Walletpop has 7 tips for saving money on your Christmas dinner; here’s a summary, with a few of our own thoughts:
- Plan early – you should hopefully already know how many you’re going to be cooking for and can start to get your ingredients. This helps both to spread the cost and also means you shouldn’t find yourself paying through the nose for that key part of your meal on Christmas Eve.
- Try pot luck dinner – get everyone to chip in in whichever way they want. It will probably mean you end up with 7 bottles of Blue Nun, but hey, it’s Christmas, and what better way to get through the day than by being sozzled.
- Ask your guests to pay – this can be a little awkward, but if people realise how much money it costs to do a Christmas dinner (as well as the time and stress), they should be willing to help out. You could always ask them to buy different ingredients a few days before the meal.
- Buy chicken instead of turkey – let’s face it, does anyone really mind if you substitute the turkey for a chicken (and more importantly, will any of the tell once they’ve had a skin-full of Bailey’s?). You can get quite a few chickens for the price of a single turkey, and because they’re smaller they are also easier to cook.
- Go for another type of meat – more and more people are choosing other types of meat for Christmas Day, and this is another way to save money. It also stops people suffering from turkey overload, as they’re likely to have been subjected to it for the preceeding month anyway.
- Make your own crackers – crackers were in danger of becoming a rediculously over-priced affair, and you can still get some with extremely extravagent gifts at silly prices, but there are also some decent presents to be had in some of the cheaper crackers (try the supermarkets, pound shops and Wilkinsons) too. For a more personalised and possibly cheaper alternative, you could make the crackers yourselves.
- Buy your wine in bulk – go to a wine wholesaler instead of the supermarket to get the best deals on booze. If you’ve got a local Threshers or Wine Rack that is soon to close down, there might be some bargains to be had  from there if there’s anything left (our local Threshers is selling cases of beer and bottles of wine at around 60% of its original price. OK, they were probably overpriced compared to supermarkets in the first place, but you still might be able to find some bargains).
What are your tips for having a cheap Christmas dinner (don’t say “don’t invite the family”)? Let us know in the comments below.
photo credit: tsuacctnt