Hello Dear Reader,
I am going to lay my Christmas cards on the table. I find all of the commercialism distasteful and try as best as possible to have as little to do with it as possible. However, so many many people will be concerning themselves over the cost of Christmas and I really believe if you feel so inclined to celebrate the Winter Solstice that you really don't have to spend much money on this.
In our house, we see it as a December Bank Holiday (DBH) break where Dearly Beloved's office shuts, my work is shut and a lot of the family have a holiday at the same time and we can get together. Whenever my family get together, I usually put on a 'good spread' and do the same over the December Bank Holiday (that's what we call the C word in our house.) So, with that in mind, how do we have a December Bank Holiday on a tight budget.
In the summer, the price of wine, beer, barbeques, sausages and barbeque food drastically increases in price. As everyone wants salad, the price increases. Watch meat prices in December and watch them shoot up. Those supermarkets know you will buy it and just push the prices up. My advice to any one would be to buy your joints of beef, pork, lamb or your turkey now. Buy it early and get it in the freezer. Stuffing and forcemeat will go up, so get that bought now and get it in your freezer. As Christmas cake and pudding season approaches, usually in late October, the price of dried fruit will shoot up and they will put on some pseudo offer such as buy three bags of sultanas for the price of two when they artificially inflated the prices as they know people will be preparing for Christmas. So, here's your Christmas shopping list for now so you can beat the price inflation. Try and buy some of the following before the next school half term break.
- Turkey - put in deep freeze - buy frozen in the first place - we buy two joints of meat and eat either cooked one day or have a cold joint with salads, potato salad and coleslaw on the other day.
- Joint of beef/pork - put in deep freeze
- Leg of Lamb - always good quality and cheaper frozen
- Gammon joint - cooked ham is really expensive over Christmas, so buy a gammon joint now, freeze it. Boil it and slice for gammon ham in the week before you have guests coming.
- Chipolata sausages/streaky bacon (for pigs in blankets) - again, these can be frozen.
- Packs of sage and onion stuffing
- Bags of mixed fruit/sultanas/raisins/ glace cherries.
- Bags of flour for cakes and puddings can be bought in advance as can suet for puddings and mince pies.
If you buy crackers, Christmas cards, wrapping paper or decorations - then make sure you buy them in January as they are sold off cheap after DBH
Make arrangements with your family in September to decide who is going where and who is cooking. I like to host people for one of the days over the bank holiday and enjoy feeding people and looking after them. It means I will cook for eight or more people over the two days and following weekend, making this Bank holiday break four days long. The good thing about cooking two joints of meat over the first two days is that there will be plenty left to eat until Sunday night. If it's your turn to host your family then you will need to start budgeting for the extra food and heating costs now. Here's how to spread the cost
- shop for one extra item each week - one week a turkey, the next week a joint of beef and so on.
- stock up on UHT milk and buy cream and butter that you can freeze until you need it
- buy supermarket savings stamps throughout the year to spread the cost of feeding extra mouths over the DBH
- Buy extra logs, coal or make extra payments to your energy suppliers in advance if you are going to have to heat extra rooms, or use the cooker more to accommodate guests. We will buy our winter logs in September, not because of the cost but to beat the rust and not have to wait weeks for logs to be delivered.
- Try to make your mincemeat, Christmas cake or DBH cake, Christmas pudding or DBH pudding in September and store them well as they will all keep until the DBH/Christmas.
- If you are buying wine or spirits, they will often increase in price so buy your bottle of wine now and keep until the bank holiday.
In your planning, remember to get your portions control correct. None of us want to feel uncomfortable or overfed so planning for sensible portions will ensure you don't over buy.
Here is an example of what I would put on each plate - once I've worked out how much each person will need, I simply calculate this by the amount of guests. As meat shrinks when cooked, I will need 200g of raw meat per person.
100g- 150g of cooked meat
2 pigs in blankets
2 roast potatoes
1 large carrots in sticks and steamed
1 heaped tablespoon of peas
6 sprouts
Mashed swede
60g of forcemeat stuffing
1 tablespoon of sloe/damson jelly
gravy
For dessert, we would share a homemade steamed fruit pudding with cream or custard.
In the evening,we might have some cold cooked meat with pickles and salad and some mince pies.
There are lots of things that we don't buy as we don't eat them any way - such as crisps, nuts, cheese, chocolates and sweets as there are no children and none of us have the taste for such snacks. However, there will be mince pies, iced fruit cake and plenty of cooked meats, homemade pates with homemade chutney, pickles with plenty of homemade bread. We will make our guests welcome and everyone will be well fed. I'll just make sure that I've bought everything in advance, for the right price.
I'm going to start my DBH shopping for my family and guests next week and will dedicate one drawer of my freezer in preparation. (If I move house, the freezer will be turned off just before loading, sealed with duct tape and will be the first thing off the lorry and into the new house and plugged in straight away). I've no need to make any mincemeat as I have three jars left from last year so my first job will be to make DBH puddings and I also make these for family who prefer mine to ones you can buy. I will also make Christmas cakes before the end of October as I also provide these for family members as again, they prefer mine.
I hope this has given you some 'food for thought' and will get you thinking about preparing for Christmas or the DBH or what ever you call it. I really look forward to the time off, the winter walks on the moors, the windswept beaches and dunes, the crisp mornings and low sun and really enjoy those days off. I love the wood burner keeping us extremely warm and best of all that all of us have time off at the same time and I can get to see my family.
Over to you, who else is shopping for the winter feast now? Who else is well prepared?
I'll be back on this matter over the next few weeks as I share ideas for gifts, edible gifts, cake, pudding and mincemeat recipes. In the meantime, take my advice and shop early before the shops put the prices up.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxx
Keep an eye open for Aldi's three bird roast - it sells out really quickly - I hope it's £9.99 again as it fed eight of us last DBH.
