Christmas Food - How much do you spend?

[Woodstocks]

Hi all,

How much are you budgeting for food for the Christmas period? With everybody at home all the time and then hosting and the big meal…?

I don't tend to budget for it tbh. I'm expecting it to come in at around 250-350 quid for Christmas Day food/drink tho. We are elsewhere for other important Christmas dates so don't have to pay for food for that. We are having 6 (possibly 8) to ours for the main dinner but like a posher breakfast for the 4 of us, good choice of drinks/desserts etc.

About a grand.
Cue some screeching about it just being a roast dinner 😂😂
meat from the butchers is about £200 (forerib of beef, ham joint, bacon and sausages for pigs in blankets,
extra bacon, booze probably £400 and the rest goes on all the other bits and bobs for the dinner, cheeseboard, evening buffet stuff etc.
We host 14 for dinner and then another 6 in the evening.
The food and booze lasts us far longer than just the one day.

Ordered some things from Booths which DH wanted last year but was sold out that’s £140.00 including Turkey Crown and all the sides.

Bought some wine and champagne from Tesco 25% off 6 £150.00.

Will get some cheese and seafood £50.00 budget from Booths when I pick up the rest on Xmas Eve.

Probably about £250 for Christmas Day through to the New Year . Includes table wear and buffet type food…refuse to cook after Boxing Day!!

It's reduced massively over the years. There's just 3 of us for Christmas and I realised a few years back that all the multiple chocolates, biscuits, cakes and assorted savoury snacks just didn't get eaten. We're not snackers at all.

Booze wise only 2 of us drink and we generally only drink red wine. Which I buy fairly regularly anyway.

So it'll be the main dinner, for which we have chicken anyway (none of us like turkey). So that won't come in at much more than a generic roast. Maybe some mince pies and one fancy cake of some description! So maybe around £40ish. Other than Christmas Dinner itself we really just eat normally the rest of the time.

Sounds meagre when I write it down! But I have had to force myself out of the habit of buying for the sake of it and then throwing half of it away and/or leaving it in the cupboard or freezer for the next 12 months!

No idea, I don't budget. I'm lucky I don't need to

I don’t budget, I just buy whatever I want from October to January under the guise of fuck it it’s Christmas 🥂🎅🏼🤣

I have to say I have no idea 😳. I tend to buy in extra as soon as I can. I make cake/puddings/chutneys in September/October and I marzipan them this week but had the ingredients for a little while now, I have the sugar for icing them. I buy chocolates/crisps/stuff that keeps over a period of time and have most of it (well stuff that keeps)

my weekly shopping is about £180 and this week I’ve really started adding big time to it , my delivery tomorrow is £225 and I will try to keep to that figure each week until the new year. I have a delivery on the 22nd for normal boring stuff which will be c£180 as normal but then another on Christmas Eve which at the moment stands at £243. Then there’s the Turkey/ham and beef ordered from the butcher but DH orders that and I’m not sure how much that will be this year.

😘@ chtgp5

Far less this year.

We've ended up doing close to £1000 with fancy starters, huge galantines, massive trimmed racks of beef and lamb, endless poncy sides, puds, drinks, then a gourmet cheeseboard with lots of figs, charcuterie, side dishes. There's 8 of us.

Last year I just did a bigger than normal roast, and it was 95% as nice. And cost about £130 with the starter and a shop bought pud selection. Drinks on top, but nowhere near the ridiculous amount we had been spending.

Whilst the former does make me incredibly happy in a nigella hostess with the mostess kind of way, actually, no one else really cared that much. It was lovely. But the vastly pared down version is only marginally behind it.

What matters is everyone pulling their crackers, and telling the corny jokes. Youngest DS refusing sprouts and DD slyly nicking them off anyone's plate she can reach. Dad eating 9 potatoes, and eldest DS finishing the rest of the platter. They really don't care one bit whether there's 8 faffy side dishes, or just nice carrots, parsnips and pigs in blankets. And I spend more of my Christmas with my family instead of in and out of the kitchen.

Probably about £250
That's Christmas day / Boxing day / NYE/ NYD though ,

I won't be budgeting any extra. We've done past years of buying lots of nice extras for the main, starters and fancy puddings and to be honest, its too rich for the kids and doesn't get eaten. It'll be a roast dinner with a few extras, and a dessert. We aren't big snackers and won't be hosting.

@WaffleMum222 are you real or AI? Sorry, I just can't tell these days!

Looks like the bot has gone!

I spend too much on food and drink. This year I'm having 2 Xmas days. The first one on December 9th when all my adult DC and DGC are coming to my house and I'm cooking up a feast. I buy a lot but still have quite a lot left after early Xmas. It won't get wasted because I'll send my DD and 2 DS's home with some things. My youngest DS is cooking Xmas dinner for us all this year but I'll buy the turkey, beef and and a lot of chocolates, desserts, fruit, cheeses and wine/beer. I'll pay but he'll do the cooking.

One tip I swear by is to use one of the major cash back sites for purchases, then throughout the year I amass the cash back and exchange it for supermarket vouchers. I’ve done this for years and tend to get a couple of hundred quid quite easily. It’s great if you renew car insurance, change broadband, mobile phones contracts etc… The only downside is that sometimes randomly the cash back gets declined - so you do have to keep track. I missed out on £150 from Virgin Media and no reason was given despite me following all instructions on the cash back site.

I've no idea, but not a fortune.

Turkey, a ham, pigs in blankets, stuffings, veg and potatoes from farm shop (a proper farm shop that sells stuff they grow from a barn really cheaply, not a poncy middle class one), comes in at £50.

A couple of nice puddings, about £15 for a gateaux from the bakers and possibly one home made dessert and cream and vegan Ben and Jerry's for the lactose intolerant maybe another £25.

Some nice juices since none of us drink alcohol will maybe be another £20.

Odds and sods like gravy and cranberry sauce.

The whole lot will probably be about £100 for 4 people.

We're pretty frugal all year - my grocery shop is about £60 a week for two. Christmas week, I'll double that.

I add wine, sea food, desserts, cream. And generally have more variety.

DS will go to his dad's for New Year week, and I'll spend my time eating up all the left overs. 🙂

I don't really spend a lot more than usual, have bought a Christmas pud (£12 on offer at Waitrose) ... don't buy any 'extra' alcohol - we regularly have nice wine most every nights. We eat very well all year round so I don't really notice spending much more at Christmas... and we only invite two extra guests. I only focus on Christmas Day ... all other meals are leftovers or 'normal' weekly meals.

Sorry to jump in. We live down south. Can we get an order from booths online do you know? Would love to surprise DH with food from his childhood that he misses

Maybe £100. Our kids are too young for anything fancy and we'll get a couple of nice meals at parents. I'm vegetarian but have bought nice meat when I have seen it reduced for the last few months so we have venison steaks and duck in the freezer.

My main effort this year has been perfecting yorkers, as a skill for life.

Not loads tbh, 2 vegetarians who will have some ready made thing and 2 who like turkey. I’m just biting one of those turkey roast things from m and s. Then veg. A pudding. Mince pies. That’s it. It’s plenty.

we don’t drink much. We’re not entertaining over Xmas. Might have more variety if we were having people round I guess.

No budget but I am cutting back on snacks. Just because they generally aren’t eaten. I’ve started to make a shopping list on 27/12 in my phone to carry forward with what was eaten and drunk and what wasn’t.

It’s hard to guess - everytime I go shopping the cost of everything has crept up another little bit. Last year we spent about €250, but I don’t think that would go as far this year.

We stocked up on wine and some treats in France over the summer, so that will reduce the bill (those costs are long forgotten)

I could do with buying in the sides, but I think I’ll have to set to soon and cook and freeze instead.