How much do you spend on your Christmas Food Shop?

[CloudyVanilla]

Just curious as I want to trim my budget down and don't know where to prune from..

How much do you spend and for how long? I usually let my family begin eating festive bits from about the 19th building up to full out indulgence on Christmas eve. I don't feel right getting nothing before Christmas eve and I also don't want to skimp on dinner!!

Do you even know how much you spend or do you build it up? I build up gifts and decorations but I tend to do the food shop last, lest it be scoffed too early

Parbour but many people work and get very little time off at Christmas .. so it really is just one or two days. I will have Christmas Day and Sat 26 off, I will work (retail) until late on Christmas Eve and be back at work on the Sunday. People working in the NHS, carers, etc etc won't even have that much time off.
My DH 'has' to take annual leave between Christmas and New Year, he really doesn't want to - this year especially there won't be much to do, he would rather be at work but doesn't get the choice . He WFH anyway so no real difference.... he doesn't want to sit around watching Christmas tv and there's only so many walks you can go on every day!

😲 Seeing the lists on here it's hardly surprising that obesity is consistently on the increase. I don't know how anyone can physically put that much food and alcohol into their body. 🤢

@pinkksugarmouse

😲 Seeing the lists on here it's hardly surprising that obesity is consistently on the increase. I don't know how anyone can physically put that much food and alcohol into their body. 🤢

💐 Sorry. My post came across pretty harsh. I should have re-read it. I don't understand the need or want to eat so much extra food because its a set date on a calendar but it a tradition for a lot of people (it was when I was a child too) so I am clearly the odd one in this.

Obviously obesity is not a Christmas food shop issue. It's more complicated than that so I regret including this in my comment at all.

It's not extra food, it's just diffent 'Christmas' food Pink. I don't eat more at Christmas than I usually would and a I'm 5' 8" and a size 10 so I'm pretty sure I'm not overeating!

@pinkksugarmouse

😲 Seeing the lists on here it's hardly surprising that obesity is consistently on the increase. I don't know how anyone can physically put that much food and alcohol into their body. 🤢

dont worry as someone that doesnt go crazy I get what you mean... I dont think its an obesity issue but a commercialised gluttony issue, I assume huge amounts of this food is wasted because even with a big family people physically cant eat that much.

for us Xmas is litrally just the xmas meal which is like a sunday dinner served family style, we spend as I said before £15 for everything including all the veg, yorkies, sauces etc... and it could probably feed 2-4 times more than our family (we usually only cook half of each thing because potions now are huge).

And we always but a dessert and it never gets eaten because people are full, we are just getting ice cream this year so that even if we dont eat it it wont go off.

Seeing on here that people have 3 christmas dinners in a row (xmas eve, xmas day and boxing day) baffles me, I dont think I could eat that much it would become a huge chore not something enjoyable.

We've already bought a lot. We have a capon in the freezer as it was too small for 5 adults and a toddler last year. We normally start our festivities the last weekend in November when we usually go to see my son and family up in Manchester, followed by a weekend in Wales to see family and friends. These won't happen this year though. That means DH won't be able to buy enough cheese to feed the town for a week. From Christmas eve dinner until new years eve we don't really eat meals, we just have a running buffet

@pinkksugarmouse

😲 Seeing the lists on here it's hardly surprising that obesity is consistently on the increase. I don't know how anyone can physically put that much food and alcohol into their body. 🤢

I like nice food and drink at Christmas. I’m not Obese and neither is my family.

@Nonamesavail I understand your point but I posted this in the Christmas board. I'm not well off by any means, but I can make ends meet and I prioritise Christmas because I love it and so do my children. The Christmas board is full of spending threads so it wasn't designed to be in particularly poor taste.

And @pinkksugarmouse I'm glad you retracted your comment because honestly that was mean. This isnt AIBU or anything, and it's not about gorging it's about eating and drinking well and buying stuff you don't normally eat. I don't buy to huge excess and I am very careful to not have waste particularly of meat as while I cook it for my DP i am a vegetarian and can't abide animal food waste.

I would not on my standard weekly food shop buy a £50 joint of beef or £40 turkey crown, nor buy or drink champagne or spirits, at all. My indulgence at Christmas is not reflected in my consumer habits for the rest of the year.

If anything it's the opposite; I have been dieting and losing post baby weight throughout the year and I cut back further for myself from the 1st November to around 18th December.

My DP is not overweight. My DC are not overweight. I am still a bit overweight but am working on it.

Can we please be kind and respectful of other peoples' choices.

@goose1964 same, I refuse to cook a proper meal bar Christmas dinner from the 21st through to new year!

@pinksugarmouse - I think a lot of it has to do with being generous / hosting and not wanting to appear mean, and therefore offering a bonkers amount of choice. It's definitely a mistake I used to make - well someone will want a pork pie so we'd better get a good large one otherwise it'll look lost and sad on the table etc etc. Otherwise, it's simply the different stuff - the cranberries, chestnuts, bread sauce you wouldn't have with a weekly roast.

And I agree it's not just different quality/types of Christmas food it's the variety.

A lot of the stuff I buy doesn't have short expiry dates, and the fresh stuff I do get is well loved and used - I love leftover sprouts and roasties (and bread sauce, drool) , dp loves cold cuts with picallili, the kids love pigs in blankets and carrots. As said I don't cook much apart from Christmas dinner so we have a mix of nice leftovers, cheese and accompaniments, party food, festive sandwhiches (again from leftovers) and nibbles.

Eating that way would be gross instead of nice if you didn't invest in a good spread in the first place!

I am assuming we won't be hosting any friends or family this year so that makes it cheaper. We don't drink alcohol and happy with aldi cola. £80 on top of usual shop will be way way more than enough!

Its just me and my husband, we do spend extra from a variety of shops in the run up including, sainsburys, waitrose, M&S and some local deli's and speciality shops Perhaps about £200 - £300? A lot of the stuff lasts us well into the new year though.

We don't always buy loads more but probably get the fancy quality so for example we ordered fancy drinking chocolate which costs a lot more than our usual brand.

@pinkksugarmouse

😲 Seeing the lists on here it's hardly surprising that obesity is consistently on the increase. I don't know how anyone can physically put that much food and alcohol into their body. 🤢

I've quoted a list earlier in the thread.

We eat different, more expensive (higher quality) stuff over Christmas, but I really don't think we eat more in total.

Something like our Fruit de Mare for Christmas eve is expensive, but it's neither big in volume, nor especially in calories.

We have eggs benedict or something similar for breakfast on Christmas day, with fresh orange or maybe a bucks fizz. Nothing particularly gluttonous about that.

We have roast dinner on Christmas day with turkey and ham, leftovers (plenty) sliced and used in the buffet in the coming days. We have a pudding afterwards, which will be home made and special, plus Christmas pud for my elderly parents as they like it, maybe a mince pie with coffee or some after dinner mints as well. So a fancier roast, with more trimmings, better quality meat, and a dessert. We'll also have a glass of wine or two with dinner.

We have Cheeseboard for Christmas day tea for anyone who wants it, as we wouldn't want a full meal in the evening. I usually have a port with my cheese board.

Then from Boxing Day onwards, we graze on left over sliced meats, left over cheese, crackers, fruit, anitpasti, salad, smoked salmon, caviar plus chocolates or crisps, pickled onions, maybe a slice of Christmas cake etc. We do this for about a week, so that I get a break from cooking, and to make the Christmas week a bit different and a bit more special than normal. We also have the odd glass of wine, or a baileys etc if we feel like it. We don't really eat any more in volume that we would at any time, and as DH and I are both off from mid December until after the New Year its lovely to have a proper rest from meal planning, cooking and supermarkets!

Personally I'd find Christmas food just being a near regular roast dinner and nothing more pretty joyless, but I understand that is some people's preference (and for some people a necessity either due to finances or work patterns). Each to their own. But having nice food in is not gluttonous in the way you imply.

We rarely have Christmas at home with just the 4 of us, but when he have we usually spend about £100 on food for the day. Including a nice breakfast (pastries, salmon /bagels), Christmas dinner and party type food in the evening. We're not really alcohol drinkers but DH might have a couple of beers and if I'm feeling nice this year I might get a cider for DS1

I did retract the comment. It didn't come out how I meant it to but should have reviewed it before posting.

I do understand why people would be offended by my comment and I apologise particularly to the op.

Having retracted it and apologised I ask that the thread isn't taken over by my comment because that wasn't the op's purpose of the thread.

nicely said, mouse

So let's get back to how insanely expensive it is to do a good cheeseboard. Before you even start on quince jelly and pickled walnuts to go on the side of the cheeses...

@mrsm43s yes! Exactly! Our Christmas sounds very similar to yours food-wise.

What we buy lasts for the week or so and like you we don't eat much more than we usually would but we do eat different things for that week. We don't waste the food, we buy what we like to eat and we use it up or freeze it. I cook the ham on Christmas Eve and then cook the full works on Christmas Day and the meals between then and New Year are constructed around the cold meat / nibbles / seasonal foods so very very little cooking and lots of really nice things to eat.

I cook pretty much all the time (home more and better cook than dh and we eat really well all year round) so it's nice to not have to think about supermarkets, or normal dinners etc for that week.

I think there are some joyless approaches to Christmas here and they're not necessarily budget driven, but it's almost a point of honour to downplay it as much as possible. I don't understand that mind-set but each to their own.

I am in my early 50's, I'm 5ft 9" and a size 12. I crept up to a 14 earlier in the year but have reined it in and am back to the realms of a more usual size for me, another few pounds to go and I'm good. Neither my dd nor my dh are even vaguely overweight, in fact teen dd is underweight but has always been very slight so nothing new there.

Anyway...I shall carry on doing Christmas how we have always done it and I am really looking forward to enjoying delicious food and some really nice wine!

A good cheese board is a thing of beauty....what are your 'must haves'?

Probably about £200 for three adults but we don’t drink alcohol which can make a huge difference with cost

I dread to think to be honest. I know we'll spend about £80 at the butchers and there's about £200 worth of booze in the cupboard. Then there's the other food and snacks etc. Too much.

@caperplips

A good cheese board is a thing of beauty....what are your 'must haves'?

Applewood smoked cheddar Snowdonia Black Bomber Stilton Shropshire Blue Mexicana Goat's cheese Port Salut Brunost Snowdonia Ginger Spice Manchego Cambozola

And then usually a few more obscure things that we pick up in local farm shops. Not sure if we'll have the opportunity this year though.

We like cheese.

6 of us...about 75 quid?

How can you even make Xmas dinner for 6 for that little?

Someone else said £100 for 7 to 10 days...of what? Only soup and bread?

I probably spend an extra £60 on my main Christmas shop, but there's only two of us, that will include a few small present items like chocolate for stockings and dog treats but no alcohol. I don't stock up on treats in advance so that's pretty much all of it, we don't start festive eating until Christmas Eve usually so we wouldn't get through lots of snack foods. We buy lots of treats like panettone for breakfast, nice butter, some desserts, cheeses, dips, prepared salads etc. We usually eat out for Christmas lunch and often go out for brunch Christmas Eve so that makes a difference.