Are you sick of blowing your grocery budget on buying food for the holiday?
Well for years that has been the issue that I’ve had with cooking holiday dinner, the sheer cost of added supplies to my already tight shopping budget.
This year with my focus being on saving money more so than spending I’ve created a list of 5 ways to enjoy all those holiday dishes without the added cost to the budget.
#1- Cook Smaller Portions: The more you plan to cook the more supplies you must buy.
In order to save funds attempt to calculate how many people you are cooking for, and compare it to the serving size of the items you plan to cook.
This technique will make sure that you aren’t overly buying food, which you won’t need.
#2-Limit Your Menu to 3 or 4 Items: The more items you plan to cook, the more ingredients you need, and the more money you will spend.
If necessary talk with family and friends who will be attending dinner to find out their favorite holiday dishes.
Limit the menu to a few of those suggested items, this way everyone gets their favorite dish without breaking the grocery budget. On the flip side, you spend less time in the kitchen, and more time with family and friends.
#3-Arrange A Potluck: Who said the hostess has to do all the spending and cooking?
Potlucks are great ways to decrease the cost when cooking a holiday meal. Simply call up family and friends and assign everyone one main dish to cook.
Later meet up to enjoy the dishes created. This allows you all to focus on purchasing ingredients for one assigned dish, versus ingredients for several.
Hands down, in my opinion, this is the best holiday dinner money-saving tip EVER- share the cost.
#4- Shop Sales and Use Coupons: Purchasing items with coupons can definitely help to decrease the cost of cooking a holiday meal.
Coupons for many popular items can be found in your local Sunday Newspaper, and on websites such as Coupon.com, ibotta, and Check out 51 just to name a few.
Couple items which are on sale, with coupons to dramatically drive the cost down.
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#5-Simply Don’t Cook: Take this time to relax and enjoy a holiday meal out.
Many restaurants serve holiday meals which are just as awesome as grandma’s home cooking but without blowing the budget. Another way to cut cost would be to simply visit family and friends-eating alone the way.
These are five ways which have helped me save money on my grocery bill during the holiday season while still being in the presence of family and friends.
Tell me how you save during the holiday? Which clever tip have you tried or plan to try?
Hi Monique!
These are all great tips to save on food. I always love pot luck bc it limits the hard work and crowded kitchen!! It’s also very efficient.
Sometimes we make this fun and creative by asking people to only bring a one-color dish that fits the holiday theme. For example, on st Patrick’s day my friends would ask everyone to bring food that is green so it fits the holiday theme. So people would bring avocado dip, green salad pastas, or chicken pasta w/ pesto sauce, green salads, green tea ice cream, green fruit bowls, etc.
Overall this was a nice post! Thnx for sharing 😊
Thank you, so much for the feedback! I’m glad that you enjoyed reading my post. I must say that I love your creative way of doing potluck by having the guest bring one-color dish that fits the holiday theme. I’ve never thought to do that, but I will surely try this during our next gathering.
Thanks