. 2 bottles of Prosecco, 2 bottles of white, 2 bottles of red £70. £20 chocolate and snacks. £15 on puddings.

We are going out for Christmas Day lunch
Just myself husband and DS
It’s £200 for a five course meal
In the evening I’m going to my sisters so I will take some wine and desserts
I hate cooking so £200 is worth it not to cook and clean up afterwards

I’ve only ever cooked it for two adults and three young children but I’d say I spend a max of £150 on everything so things for breakfast, alcohol and soft drinks, cheese board and crackers, the actual Christmas dinner, dessert, boxes of chocolate, crisps etc for throughout the day/evening.

Couldn’t fathom spending as much as £300 on one days worth of food- that’s almost a month’s mortgage .

That's not "christmas dinner" though.

You are budgeting for ALL the food and drink you'll consume, including breakfast, snacks, chocolate etc. If you're going down that road, you could spend £110 just on the crackers.

www.harrods.com/en-gb/harrods-of-london/cocktail-christmas-crackers-box-of-6-p000000000006041979

Go own brand on most things if you can. supermarkets have really stepped up in trying to make sure everyone buys their own Christmas food so they made them a lot nice and better quality. Those ready Baked French sticks are really good that you just stick in the oven for a couple of minutes 4 the days after and relatively cheap. Aldi is full of Christmas foods

I couldn't spend that much without really trying hard in the wine aisle.

But our Christmas is quite simple.

Biggest cost is a fancy turkey.

I've read OP,s updates.

It's easy to hear other people's budgets and have a moment of self doubt about your own plans!

I have preordered a turkey, pudding, pigs in blankets and nibbles from M&S for £100. Everything else including the veg, sides, crackers, champagne and nice red will come to about £100-£150. It’s a lot but it’s our first time hosting my parents who have done a lot for us so we want it to be really lovely. There will 4 adults and 2 children.

Our butcher's order (which includes new year lamb shoulder, Christmas joint, sausages and sausage meat for stuffing) is £55, I am making crackers to pull from a kit I had in, I have got eating crackers, biscuits, mince pies and chocs etc from home bargains/ when I see them on offer in supermarkets and my online shopping trolley is approx £150 including a normal shop for the rest of that week. DH bought the booze separately so not sure how much that was but if you're not buying the meat then you should have plenty of change from £300.

I've just started doing my shopping list and once I've started thinking about it there is a lot to get!

Breakfast is going to be smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and bagels. Starter of pate, cured meats, bruschetta and leaves.
Main of turkey and all the gubbins that go with it. A choice of 3 different desserts. Cheese board, chutney, crackers, grapes.
Then booze we'll have bucks fizz for breakfast, champagne with lunch then probably other beer, wine or cider throughout the day.

I'm not sure it'll quite get to £300 but it's going to be a fair bit!

I'm not bothering with all the faff of cooking Christmas dinner this year as it's just me & the cat, so I'm budgeting about £20-£25 for nibbles and booze.

I'm trying to work out what people could possibly spend £500 on though!

Probably a couple of hundred for Christmas dinner. I cook for 14 and don't generally buy prepared foods apart from the pudding in the sale last year (already adding alcohol for this year). However there is enough food to feed everyone again the day after boxing day with leftovers pie and cold ham, cheese & biscuits, etc etc. I love having a few days off meal prep with a fridge stuffed to bursting and too much chocolate - the Christmas feast is longer than a day.

It’s the booze that makes it expensive. Bottle champers (£30) couple bottles of wine at £10-20 a bottle. Our turkey is £60. Cheeses, chocolate pud (we usually buy this for about £15.
So easily hundreds of pounds but that’s not including all the supper, breakfast and nibbles.

I don’t understand how people do it for £70 tbh. The meat and wine must be so cheap

Sorry and that’s only for 2 adults and a small child I often have 10 for boxing day and can spend £300 just on booze for them!

It surely depends on the amount of people you have? We easily spend £500 when we had 6 adults and 4/5 children (when we had family over) - alcohol included. We had to order a few types of meat and then also some for the evening buffet.

Quite obscene really isn't it.
I'll never forget my parents spending £70 on meat and being disgusted that they would do that when we were struggling for money. I was veggie so was not good from my point of view anyway but to spend that on meat was beyond my comprehension.

We host 6 adults and 2 kids who are nearly 14 and 10.
Christmas lunch with all the trimmings, with prosecco on arrival nice wines prawn cocktail or melon starter, sherry trifle, christmas pudding or cheesecake for desert. Coffee , liquears and chocolate mints afterwards.
Buffet around 7.00 pm.
Always have a selection of drinks available Baileys, Vodka. Gin Beer ext aspeople stay until about 10.00 pm. To be fair usually lots of that left.
Can bring the whole lot in for £300 and I've added in every little sundry
There will be left over turkey for the following day and sometimes turkey broth for next day. Also stuff from the buffet and all of the drinks not used so I don't think too bad.