If you've ordered your Christmas food shop from Marks & Spencer...

[TakingControl2023]

How much have you spent, if you don't mind me asking?

I think next year I'd like to order everything from somewhere a bit nicer, just ready to chuck in the oven. I'm thinking I might add money to a gift card every month to ease it a bit!

There'll be 4 adults and 2 children

Sideways answer to your question, but I use TopCashBack for everything and save the money all year & convert to an M&S gift card. I've got £210 to use this year which will get us pretty much everything for Xmas eve/day

How does that work? :o

About £90

£150 approx. Meat is ordered from the butcher so not included in the total

How does that work? :o

£90 here

£105 for 6 adults and 3 children. Like a pp, I pay using a voucher I bought with my TopCashback balance.

It’s a site you sign up for then if you go via their site for online shopping etc you get a small % cash back on each transaction, and can draw down the balance as cash or vouchers.

I've ordered some mains and partyfood from M+s and Sainsbury's. The shin of beef from marks is delicious, as is the Cornish cruncher cheese bake. I've spent £150 in each. This doesn't include cheese, crackers, veg, fruit or general shopping etc. Total should be around £600 including booze but that's including Xmas day dinner for 12 and a buffet for 20 on Boxing Day.

TopCashBack is where you shop via affiliate links, so I've just done our home insurance and got £60 cashback on the policy, Lego were offering 3.5% recently, Iceland were offering £12 for an initial shop, a lot of shops do 1-3% but it all adds up over time and when you use the money for a gift card you usually get 3-5% extra value.

I think at M&S it's the meat and fish that is the most expensive and a lot of the sides and desserts more reasonable. Eg, I saw a turkey butterfly for £30 that was less than half the size of the one we usually pay £20 for from a farm shop. I know that prices have increased this year, but probably not by that much.

So possibly get all the nice prepared sides and desserts in M&S and possibly look elsewhere for a turkey?

They also have good reductions. I often pick up yellow stickered things and freeze them until the day.

Also look for discounted vouchers like others have said, I think if you do a Christmas order early, you usually get something free like a bottle of cava.

Plus if you don't already have their credit card, you can usually get a voucher, possibly for as much as £100, which would go a long way towards paying for your meal.

If you take up all the discounts they offer, you can get quite a decent saving off the price, plus some things in store aren't that expensive compared to other supermarkets.

£240 here. I’m working double shifts all over Xmas though and need nice convenience food for at least 3 days for 5 of us so I’m not stressing Xmas eve/day or Boxing Day.

I have ordered mine from Ocado so mainly M&S but ocado fruit and veg (it’s just as good). There’s only 4 of us for Christmas dinner, all adults and we don't drink. My shopping basket so far is around £120, that includes all food for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day as well as a few essentials such as toilet roll and cat food. Only think not in my basket is cheese as I prefer to buy from Aldi or Lidl for a fraction of the price.

Really helpful answers here! Thank you all