Thrifty Christmas food shopping
I make no apology that it’s too late for this Christmas, but many of these tips will save you a fortune in not only pennies but in stress.
As always with my blogposts, if you can add something that could be of use to someone else; please leave a comment!
With no exaggeration at all, today I purchased just over £300 worth of shopping and I didn't feel a thing. Honestly!!
How?
Firstly, because - as I have said time and time again - the 25th December happens at the same date every year. It's no surprise.
So I plan and prepare all year.
Today I cashed in my Coop stamp cards.
The Coop have stamps you buy for £1.
You fill a card with 48 and they give you £50 in return when you spend it in December.
I do this all year, in fact I make a plan to fill as many cards as I can.
This year I filled six.
So the Coop 'gave' me £12. For free.
And I really did not notice the little £1 spends over the year.
Each shop, I added on one or two savings stamps.
Simple!
Next: I bought nothing seasonal with my money.
What??!! I hear you cry! What did you spend your money on then??
My store cupboard.
The long term food stores for the two of us.
Tinned and jarred goods, frozen and dried foods.
To be specific; kilos of rice, gluten free pasta, lentils and chick peas. Tins of baked beans, potatoes, tomatoes and tomato purée.
Dried spices and cooking oil, packets of teabags and coffee, and long life soya milk.
The freezer is full of Quorn and vegetables.
It's my Christmas shopping.
And I heartily recommend it.
We don't eat wildly extravagant foods at Christmas - I make vegan Christmas cake and gf mince pies - but we love cooking at home each night and eating well together.
Dinner tonight is leftovers curry.
When we have food leftover from dinner it gets frozen. Because everything we eat is vegetarian, gluten and dairy free, it's easy to mix together. So the leftovers bag has vegetables cooked in different styles.
Tonight I defrosted the bag and added 2 tbsp curry powder.
Absolutely delicious!
My turkey is home. I use points at a supermarket to pay for it. 8000 points gives me a free turkey up to 7kilos. Works fine for us.
ReplyDeleteI cash in my airmiles and put the money towards our Eurofund for February. So far have $400 for the exchange.
Now that my boys have left home and started their own, I treat the Chrismas meal as a Sunday roast. No stress, no wild extras.
A very commonsense approach; that curry looks delicious! I've done the same recently so set for the new year. Have a nice Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI, too, espouse the idea that 12/25 comes around every year, so naturally it is a line item on my monthly household budget. This year, with unexpected early retirement, found me downsizing, including expenditure for Christmas. That said, since Jan, I have stashed away the monies needed to absorb my spending. Nothing extravagent, save DS's requested designer cologne, and nice gifts for my children and Mother-that is all I have on my list. Our Xmas day ham was bought during a heatwave back in August, when folks were clamoring for BBQ items at the meat counter. I paid a whopping $0.79/lb US. Sides will be the usual cupboard and pantry items, but a shrimp ring with sauce will join the festivities-enter Aldi for $6.999 vs paying $19.99 for a comparable one at the grocer's. Home cooked foods including holiday cookies and a rum cake. Xmas eve will be tourtiere (My family is French-Canadian), a pickle/olive tray (most home canned), Winter salad with preserved veg over Romaine with a homemade vinaigrette. It can be done very affordably. Credit card bills are as usual paid off in full. My actual shopping was completed before Thanksgiving, I am enjoying a very relaxed, stress free holiday season. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteIt looks absolutely delicious!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you all.
J x
I don't buy supermarket saving stamps but I do buy a little extra each week so then on the last week I just have to get some bread and anything I might have forgotten.
ReplyDeleteCarolx