Xmas entertaining on a budget - help!

[Madmog]

Can anyone give me some ideas for xmas entertaining on a limited budget. We'll have a couple of xmas meals (one xmas day and one with MIL), teatime family thing and a couple of lots popping in to open prezzies.

DH has checked our money for the next couple of months and we haven't got a lot left, so ideally would want to keep xmas food within normal food budget. Luckily I have wine I bought on offer, a stolen cake and some crisps already.

Are you keen on cooking? Very easy/cheap to make mini/large quiches, cheese straws, profiteroles, jam tarts etc Pastry is essentially butter and flour so costs very little (and tastes yummy!)

Ask people to bring something for the buffet where you can - people love to make or choose xmas goodies so I'm sure they'll be pleased to contribute x

Thanks for your reply. I'm more a main meal cook, but could do something like a quiche (DD would probably be quite happy to make some cheese straws). Have loads of flour, so don't need to buy that which is good.

Some lovely recipes and other foodie ideas on this bbc Xmas collections link, including budget ones -
See here

Fawn, thanks for the link. Have had a brief look on there and found some good possibilities.

You can make a big batch of chicken liver pate quite cheaply - chicken livers are v cheap. Goes brilliantly with cold meat buffet and lasts a good few days.

I'd do two chickens rather than a turkey on the day itself, way cheaper.

....and in place of smoked salmon, I'd do another pate - either smoked mackerel or smoked salmon using the basics trimmings.

Japanese rice crackers, philadelphia & sweet chilli sauce is quick easy cheap, looks good & most importantly is yummy!

sausage rolls are a cheap filler from Iceland