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

No idea...only 3 of us and we normally eat out Xmas Day. Who knows this year.
I don't buy sweet stuff but get loads of cheese from the cheesemonger. Think my Xmas order is about £40 from there including a large porkpie.
Maybe up to £150 for extra alcohol, but we always have loads in.

@FudgeDrudge

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?

If they have a vegetarian or vegan centrepiece it would cost a lot less than a turkey so that could be a factor. From what I understand as a long time vegan and previously long time vegetarian, meat is very costly in comparison.

Could be some other reason though.

I buy extra treats and extra bits but its hard to say as I buy to 'extra' to last us until mid January as after around the 20th December I don't go near a big food shop until the mid Jan. We just get bread/milk as and when we need it.

I asked my DH, who does all the cooking, what it cost us for a three-course Christmas dinner for six. He reckons 50 quid, most of which is the meat from a high-end butcher. We’re now all vegan, so maybe less this year.

About £600+ lasts about 28th food wise and New Years for the alcohol.
21 of us all together usually but obviously less this year. Much less actually.
Alcohol is including in that and puddings, snacks, etc.

@pinkksugarmouse thank you, don't worry

And yes @MatildaonaWaltzer cheese is so expensive!! I also don't like many prepackaged selections and prefer to choose my own. Gah it would cost less to get one of those big cakes of cheese! But it's the variety isn't it :)

Also where do you find good pickled walnuts? I have always wanted to try some but haven't seen them in supermarkets i don't think!

Pickled walnuts are the kind of thing I wish I did myself but would consider a jar from eg fortnums to be a great treat. Not sure if my Christmas raid on fortnums will happen, and their mail order is v limited unfortunately
(Ps - lovely plastic free crackers in 6 packs, anyone?)

We cannot be trusted not to eat it, so only buy things a few days before. There’s only 4 of us, so including alcohol, I’d say probably around £200 ish for Christmas Eve and Day. Get my veg from Aldi and the rest in Sainsbury / M&S. Never actually totted it up. I am a sucker for silly things though, like beautiful desserts that serve 12 and only I end up eating it .

Epicure do pickled walnuts Cloudy, I'm pretty sure I've bought them from Waitrose in the past, Ocado definitely sell them.

We do indulge at xmas, it's the one time of year we chuck healthy eating in the Fuck It Bucket and eat whatever we want.

This year we arent doing a roast, just a buffet which is probably more expensive as its buying lots of little things and accommodating 5 peoples different likes and dislikes but I dont care.

On average my weekly shop is £80 to £120. Over the last few weeks where I have gradually been buying xmas bits it's probably sat at the higher end every week, but I also saved all my tesco vouchers all year so that goes towards it too.

I have no idea. This year is the first year we've hosted so (covid permitting) it will be 5 adults plus a toddler. The butcher said the turkey would be about £30, and I've been picking up non perishables like prosecco, baileys, after eights, a tub of quality street etc since the beginning of November. I've got crackers and a christmas pudding, so presumably all I need now is cheese, veg and something for a starter? What am I missing?

We are hosting for the first time this year (hopefully!). So will be MIL, FIL, SIL, me, DH, DD8, DS4 and newborn all day Christmas Day/Boxing Day and my DPs for breakfast on Christmas morning.

I've preordered the following:

M&S food shop (meats, sides and puddings) - £161
Tesco food shop (wine, treats, veg etc)- £200

We will probably spend around another £40 in the local bakery once we know if my parents can join us for breakfast and maybe the same again in the local co-op on things I've forgotten.

So around £450 😱. However we haven't been spending nearly as much money on eating out this year and we normally budget close to that figure for Christmas nights out which aren't happening either.

@Ragwort do you have children at home? I was actually thinking that usually we love to hibernate a bit in the week between Christmas and new year (work permitting) but we’ve basically been doing that since March so it might not be so enjoyable this year. As I said earlier dp only gets Christmas, boxing and New Year’s Day off work (and works weekends) but he still sees Christmas as the time between the schools breaking up and going back and still enjoys more festive food at this time. He takes a packed lunch every day and loves the variety of buffet food over Christmas rather than the boring sandwiches he usually has

I buy snacks, soft drinks, alcohol, all things chocolate, Xmas cake, etc all through November and stash in wardrobe. My shop on 21st which is latest delivery I could book will be about £200. I buy a turkey crown and a large beef and ham separately. I will have to go out on 23rd to get a few frozen and fresh desserts and fresh cream. Apart from bread and milk I won't shop again until 31st. I have a lot of frozen food in 2 freezers though. There are 4 adults and one teen. I don't think I shall be hosting my dd, sil or dgc this year. We will do a Teams present opening. My in-laws won't be able to come either as fil CEV. My dh is vulnerable too. Once we have vaccines we are going to have a huge party and have a belated Xmas then. I have bought extra crackers and stuff I may not be able to get after January.

I'm finding it a bit tricky to plan this year. I still don't know if we're going to be cooking at home or going to inlaws. If staying home we'd probably get a supermarket delivery for around £200 around 22nd.

We’ve started getting a veg box so have preordered stuff this year - £20 on veg and making a nut roast do an additional £4, fancy mince pies for a fiver, have got stuff in to make a trifle so just need sponges £3, cream £1.50, wine £7, Quorn sausages for the morning £3. Have got cheese, crackers and pickles already £10. So £50.30 but there’s just the 3 of us so it’ll last a good few days.

£50.50 🤦🏻‍♀️

Parbour yes, I appreciate it's different if you have children home from school ... our DS is a Uni student so long gone are the days of finding fun activities to do and making crafts . Also, as you point out, this year has been so different with DH WFH and I have had two separate times on furlough, we are all a bit fed up with 'family time' . The thought of more enforced board games or movie nights almost makes me weep - apologies to people who have been going to work outside the home with no break at all.

Depends this year. Most depressing option is that DH is rota'd in to work (12 hours shifts), and my sister and Bil are moving in with my DPs for the month. I lost our DS2 last week so I don't know if I can cope with the "family Christmas" and going there. If it's just me and 4yo DS1, I'll probably spend nothing extra. He'll just have sandwiches for lunch and then sausage and mash for tea or something. I'll get a bottle of fizzy pop for him as a treat. We'll watch a Christmas film and he'll play with his toys.

If DH is allowed time off, I'll be able to cope better, and (covid allowing) we might go to my DPs. If not, we'll have steak, baked potato and salad. He'll have a couple of cans. So maybe £20.

Usually, we'd host at some point, normally 27th. I'd do a buffet so £100 or so on that. And then just a normal shop with added options for a charcuterie board, prosecco and some nice chocolates. So extra £50 on top of food shop.

Sorry for your loss @AlexaPlayWhiteNoise