How much are you spending on Christmas Dinner please?!

[CherriesInTheSnow]

I am talking just for the meal itself, but all 3 courses I will count cheese and drinks separately.

And as an aside, does anyone know when the supermarkets will bring out their Christmas food range? I have a November baby due so am trying to get super organised :)

It can be as long as a piece of string trying to answer that.

How many are you feeding?

How much will you prep yourself, or how much will you "buy in"?

How many sides do you want, 20 million things or just turkey, potatoes and a veg?

What starters - as some cost a bomb and others are dirt cheap?

Do you have standards to uphold - like it must be organic, it must be turkey, or it just has to be a nice dinner (not even necessarily a roast dinner - lots like big curry feasts!)?

And what do your storecupboards look like? Loads of herbs and spices and flour and gravy stuff and frozen breadcrumbs, or bare shelves?

I can't even put a figure on mine, as it varies, I pick up bits all autumn on specials, lots are from my storecupboard and garden, but I also like expensive smoked salmon (a very special treat to the 3 of us - I wouldn't get that if I was serving loads) and 2 bottles of nice wine.

But things you can do now to save on time and energy and cost include:

Make breadcrumbs from heels and any stale bits of bread and freeze these. If you have a big enough batch before freezing, you can always go ahead and make it into stuffing now and freeze that, to save a job on Christmas Eve.

Dry or freeze herbs from the garden (if you have some). Or if you get a pack which is yellow-stickered but still good, buy them, chop them up and freeze them.

Make soup and freeze that for starter.

You can get various veg whenever they are on special (super 6 or whatever offers your supermarket has) and prep and freeze them. There are lots of recipes on various websites for these (places like Good Housekeeping or Jamie Oliver are pretty good starting points).

You can also ask your butcher for some chicken or turkey bones to make stock now, to be able to make delicious gravy. Especially if you know your butcher well or are buying a lot of meat. Jamie Oliver has a make ahead and freezable gravy which lots on here swear by but I've never tried.

HTH a little even if it doesn't come anywhere near answering your questions.

(M&S are launching their book next week or the week after, they told me today).

We go out for a curry. £25 each for me & DH, £15 for DS.

We're veggie so it's so much cheaper than a meaty meal - we all went meat-free ten years ago and I used to spend £60ish for the Christmas meat alone. Now our entire meal probably comes in at £30 (not including booze). We don't do any fancy veggie stuff - just Quorn roast, fancy stuffings, lots of roast parsnips/potatoes, cauliflower cheese, sprouts with pine nuts, veggie sausages and various sauces. I always buy dessert (Christmas pud with brandy butter and various other steamed puds) but everyone's always too full to eat it, so traditionally we have puds for boxing day lunch 😁

We normally go to family but when have done xmas dinner, I've spent well under £50. Our children are 7 and 5 and pick at food, preferring to snack, so there isn't much point in getting a lot of food in.

Last year, we had prawn cocktail for starters.

Main was a turkey crown, potatoes and veg.

Pudding was xmas pudding or some other dessert.

I bought a few items with our weekly shop, stuff that could be frozen, jars l, tins etc. The veg cost pennies and some l, I prepped in advance and froze particularly when on offer. We already had potatoes and lettuce, so I didn't need to buy that. The turkey crown cost about £20, pudding was under £10.

You'll have a new baby. M&S did three courses for six last year for about £100. They do smaller, cheaper, deluxe. Comes all prepared. Turkey, trimmings, veg, gravy, etc. Be kind to yourself. There is no need to prepare breadcrumbs.

No idea. I have never calculated the cost.

In terms of getting organised:

Add a few extra items to your normal shop. This could be food items like a jar of cranberry sauce or a packet of biscuits. Don't forgot non food items like having enough loo roll and washing up liquid.

I prepare and parboil carrots which I freeze. You could do the same with other dishes.

Use disposable making trays etc to cut back on washing up.

Prepare your potatoes the night before and store in water until xmas day.

Feeding 3 kids and 3 adults. No starter. Turkey crown from Iceland for £15. Veg from Aldi. Christmas pudd from Aldi too. max of £25!

This year will be just the five of us. So my guesstimate is....

Turkey crown - £25
Carrots, sprouts, peas, swede
Honey glazed parsnips
Pigs in blankets
Cauliflower cheese
Yorkie puds
Boiled pots
Roasted pots

Bucks fizz and asda's mint thins.

So guessing around £50-£60?

Dinner is so big and rich we don't have three courses and we have desert when we visit my mum and family at tea time! 🎗

No idea here either !

I do a Costco shop for my binbags , foil, greaseproof paper, loo-roll anyway so don't need to worry about that.

DH,DD and I are vegetarian. If we have guests then DBro brings sausage ,bacon and turkey (proper butcher not your supermarket type that he disapproves of)
I collect my Nectar Points through the year (they aren't stacking up so well at the moment but I'm hoping they do one of their Points Booster thingies )

I make most of my food from scratch (except mince pies , Yorkshire Puddings and the Vegetarian mains. I can make MP and YP but they never seem to work on the day itself)
No starters
We have things like lasagne (made and frozen away) and pizza (mix the dough , slow prove, shape, top and bake) .

I have made a pledge to cut back on things we don't need , I'm sure I was stuck with a load of food last year, took half the cake to my DParents and looked at various bits of cheese for weeks after .

I'd go out for a curry like Iklboo if I could, genuinely!

I don't know how much it costs, possibly £60 ish for the three courses, just for immediate family, though I'm guessing. Last year was far more as we were hosting.

Ah thank you so much for all the replies :)

Yes sorry how silly of me for not specifying, I only have me and DH and then 1 toddler and a newborn (who obviously doesn't count towards dinner costs!) so only cooking for 3, but we do like to have leftovers.

I was thinking of budgeting £90 this year as I would really like to get a lot of stuff quite prepared. I can't stand roast or mash that isn't home made though so thank you for the tip about keeping them in water until I'm ready to do them, makes so much sense!

..that is including a couple of nice ready made desserts though :)