No Christmas would be compete without at least one holiday meal. Of course there are also parties and socials to attend. Suddenly, you could be faced with a enormous grocery list that doesn't even include a single meal for your own family. Each year, we host my husband's family for dinner on Christmas Eve. We also contribute dishes to two or three additional family get-together. We bake a lot of gifts and we and/or our children attend a handful of activities where each person is asked to bring a snack food, appetizer or dessert. We manage to do all of these things without stressing over the expense by following these guidelines:
- Prior to Thanksgiving, stockpile items by purchasing items at the lowest price and combining sales with coupons. (See "Holiday Food Stock-Up" link at the top of this blog for this week's deals.)
- Center your Christmas meal around what you have purchased. Use your search engine to find recipes if needed. (i.e. "FREE -----recipe")
- Splurge on one or two family favorites to make the meal complete. For example, I know I will be preparing my grandmother's from-scratch yams and her Orange/Coconut cake. Even if coconut costs more than cake mix and chocolate frosting, I'm willing to pay more because these dishes are a tradition. When I choose vegetables to serve, I'll "shop" in my pantry or freezer.
- When planning on what to take to a party, consider what you have on-hand. Rather than thinking, "what would I like to fix", ask, "what can I fix without buying a lot of special ingredients". I am not encouraging you to unload your canned beets on your family and friends, only suggesting you look in your pantry and/or freezer and make a selection. If you have green beans, cream-of soup and Durkee onions, make green bean casserole rather than buying corn, condensed milk, flour and other ingredients for corn pudding.
- Use glass plates, cups, etc for parties to avoid the cost of disposables. This notion works best for smaller gatherings. I have enough "nice" dishes to accommodate our Christmas Eve dinner, however my guests would have to take turns eating (and washing dishes), if I tried this for a large gathering!
- Pick up clearance paper items for next year (up to 90% off). I usually find napkins and occasionally cups. Of course this is not an option if you are reading this post in November or December! Watch sales for plain red, white or green cups or plates. Add color by purchasing Christmas napkins at the Dollar Tree, although I have to admit these are stamped and be quite rough!
- Remember that the point of having a dinner or other social is to spend time with those you care about. Even if you budget prevents an elaborate meal, you can still have a wonderful Christmas.
