The BBC recently claimed “the lowest price for an acceptable Christmas for a low-income family with two children is £182.” That includes presents. It seems like a tough target, but here are a few easy tricks to keep costs down, at least for food:

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Plan ahead

When I was a student, everyone ate Sainsbury’s Basics food most of the year, and then went wild at Christmas. Once, my flatmates went round the supermarket buying just about everything Christmassy they could find, which was about half the stock of the shop. They even got duck fat. The bill came out as only slightly less than Nasa’s annual budget. So my advice is – plan ahead. Decide what you need, then go and buy it.

Avoid Turkey

When demand for something goes up, the price generally rises, particularly when demand is ‘inelastic’ – ie, people don’t care how much it costs. Many people think not eating turkey at Christmas makes the baby Jesus cry, so will eat it whatever the price.

As turkey isn’t that nice anyway, why not save money by eating something else? Within reason, of course – cheese and onion pasties simply won’t do, even if they are Tesco’s Finest.

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Serve food on small plates

This is a neat psychological trick. People judge portion sizes partly by how full the plate is. Use small plates, and you can get away with serving less food. People might ask for seconds, but that isn’t a problem – if they ask for more, they’ll at least eat it. This is much better than serving dump-truck-loads of food to everyone, then seeing most of it left at the end.

Have a lot of people over

This may seem counter-productive – it’s more expensive to cook for ten than it is to cook for five. However, it’s not twice as expensive, because you can bulk-buy food, and cook it all together.

You will spend more money this way, but not a great deal more. Also, guests will generally bring a bottle of wine each, and possibly one or two gift hampers. Unless dinner is a disaster, you should get invited to Christmas dinner at one of your guests’ houses next year. So in the long run, you could save a fair bit.

Skip traditional foods

People sometimes say “it wouldn’t be Christmas without mince pies/sprouts/Christmas pudding, etc.” However, December 25^th is always Christmas, whether you celebrate it with a full festive meal at home with your family, a barbecue with friends in the heat of Australian summer, or a snack grabbed at a motorway service station on the way to visit relatives. 

I’m not suggesting you serve ‘Xmas lunch a la Little Chef’ to your guests. The point is that you don’t have to eat festive food to have a good time – in fact, people have parties all year round, and I’ve never known a July barbecue be ruined by the lack of mince pies. 

There’s a reason we only eat festive food once a year, and that’s because we don’t like it very much. So instead of serving sprouts, parsnips, and Christmas pudding, why not try their more common, cheaper alternatives – peas, potatoes, and chocolate cake?

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Hampers

When it gets close to the big day, online stores cut prices of their Christmas hampers, as it’s a bit late for gift-giving, and they need to get rid of their stock. This is a great opportunity to get luxury food cheap and (hopefully) in time for Christmas.