Did You Enjoy Your Christmas Dinner?

Well Happy Christmas one and all.

For most of us, the dinner is the main event, particularly after the Childhood present frenzy has left us.

In the last few days, in most of the National Newspapers, there has been an article about a grandmother of 4 who charges her family £35 per head for Christmas dinner (booze included).  

I was a little taken aback,  I know as a frugal person that to share the cost of Christmas is a very sound thing to do and I do applaud that, however personally I prefer a Jacobs Join kind of affair where everyone brings a dish but if people prefer not to, to just share the actual cost of ingredients is grand and not to make a profit.  Article from one of the papers below

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7824191/Grandmother-charges-family-35-head-Christmas-dinner-says-120-profit-preshtml 

What concerned me was, and if you are to believe reports, she makes a £150 profit from this from 12 of her nearest and dearest.  I have a problem with this, but I also do question her actual costs and if that figure is in itself accurate?   Based upon the Maths and again if its how its reported, which may not be the truth, it works out at (after deducting her profit) her actual cost being £22.50 per head. 

I looked at the picture of her Christmas dinner below and I was quite frankly aghast.  Unless each person drinks at least 4 bottles of wine each I can’t see where the money is spent? 

Her dinner and I don’t mean to disrespest anyone but if I was served that, which looks like frozen Yorkshire puds with Paxo stuffing and frozen peas and hardly any meat and with a dribble of gravy I would send it back.

So I just want to show you an actual homemade and frugal Christmas Dinner (apologies I forgot to take photos of the puds but they were drowned in Brandy Sauce so all you would see was white) which came in at £5.54 per head using quality products and frugal tips. 

So our starters

Homemade Smoked Salmon Mousse Parcels with a little side salad of cherry tomatoes, spring onion and balsamic glaze with 3 pieces of Tesco’s French Toast came in for 44p per portion.  Admittedly due to sister making the salmon starter in return for 12 of my mince pies which cost me £5.90 to make so cost me in actuality 94p per portion.

Homemade Chicken and Ham Terrine (recipe courtesy of Slimming World and so flavoursome and meaty) with a little side salad of cherry tomatoes, spring onion, a few pickles and balsamic glaze came in for £1.74 per portion with two thick whopping slices of terrine plentiful for any starter. 

Main Meal

We don’t like Turkey so I bought a medium chicken from Tesco’s for £2.95 cooked to perfection it turned out uber Moist.  A gammon joint (which I glazed in Honey) was £2.99 ( noting I still have lots of meat for sandwiches even after the main event.  I bought I bag of Tesco’s Redfearn Carrots and Parsnips for 19p each (Made carrot and swede mash), Potatoes, for £1.59 which provided loads for both Mash and roast potatoes and still left over.  A cauliflower for 29p (Made cauli cheese).  

Sausages (quality Irish sausages 12 for £2). Finest Tesco’s Streaky Bacon 12 Slices again for £2, ends up with whopping pigs in blanket for 34p each (don’t do the little chipolatas).  Stuffing (no paxo involved ! purely pork meat, herbs, onions, breadcrumbs, seasoning) free from Sister.  Gravy granules (bisto finest well it is Christmas, 25 per head) .  The actual cost of the main meal – photo below turned out to be £2.98 per head.

Dessert

Christmas Pudding courtesy of Iceland it was a great pudding soaked in Cider, brandy and Sherry and was really lush, boozy, fruity and moist for just £1.19 and will feed 4 people,  Topped off with 500ml, (again for 4 people more than enough) of Brandy Sauce at £1.25 per pot.  Dessert ends up being 61p per head.

So for a fabulous 3 course meal and a couple of things I bartered and exchanged my homemade goodies for (which I've included my costs for ) actual cost a total of £5.54 per head, and I don’t mean to be bitchy but I think my Christmas dinner looks better than the photo the papers provided and everyone thought tasted fabulous with very full bellies. 

So where did her other £30 per head go? It is reported that this includes booze and other things but crikey unless you have 12 alcoholics around your dinner table,  I can’t fathom how its spent and I personally would be a little disgruntled if any family member of mine tried to charge me £35 for a dinner?   

So what I would say is you can have a fabulous, lush, indulgent and quality Christmas meal for little cost;  you just have to be a savvy shopper and also share your skills with friends/family.

 

Perhaps if she did a Jacobs Join as I mentioned above and other members of her family brought a dish, even if they can’t cook, bring some wine or cheese etc,  you can have a lovely family meal and with booze without it costing an earth and certainly not everyone having to find £35 each. 

Fair Exchange Is No Robbery

My sister and I have our own skills, I like to think we are both great cooks, we are each other's harshest critic and wouldn’t think twice of ripping our culinary attempts to shreds (ha, ha) the fact that we both survive unscathed is real testament.

We have however our strengths, mine is primarily baking not just sweet but savoury (my sausage rolls are legendary)  hers is wholly savoury.

So in exchange of my homemade mince pies (pastry recipe courtesy of Paul Hollywood, really rich butter pastry and the lightest and most delicious I’ve ever tasted, its really hard to handle due to the amount of butter but its worth it).   Mince meat courtesy of me, lots of fresh orange zest and brandy and mixed spice hic.  

In return I get several smoked salmon starters which is her homemade salmon mouse wrapped in smoked salmon like a little parcel, as well as the meatiest pork, sage and onion stuffing.   

To buy the quality of Salmon starter and stuffing that she provides me would easily cost £18 in the shop.  The mince pies I make her from a bakers (obviously you can get cheaper pre packaged pies from the supermarket for a snip at the price, but not the size and quality) could easily cost you £12.  However costs me £5.90 to make.  I really feel I’m up on the deal ;) , so share your skills and save some cash 

Make It Yourself and Save Pounds

We have four graves which we visit at Christmas of parents and grandparents we have sadly lost.  My hubby likes to lay a Christmas Wreath as a mark of respect and in previous years I have bought these.  This year I looked in our local garden centre where they were retailing for a startling £26.99 each yikes.  Even the cheapest at Aldi which I didn't like as it was a bit too jazzy were retailing at £9.99 each.

So I decided to bite the bullet and make my own.  I bought 4 rattan wreath rings from Ebay at 99p each and used foliage, holly and berries from our garden.  I am lucky in that respect, we have a very mature garden with big evergreen hedges, trees, bushes and shrubs and 3 very large holly and berry bushes which look lovely at this time of year. 

I bought 2 oranges and sliced these and put them on a baking tray on a low heat in the oven for 2.5 hours to dry them out.  I added a bit of old ribbon (I always save ribbon and wrapping paper etc from any gifts we get over the years) and e voila my own hand made, home made wreaths.  For a bit of my time and at a cost of £1.14 each, £4.56 for all four.  Hubby is delighted and I have to say so I am I, I've made 4 for half the price of one of the cheapest ones I could find, now that's a saving. 

Deck the Halls ......

Well this time of year can be a financial minefield.  Stores are bursting with goodies and if you were to believe the adverts, you can’t have a great time without spending oodles of money.  I once was hooked in, ship, line and sinker when it came to Christmas.  I could easily spend a couple of thousand on gifts, decorations, food, drink, entertaining, new outfit, parties.  Crickey it was a lot. 

So can you have a cracking time and still be frugal?   Of course you can, because somewhere along the line some of us in this consumerist age have lost the true meaning of Christmas and with just a little bit we can have a cracking time. 

Today we decorated the house, we used to buy a real tree (hubby wanted to this year but I said no (I know how mean) I’d buy a real wreath for the door, I would always buy different decorations etc and a few hundred pounds later…..

This year however it has cost us zero, as we have decorated the house with all our old decorations, 2 artificial trees (which I bought in the sale years ago) and an artificial wreath I’ve used year after year. 

It really doesn’t have to cost much, I have made decorations in the past, and if you’ve got little ones it’s a great activity on the run up to Christmas.  I’ve embedded a link to making decorations from recycled materials again no / little cost.  http://diytotry.com/25-christmas-decorations-made-with-recycled-materials/

So reuse, recycle, make and mend.  Your home may not look like the inside of a glossy magazine but it will be fabulous and it will be you. 

Getting my craft on

Well the weather is a little milder today, just a tad, so I wrapped up warm and ventured into my workshop in the garden, just a fancy shed.  A colleague of hubby sells homemade bags using old curtain material at craft fairs and sells my cards as well.  I gave her a box full for last weekend and they went down a storm and she asked for some more for this weekend at another Christmas Craft Fair she’s attending.  I make these as a hobby mainly and its cheaper than buying cards for friends and family, it is also a little bit of pin money, not a huge amount but pays for my hobby and allows me to buy crafty stuff.

I really need to tidy up my crafting area just been so busy making so much on the run up to Christmas.  I know no excuse ;) 

My messy Crafting area, making my Christmas Stocking Cards

Pricing up my Heart Tree Cards and my Scandinavian Heart Cards 

Gingerbread Man Wooden Tree Decoration

Felt like work today ;) perish the thought.  

Budget Booze

Now to be completely frugal I should be tee total but life is short and I have to be honest that I do like the odd glass of wine or two on a Saturday evening whilst watching Strictly on the telly.  I was also thinking of Christmas and New Year with friends coming over.

Now my favourite wine costs £9 a bottle (I know very expensive tastes), you can buy a perfectly nice Chardonnay in Aldi for £4.99 and that is what I usually do.  However it is Christmas and I thought I would treat myself to my favourite as it is smoother and tastes so much more lush but £9 is a tad steep.

However Tesco currently have it on offer at £7 a bottle and if you buy 6 bottles or more they also have a 25% off deal at the moment so I did treat myself and got my £9 wine for £5.45 a bottle. Whilst still 46p a bottle more expensive than the very palatable Chardonnay on offer at Aldi the quality is worth it.  

It is a treat at a much discounted rate.  I no longer go mad at Christmas and will detail my spends in a later blog.  We will have a great Christmas Lunch with homemade Christmas Cake and homemade mince pies.  Not going too mad and keeping spends in check but we will be well fed and a little merry and so the budget booze I've stocked up on I don't feel too guilty about. 

Not the C word again!

First of all thank you so much for your kind messages, they meant a lot xx

Now regarding the C word - Yep I know I should be banned lol but you can’t say I didn’t warn you J.  Last night I was reviewing my gift spreadsheet, this is the spreadsheet where I record the stock inventory of my gift cupboard and I list all the people I need to buy for and try and match gift to person.  I also list what I need to buy or make, obviously as frugally as possible.

One of my favourite gifts to give are hampers (not just for Christmas) which can cost anything from £5 upwards.  The sum of their parts are far less than the final gift and I will share with you one of my tried and tested ones, my girls night in survival kit.  The great thing about this one is that you can tailor it for any age or interest.  The one I will be doing for my sister will contain the following

A magazine – now you can buy one or if you have a friend or colleague who does, you can recycle J so this can cost you anything from zero to about £3.99.  However for example woman magazine is £1.80 

A Bottle – again depends on your budget and the favourite tipple of your recipient for my sister I will put in a can of the made up Gin and Tonics that the supermarkets do which at Tesco’s are currently £1

Chocolate – large bar of favourite chocolate currently on sale £1

DVD – you can either recycle, check out poundland and home bargains – I have picked up sex and the city 2 for £2.99 – sister saw the first and loved it but never got around to seeing the sequel. 

Now as I say you can spend as little or as much as you want, if I had found a DVD at poundland this would have been well under a fiver, rather than £6.79. 

Another hamper could contain some bubble bath, a face pack, a candle, magazine and chocolate and again you can get it in for around the £5 mark dependent upon where you shop etc  

You can either put these in a pretty box, basket or gift bag (I keep all packaging and recycle) and as I say the total effect looks far more expensive than the sum of its parts.  I also attach a label with the following message – my feeble attempt at poetry, no copyright so please feel free to plagiarise J 

"In this parcel you will find

Some essential goodies to ease soul and mind

When you need to be pampered, need time to simply be

Dive into your girls night in survival kit, with lots of love from me xxx "

As I get towards Christmas and I start making up my hampers and I will take lots of photos to share. 

Christmas?... May?.... Are you mad?

Yes, yes and yes.  My Christmas planning starts in earnest end of April / May, to be honest Christmas, squirrelling out gifts etc is a 12 month, full-time job and I love every minute of it lol.

The reason for this is I buy gifts for 44 people! – I know its mad, a lot of these are children, nieces, nephews, god children, then very close relations and a few friends plus thank you gifts for the staff who work jolly hard that both me and hubby manage in the day job. 

I hit the sales as soon as Christmas Day is over, re-stocking my gift cupboard, I look out for sales, discounted gifts throughout the year, as the closer you get to Christmas the price on everything rises; I make my own cards; I save wrapping paper, gift bags, packaging from the previous Christmas and recycle; use my imagination; make some things and keep it as low cost but still generous of heart as much as possible. 

Over the months I will be sharing my top tips for a frugal Christmas, Frugal gift ideas, recipes, decorating etc, I’m no expert and I know I could do so much better, but I'll share in any case J.  So please forgive me mentioning the C word as early as May – ho ho ho

Christmas Card Making

I have had a day’s leave today to childmind my doggie (lol) my lovely parents (mummy and daddy bear) are on holiday in America visiting my sister and family.  They childmind our darling cavachon two days per week, therefore I have taken a couple of days off this week so as not to break her routine too much and keep her company, although she spends most of the day sleeping I’m sure she does so more contented knowing that I’m here.  So I have spent a couple of lovely hours Christmas Card Making, all the cards cost 5p each and are made by recycling previous years cards sent to us and dismantling other cards saving little gems, ribbons and other embellishments, plus using some card making kits which I've been given as gifts.  Gallery of what I’ve made today below J