THERE’S NO NEED to spend a fortune on food for the big day.
The main Christmas meal is actually relatively cheap to cook from scratch providing you plan ahead. Most supermarkets have fruit and vegetables on special this week. These will include brussels sprouts, carrots, potatoes, onions and citrus fruits and more than likely won’t cost more than €5 in total.
Your meats can be as expensive as you choose. For example, if you have a small family and aren’t all that bothered with a full turkey you can choose a breast of turkey or a boned and rolled turkey. One small whole turkey will be on special for about €7 in some leading supermarkets during Christmas week. You’d pay that much for a decent chicken. Do you eat ham on the big day? A small ham fillet will set you back a fiver. All in, if you’re on a budget you can have a slap up Christmas Dinner for a family for under €20.
Actually if you look at a shopping list for Christmas it’s the extras that are going to cost you a fortune (if you choose to buy them). Tins of biscuits, cakes, sweets, minerals, crisps, nuts, crackers, wine/beer, it all adds up and could double, or even treble your shopping budget for the day.
I don’t know what it is about the Irish psyche where we buy up half the shop in a panic on Christmas Eve because (the horror) the shops will be closed for a few days. At most the shops will be closed for two days and you have plenty of opportunity to get to the supermarket to pick up anything you’ve missed.
So with two weeks to go, I’ll spread the cost of my Christmas grocery shopping over the next couple of weeks so I don’t have an almighty bill to deal with just before the New Year.
Week 1 (10th – 17th December)
Pick up your tubs of sweets/biscuits this week. They’ve been steadily reducing in price since Hallowe’en and are now around the €6 mark in most supermarkets. They’re probably not going to reduce much further at this stage. If you have lots to buy, get half this week and half the next.
I’ll collect my ham this week and pop it in the freezer until defrosting the day before Christmas Eve. Unlike turkey, it can sometimes be easier to collect now rather than later on in the month.
Spuds. We all love them on our plate and it’s just not the same without a nice bit of mash and roasters. Potatoes will keep well once they’re kept in a cool dark place (not in the fridge) but they are also a great prepare in advance vegetable. I’ll peel, cook and mash some of my potatoes and then freeze them before the big day.
Onions also keep for ages, so again buy them and store them beside the spuds – not in the fridge either.
Breadcrumbs, if you make your own or buy them – either way get them into the freezer now. They don’t take long to defrost.
Preserves, chutneys and crisps are also not something that needs to be bought fresh. None of these need to be kept chilled so find a cool dark place to pop them. Likewise with minerals and alcoholic drinks.
Week 2 (18th – 24th December)
At this stage I’ll run down my fridge contents as much as possible to use up what I have until the 23rd December. Where possible I don’t go shopping on Christmas Eve. It’s mental!
It also means I’ll have extra space for the turkey, fresh fruit, and veg all of which will be bought this week.
On my shopping list also are dairy products like cheese, milk and cream and batteries in various different sizes, not forgetting eggs, bread, and possibly a grill for Christmas morning.
Bonus Points
From St Stephen’s Day onwards, the supermarkets will reopen and, providing you are canny, you can pick up party food that’s reduced (but still in date), along with more hams and turkeys that are reduced even further. Most of these items can go straight into the freezer (or oven) and will keep you fed on a budget for far longer than just one main meal. The year I managed to pick up a massive leg of ham for just €7 resulted in 20 family meals worth of ham in my freezer. Again jars of preserves and chutneys often have long use-by dates so you can stock up for Christmas 2015.
Caitríona blogs at wholesomeireland.com with a particular focus on living on a tight grocery budget. Her first cookbook “Wholesome – Feed Your Family Well For Less” is published by Mercier Press.
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