How to spend less on Christmas food and drink

Save money on your festive favourites

From big turkeys to posh chocs – Christmas is a time to over-indulge. So how do you enjoy your festive feast, but get the best value possible? I’ve got a few ideas.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

Make a list

Really basic, but it’s the best money saver. Once you know who’s coming over for Christmas, work out exactly what you’ll need, and write it all down. Don’t forget to check your cupboards and freezer for any ingredients you already have.

This is much better than just buying more than you need, which will not just cost you more money but could end up as unused leftovers.

Not sure how much to buy for Christmas dinner? Checkout this portion guide from BBC Goodfood – it will help you know exactly how much food you’ll need to buy.

Hunt for bargain veg

To entice you into their supermarkets, last Christmas many retailers sell vegetables for pennies in a Christmas veg price war.

We’ll update you here when we hear who is entering into this year’s festive veg price war!

Frozen or fresh – you decide

Frozen turkeys are cheaper than fresh, so you could save money on one of your most expensive Christmas purchases – only if you have a large enough freezer to store it and you’re willing to put up with the faff of defrosting on Christmas eve!

You can also buy it early which can help spread the cost of Christmas

And speaking of frozen, this year Iceland are offering a Luxury Christmas Dinner for four for just £25. That’s lunch sorted for only £6.25 per head.

Go own-brand

For those non-priorities, you can spend less by trying own-brand versions. For example, you might always buy a bottle of Baileys at Christmas, but most supermarket own-brand versions taste exactly the same – but cost a lot less. 

And own-label mince pies are nearly half the price of the well known cake brands, and by the time you’ve consumed dinner and had a glass or two of Baileys, you won’t know who’s mince pie you’re eating!

Avoid festive packaging

Often you’ll find something is branded with Christmas packaging, but there’s a normal alternative available on another aisle that’s either cheaper or better value.

Having different prices for what is essentially the same product can be confusing. Take pigs in blankets from Waitrose. The standard pack of 12 costs £5.25 for 12, whilst the Christmas branded pack is £6 for 12. But the Christmas pack is on a 3 for 2 offer, so depending on how many you need, could work out cheaper!

Ditch selection packs

It’s quite rare that someone enjoys all the biscuits in a Christmas tin, all the chocs in a festive box or all the crackers in a bumper cracker selection.

These selection packs more often than not work out more expensive than buying individual packets, so unless it’s in a pretty tin and you want to give it as a gift, you might want to stick to the individual packets instead, as once they’re out of the packet and on a serving plate, you wouldn’t know if they were from a festive pack or not.

To put this into perspective, the Jacob’s Festive selection box of crackers is currently £4 for 450g in Tesco (Clubcard price), whilst Tesco’s own-label cream crackers cost just 49p for 300g – that’s 73p per 100g cheaper.

Book your online delivery slot

Slots are bookable at all the major supermarkets, with some releasing extra Christmas delivery slots nearer to Christmas. So you haven’t missed out on all the available slots yet.

And don’t forget, if you want to avoid the crowds there’s always lots of ‘click and collect’ slots left, nearer to Christmas.

Wait for some reduced deals

If you can hold your nerve, then the day before Christmas is one of the best days of the year to snap up clearance food, including turkeys, vegetables and fresh gateaux. 

Since many shops will shut on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day, there’s a lot of food that will need to be cleared from the shelves.

But like the clearance section most evenings in supermarkets, you can never count on getting what you want.

It’s obviously a risk buying your turkey discounted on Christmas Eve, so if that’s too much of a gamble, then you can always buy what you need in advance and use Christmas Eve to shop for bargains you can freeze for other celebrations like New Year or even Easter. 

And don’t forget, after the festivities are over, you’ll often find crackers, wrapping paper and cards reduced to clearance, so if you have room in your loft, then stock up on those Christmas essentials for the following year.

Use your leftovers

Turkey sarnies, turkey curry, turkey soup, turkey stir-fry…just think Bubba in his famous shrimp recital in the Forest Gump movie! It’s possibly the one time of year where we actively enjoy using up leftovers. 

There are so many helpful recipe ideas online including this selection at Olive, that there’s no excuse to let any Christmas food go to waste. 

And if your fridge is packed to the rafters like mine is at Christmas, just make note of the use by dates  so food doesn’t go to waste.  If you don’t think you can finish it before the use-by date, just remember, many Christmas goodies can be frozen, including foods like cheese, mince pies and cake.