To ask how much you will spend on Christmas Day meal

[UnicornsAndLizards]

Just that really. Last year was the first time we've ever had family over to ours on Christmas Day (we had recently moved to a large house) and we went all and spent a fortune. We're hosting again this year and whilst I want the day to be special I don't want to go overboard and spend heaps on fancy food. We will be 7 adults, 1 of which is a vegan and no children. What is a reasonable budget to set?

£125 for 3 of us - we are eating out at local Indian restaurant
I will do a traditional roast on Xmas eve for 6 and will probably spend around £75 on that including starters and a choice of dessert all cooked from scratch

We cut down last year. Smaller turkey, I cooked a gallon joint rather than buying an expensive ham
We eat at 3ish so no one is hungry really for the rest of the day. So we have dessert (Xmas pud, mince pies ) in the evening. I have a couple of packs of buffet stuff in the freezer just in case.
I just repeat it's one day to myself. I do nice ordinary food the other days ( lasagne, beef stew etc)

And I have never done starters!

We spend around £50 for two us. That feeds us for a week though (cold meats with jacket potatoes or bubble & squeak on Boxing Day, turkey & ham pie the next day, risotto, curry, endless sandwiches, a vat of lentil soup from the cider the gammon has been cooked in, pasta carbonara and the last scraps of gammon end up in a quiche).

Because we like leftovers, it ends up costing no more than any other week.

I expect my PILS will die in the next few years and my dcs will start to want to spend Christmas with their boyfriends or girlfriends. I'm absolutely making the most of the next few Christmasses.

Trewser my DDad has been saying for the last 15 years ‘this will be my last Christmas, better make it a good one’ (he’s 90 now [grin ]).

I think the important thing is just to make sure you don’t overspend & go into debt, don’t buy things just to ‘impress’ other people & encourage guests to bring a contribution to the meal, it doesn’t matter if you spend £20 or £500 ... so long as you have a lovely day, with no debts, enjoy .

I don't go into debt because I save 40 a month all year to pay for it all!

If I was you OP, I'd buy the food for the roast. Let your guests bring their own puddings, drinks and nibbles outside of that.

We don't spend a lot on the dinner itself. But we just make it for the four of us. It's the booze, chocolates, biscuits and Pringles that costs us!!

Well I guess we spend a lot but we don't waste any. 4 adults...
Turkey Crown is about 35 quid. But a couple bottles of Veuve is 60 and some wine at 15 a bottle.
But it's aldi Xmas cake and sains own Xmas pudd etc. So about 200 altogether.

We don't do a Christmas Day meal so it's snacky buffet type foods for us. We do our usual shop for Christmas/new year week and add a few extras such as a whole ham or some mince pies etc. We also don't host so it's always just the 4 of us.

For the first time ever, neither of us are working and we aren’t seeing our parents. BIL might be coming over after work, but otherwise I only have to buy what us and 2DCs like. We will have bacon, egg and sausage sandwiches or pancakes for brunch and roast at 5. Then grazing stuff through the day. Everything except meat will come from Aldi, I’ll leave the meat shopping for DH. I don’t have a budget but it won’t be massive.

I'm budgeting £300 for 6 adults.

Never more than £100 and that's for 12 of us (that includes some kids though who just eat selection boxes instead of their meal )

I don’t buy just the day on it’s own so can’t give an exact figure but the cost of the food shop for Christmas week usually comes out about £20/30 more than my normal weekly shop. Doesn’t include alcohol (Dh works for brewery so we get it free). 2 adults, 5 dc (3 of whom have very healthy appetites hollow legs).

Oh & up to 8 adults popping in & being fed anywhere between 24th/26th-NYE

We don’t spend much, we have chicken because we don’t like turkey, so it’s just a usual roast with some extra bits, pigs in blankets, gammon. We always have a lovely dinner without spending a fortune, I hate food waste so we never go mad buy unnecessary items that will send up going to waste.

6 of us this year. Got the Xmas food magazine from Aldi yesterday. Picked what I'm getting should be about £50-60 . Mum sorting the pudding, wine and cheese.

Ask everyone to contribute something to the meal 🤷🏻‍♀️

2 adults, 3 children and maybe 1 mil.

Around £10, small turkey joint, pigs in blankets and a bottle of shloer. Veg, gravy, stuffing are just food we have anyway.

You eat to live, Christmas Day is the same.

• I have included a 3rd child, however he won't have anything, pushing it to even get him to sit at the table with us.

@OnTheFenceWithMostViews M&S - just get the stuff ready to put in the oven and get your in laws to bring a dessert. It'll be fine.

Around £10, small turkey joint, pigs in blankets and a bottle of shloer. Veg, gravy, stuffing are just food we have anyway So more like 20! How much is the turkey joint if you can feed 6 with it for a fiver?

I spread the cost. I'm buying the odd few non-perishable things now, so it's a few pounds here and there. I'll buy meat in the next couple of weeks and bung it in the freezer. A few days before Christmas, I'll drag my sholley to Sainsbury's and use my Nectar points to buy veg and nice extras.

It is only a roast dinner - albeit a bit posher than normal. I would say Aldi is your friend as is preparing red-cabbage, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings (have them whatever the meat!) well in advance and then freezing them. On the day it’s a turkey (crown if you like), pigs in blankets, sprouts, carrots, parsnips and stuffing made up and cooked. Serve a shop bought Christmas pud and Yule log with cream and ice cream and a few mince pies later. You can always serve some party/snacky bits for a when everyone gets hungry later on. Finally, ask people to bring a bottle each. This way the cost is kept down quite well, the stress of the day is reduced as you have prepared some stuff beforehand and nothing is missed. Obviously if someone ‘needs’ a certain veg or drink you might have to accommodate them but really it shouldn’t be too big a deal. I’d also dress the dining table the night before so on the day it is just cooking a roast. Have fun!

About £40. We are having a takeaway from the local Indian.

Last year there were 5 of us (3 adults & 2 children). I spent under £60.00 on the following :
Salmon Wellington from Cook £30
Desert, drinks, Sides & Veg from Lidl £30

We don't drink alcohol so that's why the cost was significantly under. I assume that's what increases the cost for many.

I've always bought side dishes & veg from Aldi/Lidl and can't fault them. Very good value for money so you can keep your costs down. Get the Lidl magazine as there's a £5 voucher off between 8 - 14/11.

Make a list of what you've got already and then another list of what you need and buy a few items off that list each week. Did you have food waste last year? Anything that was popular & not so popular? Try and amend the amount you buy this year using last year as a guide.

There are only 3 of us 2 adults, 1DC so it might seem like a lot to some.

We will spend about 200-250 for the whole Christmas period, I always order an organic Veg box for Xmas as well as an organic turkey joint.

Will be about £100 for my meat, pudding, mince pies, trimmings, cranberry sauce and a chicken to roast some time over Christmas which is all organic. Don't normally do starters really, often end up just eating rubbish all day till our Christmas dinner.

The veg will last right through Xmas. I normally do a Sainsbury's shop also which is about £100 including a gammon joint, nibbles, chocolates, cheeses, shloer, alcohol and cream etc. I make most from scratch and always do a bubble and squeak for Boxing Day.

Leftovers all get eaten between Christmas and New Years Day. And spend up to £50 on stuff that catches my eye. I absolutely love Christmas and its all about the food for me now I'm older, as it's only once a year I like it to be really good and I make sure nothing goes to waste.