It is the most wonderful time of the year and everyone wants to enjoy a delicious Christmas dinner with their family and friends. But that doesn’t mean that you have to spend a lot of money on food.
This guide will provide you with some tips on how to cook a delicious dinner without spending too much money.
Switch your turkey for chicken
Turkey is traditionally the Christmas meal, but if you’re on a budget, chicken is the way to go to save big.
The price of turkey has risen significantly in recent years. This is why many people are opting for cheaper alternatives like chicken. Chicken can be bought much cheaper than turkey and it’s an easy alternative to turkey because it tastes just as good and has similar cooking times. Chicken also requires less preparation time, saving you some time as well as money.
Plan ahead for Christmas Dinner
Christmas happens every year, so planning ahead for your Christmas food shopping allows you to spread out the cost and make savings along the way.
Plan ahead and create a menu for the guests you are hosting at Christmas time and then create your shopping list based on this menu. It is far too tempting to keep adding things to your trolley when they look tempting, so by planning ahead and sticking to your list you will save money.
Buy ahead of the big day
You can start to buy your cupboard ingredients well before the big day – just make sure that your food won’t expire before then. You can also make use of the offers that you find whilst doing your weekly grocery shopping and stock up when you see a special offer.
You could also find freezable items if you have spare space in your freezer – for example, lots of meat can be frozen ahead of the big day.
Buy in bulk
If your budget allows it, and you have the extra space then buying in bulk can help you to reduce the cost of your Christmas food shop.
Use loyalty card points
If you have been using a supermarket’s loyalty card throughout the year then you might be lucky enough to have accumulated enough points to purchase some, or all of your Christmas food shopping using the points that you have earned throughout the year.
This could be a great challenge to set yourself for the following Christmas – to buy a certain part of your Christmas meal using loyalty card points. For example, you could aim to pay for your Christmas roasting meat of choice using your loyalty card points. Then throughout the year look for opportunities to boost your loyalty card points.
Ask guests to chip in for Christmas Dinner
Plenty of Christmas guests are happy to contribute to the festivities, so don’t be afraid to ask them to bring something along for the big day. From drinks to desserts, getting your guests involved helps you to not only share the cost but also spread the preparation work out.
Photo by Libby Penner on Unsplash
