Is your Christmas changing this year?

[AlwaysPrettyOnTheInside]

I just had a thread earlier about our traditional Christmas food, a ham, beef or lamb for Xmas day and beef for NYD. Thinking about it further though, if things carry on as they are, I'm not sure whether three joints of meat are going to be feasible.

We get full monies worth, no waste, but the cost upfront might be prohibitive.

I will start to put a little bit away from next payday, we haven't been able to so far as just been living month to month, and just haven't even thought about Christmas yet.

We live off fuck all the rest of the time, I don't really want a tight Christmas 😐

There's only two of us, and we've been scaling down the amount we buy the last few years anyway, and have ended up eating the big Xmas Dinner in parts across 3 days as we havent felt like eating it as one big meal, but to cut costs I'm thinking:

I could buy slices of ham for Xmas eve, and just do ham, bread, piccalilli, cheese etc for that meal instead of the ham in the fridge for as long as it lasts.

Prawns can be bought individually by weight, for prawn cocktail starters.

Beef can be cut in half and frozen and split between the two meals, Christmas and nyd.

Any other genius cost cutting ideas?

Hey please don't cry… to me that sounds perfect!!!!

A present to share and play with together!

A chridtmas meal, chocolates and they get to build and eat there ginger bread creation! 😍 😍😍😍😍😍 get the Christmas movies on and music it will be one of their best Xmas’ ever no doubt!

Christmas really is what you make it. Time and energy to help do a gingerbread house is what your children will remember more than the food I guarantee!

Also do you have any support because the family hubs here distribute amazing hampers. School could put you on the list. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Life is tough for so many people at the moment.

Last year I toyed with the idea of getting a big pork shoulder, the cheapest cut of meat available where I live. I might well do it this year. It's delicious when slow roasted.

@EnchantedCastle i agree with posters on here. Focus on the memories too, look into free events like light switch ons and so on, online for easy Christmas crafts. Charity shops for a cheap second hand toy, book or dvd to wrap up. Although they aren’t very cheap nowadays you may find a bargain.

Also wanted to add there are many charities, community groups etc which around that time of year have help available even if it’s a bit of extra food or second a toy whatever. Please look at what’s available in your area.

They don't have those where I am. Its a 1kg ham or a 2kg ham. Last year they started at 18e and with the increase in prices this year, I really can see them being 25e.

Either size is fine for us, we eat it with bread and pickles, cheeses etc as meals or in sandwiches, and bits every time the fridge is opened 😂so it is always eaten, I'm just concerend about the costs of christmas week if every month is like this one.

Our costs increased with a few inevitable bills that have had to be added on plus I had to pay 120e at the garage, have an MOT this month that has to be paid for and a wedding to go to, but its been very tight, we've been living off 50e pw, and it suddenly occured to me how are we going to do our usual xmas shopping.

I'm going to withdraw 50e and put it away, every payday until xmas and leave it there ready for the christmas shopping, touching it will be non-negotiable, if savings have to be made like this month again, they will have to come from elsewhere.

I'm going to set up accounts on all the survey websites etc too and do those in the evenings, I'm looking for freelance admin work I can do in the evenings but nothing is happening there. I registered on airtasker but thats pretty useless so far.

Being a catholic family we are having fish on Christmas eve and more then likely eating out on Christmas day. I have cut back slightly on the spending and hopefully will be able to donate to church for the foodbank if I don't over do it. The presents I won't be over doing this year as I go overboard every year and the children hardly bother with the gifts so I'm being more intentional this year and adding gift cards for the cinemas/bowling/days out as these will be good during the Xmas holidays after Christmas and possibly some other holidays and weekends.

So the car failed it's mot and needs work and a retest so another month of extra, extra skint. I'm still going to try to put money away, I haven't done the budget for next month yet, I'll do that this week.

But I did just see something interesting from my local supermarket, I think it's a prepay card to be used in their stores, it's not a credit card, but you can load it in advance, pay at the end of the month or pay it off over time, so that might be an option in case of extreme emergency - but obviously I'd rather go without and have what we can physically afford than rack up debt.

We have chicken and the trimmings, I’d happily have steak which would be quicker and easier to cook tbh but dd requests a roast.

we have proseco and croissants ( frozen and cooked on the day) pain au chocolate for breakfast

roast for dinner around 3 pm and left overs as cold meat and bubble & squeek for a couple of days.

Christmas Eve we often have a Chinese for two but I may cook beef cheek and serve with mash.

it generally comes in at about £75 with nibbles, the takeaway, vegetables and Christmas fruit, a pudding etc

ill probably start shopping for bits at the beginning of December, that ways it makes it manageable.

we don’t go over board though as I don’t like waste or too much cooking

13 weeks I'm going to start buying one / two party food /crisp/ cake / biscuit items whatever on offer each week now that way I have sorted a small party table for me and DS for Xmas Eve and boxing day.

Other than that it will be a normal chicken roast but I'll do parsnips and sausages wrapped in bacon 👍

A tub of ice cream and I will get some wafers and sauce to jazz it up.

Won't be spending a penny extra.

Will get board games out which sadly we never play due to me working 40 hours plus, do a Xmas lights walk ( if there are any houses that can afford to do them!!) and not sure what else my ds is 11 now so all a bit different.

We cut a lot of the snacky food out the last couple of years, for health reasons, this year I'm glad for money reasons 😂

One year I started buying in advance and we still had things left in the 'christmas box' in April, so after that, we cut it right down. We'll buy a few bits but not go overboard.

Chocolates and crisps etc make me feel like shit so I'd rather spend the money on some slightly nicer cheese or a couple of different ones then I dont end up feeling ill.

We and the kids hate turkey always chicken or gammon and usually I buy those in other shops before Xmas and freeze so I know it's sorted out

Yes am scaling back. Focusing on baked ham and salads (we live overseas) and am keeping the children’s gifts simple and there will be less of them. I also have consumerism and the waste too

Rather than trying to save cash, you might be able to ring fence it by buying a joint now and freezing it. It’s easy to spend £50 but once it’s in meat form in the freezer you’re committed.

That’s without knowing what pressures you might be under.

I won't know how much is spare until the end of next week when all the bills are in and the mechanic has given me a price for the work on the car.

It is changing this year. DS and his girlfriend recently had a baby and usually alternate their Christmas time with her family and ours - they should have been coming up this year but with a three month old baby and very dodgy car have elected not to travel this year.
But we have been invited to DD's In laws for Christmas Dinner so will look forward to that and see what they want us to contribute - be it wine, chocolates, dessert or even chip in to the meat.
I will still buy us a Gammon joint - just because we love it - and can pick at it from Christmas Eve with egg and chips until it's all gone!! Seems wasteful to buy in all the sweets and things when as yet we have no other plans for other family visits. I don't eat chocolate and DH is pre-diabetic and shouldn't be eating them anyway but he won't care about that when it's Christmas. I do get in lots of bits for the freezer that can be baked so we can enjoy a few evenings of lots of little snacky bits - think sausage rolls etc and lots of M&S special treats to have with the occasional wine or beer. We're not big drinkers either - but Baileys is always good!! But DH will have to miss out on Bubble and Squeak this year!!
I had already been saving with Park for shopping cards for the GCs but as so many of the shops where you can use them seem to be closing down - will just start stashing the money in a savings account for next year.

We are absolutely skint, like many others, just about keeping on top of everything. I'll probably get slated for this but I'm going to buy 2 chicken dinner in foil cartons from ASDA. It's 2 for £8 and they each have a chicken crown (2 breasts), 2 sausages, 4 balls of stuffing and a sachet of gravy. Then Tesco currently have an offer of 3 for 2 on veg which includes their ready done roast potatoes. I'll freeze all these and buy their own make accompaniments, apple sauce, cranberry etc. Then I'll just do some carrots, frozen peas etc to go with it. I notice that just before Christmas, about now, they quite often have offers on bisto, sauces etc in the supermarkets. There's only 3 of us and I'm not a brilliant cook and we really are on a tight budget. I just couldn't afford £65 on a turkey, that's probably my whole budget. As long as you have a nice meal and are with the people you want to be with, or are happy alone etc You don't have to put yourself in debt, there's far too much pressure on people to create the "perfect" Christmas Dinner.

Gammon cooked in full sugar cola in the slow cooker is probably much cheaper than a ham and still delicious.

We actually do lasagne over Christmas for visitors as its a crowd pleaser and mince is cheaper. Garlic bread is a cheap filler and popular.

I do extra roast potatoes, pigs in blankets and loads of Yorkshire puddings. On Christmas day it's roast beef and a big roast chicken.

I'm not a seafood person but could you do a seafood cocktail with those surimi sticks rather than prawns? The sauce is the same?

This year I'll be cutting down on dessert choices, and the extra cheeses.

There are some great looking recipes for sweet yorkshires doing the rounds.biscof and banana etc

eggs and milk aren’t expensive to make a pudding

@Juliet55 your Christmas dinner sounds delicious I’d be very happy with it

@Wiglio thank you, that's very kind of you to say. I know it's not much by some people's standards but it's easy to cook and not badly priced compared to Turkeys and all the trimmings. Hope you have a nice dinner planned!

There is 3 or 4 of us for Xmas day and I don’t do a turkey. I did buy a chicken for a couple of years but now I go to the butchers. They do boneless chicken thighs wrapped in bacon with sausagemeat in the middle and you get about 6 for £10. Sainsburys food to order do similar but call them parcels and they are £20 for 4!

Our car needs replacing 🙄

We could use bank credit for a new one, but I suppose its back to hard living like last month to save as much cash as possible towards it, so we can borrow less.

I've put 50 away towards Christmas though and will do every month until then.

@AlwaysPrettyOnTheInside
OH NO . just what you need !
So sorry it's so tough at the moment. I have been there many times when I was younger and it feels like everything is stacked against you. But it won't always be so and life is ever changing so hold on in there.
And simply enjoy time together and v simple pleasures this year. It is v trite to say but really if you are with your nearest and dearest and all healthy and safe that really is all that matters x

Innit just.

Someone came up with the bright idea of telling my DH we can contact the car manufacturer dealership that is nearby and see if they can fix it. I personally have had enough of this car and want the one I've found, even if we will have to pay it off. I cant be doing with more investigations and uncertainty. I just want a car with a current MOT.

The issue is an evp or elp or evr or something filter, which apparently can be a known, unfixable issue with 1.4 engines of this age. It's carbon dioxide or monoxide emission is too high. According to the garage I took it to on Friday. They didn't have an emissions reader so couldn't do anything as they couldn't test.

I've told my DH he can call the manufacturers and find out if they can fix it, becuase I'm fully prepared just go and buy this new car and be done with it. Unfortunately, he's away in another country so the bullshit will fall to me, but I'm not doing it. I've had enough. The weeks of waiting for the MOT app (backlog here), and uncertainty of it passing and the costs to get it through near gave me a breakdown. It was givng me anxiety and making me agoraphobic, I was having issues leaving the house and driving the car. Since I had the MOT and it failed and I made the decision to credit card the repairs though, I've been ok.

But I cant deal with weeks of investigations and shite so I think I'm just going to buy this car and sorn the old one and if DH wants to investigate if it can be fixed when he gets back he can. I can't cope with it anymore.

I'm hoping if I draw down money on our bank credit (have used some) it will just extend our repayments for longer rather than increase the monthly payments. I'm not entirely sure how it works so I'll find that out before doing it.

I think we will be going more Lidl and less Booths. We usually get the turkey from the butcher and it's around the £35 mark but let's see what it is this year...