Finding the chase and cutting to it

December is one of “those months”. I am aware of families who take months to recover from the increased costs incurred, but actually, much of the fun a delivered for very little.

Presents.

A small something to unwrap is lovely, but when you get to be an adult, it’s just stuff. Lending a hand in the kitchen for the feast is worth any number of fancy presents!

A beautifully packaged chocolate or cake, especially if made by the gifter really is worth much more…

Children don’t need many gifts – even the stocking can be kept simple for little ones, tasty fruit, gift wrapped traditional sweets are thoughtful but not expensive. Saving a few pounds a month for a single larger gift is really appreciated. Children just love the family getting together and playing games.

Commercialisation of Christmas has made it a multimillion pound gift-fest. The important thing is being together and having a good time, gifts cannot give you that.

Food.

For the past six months, I had been buying odd things ready for the Christmas feast. Frozen veg, materials for the stuffing, wine, potatoes, gravy, for example, can all be got before the big day.

Our food bill over December was larger by £30 – which is £6 a month put away.

I cook most things from scratch. Vegetables are all plain and frozen by us. This can save a good £30 on the meal.

The majority of the vegetables are served plain. The turkey is served with sauces and stuffings, so nothing else needs to be done that way. I cheated this year and roasted most of the side dishes, only the leeks, a few sprouts (for bubble and squeak) and peas were boiled, so we had water for the gravy at the end of the cooking process.

For four people, you only need two baby cauliflower – it’s a side dish not the main course. Two of the people had that baked with cheese sauce. Cool, but again, residual heat from the turkey not a separate oven.

The big cost for us was the turkey. Shop around. A well cooked turkey, with time to rest, can come in at significantly cheaper.

I do not buy any meals for the next week. It’s left over city. The turkey died. I am not about to put anything to waste if I can help it! The previous post shows what can be achieved.

OK, OK, so what did it cost you?

I am going to exclude the things we already had or were gifted – our guests brought the wine, for example. £160 in total or £40 a head. The turkey itself was £72 of that. We had turkey (4.95kg) cooked in bacon, pigs in blankets, chestnut and sausage meat stuffing, peas, leaks, cauliflower (half as cauliflower cheese), sprouts roasted with bacon and chestnuts, roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots, cougettes, bread sauce, some plain boiled sprouts, cranberry sauce, redcurrent with ruby port sauce, and gravy.

And a christmas pudding, brandy butter (home made), whipped cream.

You’re living in cloud cuckoo land, that’s a fortune!

Agreed, it’s a huge amount of money.

But if I’d bought the stuffings and precooked vegetables, pre-made sauces, it would have been another £30-40 on top and with less opportunities for left-overs. If I’d shopped around for the turkey, ones the same size could have been got for significantly less (Aldi does one the same size for £16) (which would bring my total down to £104 or £26 per head). To be fair, I could have spent more on the turkey…

Even before the big day, we made a difference. The honey roasted ham was less than a fiver (the same price as a chicken), and we fed 9 meals out of it – a “prepped” honey roast ham from Waitrose is £12.50 and for significantly less meat. Our ham was cooked with locally sourced honey, £0.80 a jar of Suffolk Honey bought four years ago.

That’s not counting the communial spirit, either. We all helped on Christmas day and when cooking the ham; everyone, under the age of 70, cooking one thing.

Which meant we were all in the kitchen, so the rest of the house didn’t need much heating.

Not everything went smoothly – the cauliflower cheese was a reach and a little undercooked. Which was a shame because I could have done just two caulis and it would have been perfection.

So, there’s always an ancedote given for free! Same time, same place, next year…