Like most other people, this Christmas, a new worry was added to the already long list. How are we going to afford Christmas dinner? A typically lavish meal in a cost of living crisis is usually reserved for the Tories! So to settle my own worries and help you out, I’ve put together a list of things essential for the roast dinner and where to find them cheapest. At the end, I’ll tally everything up so in black and white, you can add it to your christmas budget!
So, what is essential for a Christmas dinner? Turkey, potatoes, stuffing are all things that would definitely be on my plate come christmas day. I’m not the biggest fan of veg but my family definitely is so I’ll be adding that onto the list. As well as sides such as pigs in blankets and yorkshire puds, it can definitely add up. For this list, I’ll be pricing for my family aka a family of five, so please bear that in mind as you read.
Let’s start with the turkey, arguably the biggest and most important part of the Christmas dinner! The prices vary for frozen and fresh turkeys but the cheapest is Aldi’s frozen Turkey Breast Joint which you can either have with stuffing or without stuffing.
The frozen serves five and costs £5.29
Fresh comes a bit more expensive with £13.49 for a small which feeds ‘3-7 people’ according to the website so hopefully it would stretch to my family of five.
We can do vegetables quite quickly, again, the majority from Aldi
Maris Piper Potatoes (the ones my mum swears by and I am not going to question her judgement) are £1.49 for 2.5kg in Aldi
For things like peas, carrots and sweetcorn you can buy frozen mix for £1.75 (640g) or individually
Carrots – £0.24 for 500g (about 4 or 5 carrots)
Peas – £0.85 for 900g
My partner is weird and likes broccoli so I’ll add that onto the veg list too
One floret is £0.69 in ASDA
So, so far we are up to £8.80 for turkey, vegetables and roast potatoes! Next let’s deal with the rest of the sides, yorkshire puddings, stuffing, pigs in blankets and gravy.
Yorkshire puddings are 50p for 15 in both ASDA and Aldi so that’s an easy buy. For stuffing, you can get branded ‘Quixo’ stuffing for 43p a packet (which makes 12 stuffing balls) or if you want cheaper, Asda has their yellow packet stuffing for just 25p (for 6 stuffing balls).
Pigs in blankets are one of the more expensive items on the list, so feel free to leave these out if the budget doesn’t stretch that far. Aldi does a pack of 12 for £1.99 so for 5 people I’d end up getting two, which equals to £3.98!
Last but definitely not least on this list is gravy! Usually we go for a beef gravy so that’s what I’ll be looking for. Again, if your budget allows it, Aldi’s branded ‘Quixo’ gravy granules come to 95p but if you prefer saving that little bit, Asda’s now iconic yellow packet gravy comes to just 32p.
All in all, the total (using the cheapest ingredients) comes to a whopping
£13.85!
Please remember that this is for a family of 5 and tailored to what I usually eat on Christmas day. Looking back on the research I’ve done definitely makes me feel a bit more at ease for dinner at Christmas and I hope it helps you all too.
Stay safe and warm all, and happy holidays!