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Tight budget? No worries! Cook a delicious festive family feast for less with these easy ideas for a Cheap Christmas Dinner!
The average Christmas dinner costs around £10 – 20 per head which is steep, and although it is a special meal, it doesn’t need to break the bank – It’s easy to keep your budget in check with the right changes.
Saving Money at Christmas, in general, is important, as you have to find the money for presents, decorations, outings and all the other expenses that come with the season, so keeping your festive feast as cheap as possible is important.
Cheap Christmas Dinner Ideas
I am crazy about Christmas and I do have to reign myself in as it can get very costly indeed, so here are 20 great tried and tested ways to save money on your Christmas Dinner without compromising on quality, taste or abundance…
1 – Make a list (and check it twice)
Once you have created your budget, start writing down everything you will need, including your starters, drinks, and dessert as well as the main dinner items.
That way you can do a fake online shop to see how close you come in on budget, and then you can see where you need to cut corners.
You can also mark items off the list as you buy them – remember to jot down a running total.
2 – Create a Budget
The very first thing you want to do is work out how many guests you have coming and how much realistically you can afford to spend per head.
And remember, once you have worked out your budget – stick to it!
This free Christmas Meal Plan & Grocery Budget Template can help you create your budget.
3 – Start a Christmas Savings Pot
My budget is around £150, and this includes all the food and drink I need for Christmas day for a family of 8.
I have a bank account entitled “Christmas 2024” and I transfer £3 per week starting from the first week in January.
This way I don’t even notice the money going out of the account and by Christmas week I have it there ready and waiting.
It’s also so handy for when I spot reduced items throughout the year that I can grab to pop in the freezer – it means the cash is ready!
4 – Split The Cost
If you have friends/family over for Christmas, ask them all to contribute. I have two sets of friends over every year (over 20 of us in total) and they both put £3 each in the savings account in January.
This way we have more than enough to buy all the food, soft drinks and alcohol for the day’s celebrations.
Some people get offended if you ask for contributions, but they’re the type of people you don’t need in your life!
5 – Ask For Contributions
If you don’t want to, or feel uncomfortable asking for a cash contribution, you could ask your guests to bring food contributions.
I would certainly start by telling them to bring their own alcohol and then delegate to them one item that will be needed such as the turkey, or a dessert.
It all helps to keep the costs down for the host and people generally don’t mind – we all know how expensive Christmas is.
6 – Buy Early
By shopping in advance you can pick up bits and bobs you need when they’re on offer and won’t notice the extra few £££s on your weekly shop.
This way is far better as you can purchase things that are reduced (and freezable) and won’t have the shock of paying for it all in one go just before Christmas.
7 – Get A Frozen Turkey
Don’t be a turkey! The price difference between a fresh and frozen turkey of the same weight is over 50% cheaper and let’s face it, they both taste the same as long it’s cooked to perfection – plus if your gravy is also delicious it helps.
You could even ditch the turkey altogether and opt for a large chicken to save a few £££s – I’m sure no one would notice!
8 – Peel Your Vegetables
It can be tempting to buy bags of ready peeled, ready chopped vegetables, especially when cooking for a lot of people but these pre-cut veggies cost a whopping 60-70% more than buying loose (unprepared) veg.
9 – Less Meat & More Sides
Vegetables
Most supermarkets now have ‘Veg Wars’ at Christmas time, meaning shoppers can now buy festive veggies for pennies.
Supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, and Lidl do a selection of prepackaged vegetables, with Aldi and Tesco coming in the cheapest at 15p per pack and the others following closely following behind at 19p per pack.
If you shop around you can easily get every veg you need in abundance for hardly anything.
Stuffing
You can also get Sage & Onion stuffing for as little as 30p per 100g, which is a ust-have side dish as any Christmas dinner.
Yorkshires
Home Made Yorkshire Puddings cost pennies to make and are always a firm favourite at Christmas. You can also get packs of 12 for less than £1 at most supermarkets.
Sauces
I purchase value brand sauces such as mint apple, cranberry and horseradish, then decant half the jar into pots, no one has a clue that they’re less than 50p per pot. Plus you have the rest to last all year.
You can then bulk up your Christmas dinner with the above options, rather than the more expensive choices such as meat fancy side dishes and pigs in blankets.
Check out these amazing Christmas Dinner Side Dish Ideas
10 – Borrow What You Can
Having a beautiful, matching table can be costly if you need to buy extra items to make them match, try asking around to see if you can borrow a few extra platters, plates or champagne flutes from friends/family who might not need to use them that day.
Post the request on your social media pages, you might be surprised who has matching items.
11 – Make Your Table Decorations
Instead of buying a costly centrepiece why not take the kids out to find some pine cones, spray them with some fake snow and a sprinkle of glitter and place them in a bowl, they will look great on the table and the kids will be so pleased you are using their artwork.
12 – Shop Savvy
When it comes to your supermarket shop, avoid stores such as Sainsbury’s and Waitrose which can be up to 25% more expensive than the likes of Tesco and Asda.
You can save even more if you shop at budget supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi – or even better, shop at them all, choosing the offers only at each store to make the most of your budget.
13 – Make Your Own Gravy
This should go without saying, but when you’re cooking a full roast dinner, 90% of the gravy’s ingredients are there at your disposal.
Take advantage of the fat from the meat, the water from the vegetables and all you need to purchase (if you don’t already have it in your cupboard) is some flour and a few oxos.
14 – Swap Champagne for Bucks Fizz
You don’t need to buy expensive Champagne for your guests – even to make the Bucks Fizz! A cheap sparkling white wine such as prosecco is perfectly acceptable.
You can even buy ready-made bottles of Bucks Fizz in local supermarkets for as little as £2 per bottle.
You should also wait until the popular 25% off 6 bottles of wine deal to stock up if you’re buying a few bottles.
15 – Do it Buffet Style
By letting everyone serve themselves, not only are you making it easier on yourself but you are not serving up too much food or items that people won’t eat.
Everyone knows what they like more, so by providing a carvery style meal, you’re increasing the chances of leftovers. (which is a good thing)
16 – Use the Leftovers
If you box up and save the leftovers, rather than throwing them all in the bin, you’ll have made savings by having a free tea or lunch the next day.
The meat can be used for a curry or sandwiches at tea time when your guests are peckish, or you can even box up some roasts for another day.
And let’s not forget the boxing day Bubble & Squeak with all that left over veg!
17 – Don’t go Crackers
No Christmas dinner table is complete without Christmas crackers!
Some are expensive and no one ever keeps the stuff inside, so opt for a cheaper box from home bargains or B&Ms – a 12-pack of luxury full-size crackers costs just £2.99 and you can get them in a variety of colours to suit your table theme.
18 – Buy Surplus & Short-dated Food
Check out Approved Food to see what items they have in stock that can be used for your Christmas feast.
The website sells food at a reduced price because it’s surplus or near or just past its sell-by date.
19 – Mask Your Mince Pies
For dessert, instead of fancy gateaux, why not try out a festive platter? You can pick up value mince pies for around 50p per pack and once laid out on a tray, with a sprinkle of icing sugar, who’s to know they are a value brand?
There are plenty of other small, picky desserts you can put on the platter, particularly in Iceland which are less than £1.
Decorate the platter with a sprig of holly or a few of those pine cones the kids made and it will look great!
20 – Coupons & Voucher Codes
You can find coupons in magazines, newspapers, and even online, start in January, and keep anything you might use for your Christmas roast.
You can also get voucher codes for lots of online Grocery Delivery companies, such as Amazon Fresh, Waitrose, Iceland, and Morrisons, that offer new customer discounts which will help you save even more cash.
Here’s 10 Ways to Make your Entire Christmas Cheaper
Bon appetite!
As always, if you know of any other great ways to save money on the year’s most important ‘festive feast’, please let us know in the comments below…
