9 Ways to Save Money on Christmas Food

Christmas is all about food and feasting with friends and family. But what if you’re on a budget? Here are nine ways to save money on Christmas food and still put on a great spread.

Entertaining during the Christmas season can be almost as expensive as gift-giving, especially if you are hosting dinner for a crowd.

But Christmas dinner doesn’t have to be a feast worthy of the cover of Gourmet Traveller magazine. Whether it’s a roast, prawns on the beach, or a simple meal, a bit of festive cheer will make an occasion out of it.

One year, our chef cousin even did a nacho bar for Christmas because it was an easy and cost-effective way to cater for the whole family!

Below are some ways to keep the cost of the Christmas dinner to a minimum, while still celebrating the special occasion.

The references and examples in this post are based on Australian stores and costs. However, the concepts and budgeting techniques can be applied anywhere to help you save on Christmas food. Your costs will vary depending on where you live and food preferences.

9 Ways to Save Money This Christmas on Food

1. Set a Christmas Food Budget and Plan Around It

It can be easy to go overboard at Christmas, especially when there are so many festive goodies tempting you (hello mince tarts in October!) and other expenses are due (for us, all our insurances are due in December).

When money is tight, it helps to set a food budget to stay in control and avoid a blowout or huge credit card debt.

Start by deciding how much you can realistically spend on Christmas food. Then work backwards, planning your Christmas dining around that budget (see tips below). Sticking to a plan helps avoid impulse buys and helps keep spending in check.

2. Use Rewards Points

If you have a rewards card like Flybuys or Everyday rewards, you can collect your points throughout the year and use them to pay for some or all of your Christmas food.

Everyday Rewards (Woolies) in particular allows you to bank all your rewards for Christmas and the points are ‘unlocked’ in December, ready for Christmas. If you collect points anyway, it’s a nice little bonus that can help with the Christmas spending.

$50 worth of points can be enough (depending on how many people you’re catering for) to plan an amazing Christmas meal without having to find extra cash, but even $20 worth of points takes some of the pressure off Christmas entertaining.

And if you have more points, you may be able to use them for Christmas dining and other things like presents or decorations.

3. Plan Your Menu Around Your Budget

The next step is to plan your Christmas menu.

This might be meals where you’re entertaining and need to cater for a crowd, a dessert you don’t normally have, nibbles, or a special Christmas breakfast.

For example, just say you’re having people over on Christmas Eve, you’re planning an extra-special family breakfast on Christmas day, and Christmas dinner and dessert.

That’s 3 meals to start looking for recipes and ideas that fit your budget. When I’ve found ideas, I like to use online shopping to give me an idea of costs (you don’t have to actually shop online), so I can add up costs as I create a meal plan to make sure I’m sticking to my budget.

To recap:

• Create a Christmas entertaining budget
• Write out your Christmas menu – all the meals you’re catering for – everything from drinks and nibbles to dessert and coffee.
• Write out a list of ingredients for every meal
• Calculate the approximate cost to make sure it fits your budget.

Budget Christmas Food Ideas

Here are some Christmas food ideas for keeping the costs of catering down.

• Cook a roast chook(chicken) instead of turkey (buy on sale and freeze to save extra)
• Stick to one meat or seafood
• Serve a lot of vegetables or salad on the side. I like roast potato with rosemary for something special. And if it’s too hot, I do a huge batch of potato salad instead.
• Keep dessert simple, in the example below I’ve costed trifle, but there’s nothing wrong with vanilla ice cream and seasonal fruit.

Budget-Friendly Menu for 8: One Meat + Dessert From as Little as AU$42 + Different Options, Including Vegetarian

Below are a few meal ideas with their associated costs.

The first is a is a AU$60 meal sample for eight people (with leftovers) that includes both roast chicken and roast pork. The cost doesn’t include dessert or basics like oil, salt and pepper.

The prices are from November 2024 from ‘Colesworth’, Australia. They are all full price, so you can bring the cost down by shopping the sales or at Aldi.

Want to serve just one meat?

Remove the pork, and the cost comes down to less than AU$40 (full price). Remove the chicken and the cost comes down to AU$42 (full price).

If you serve just one meat, you can add dessert to the budget and still keep the cost to around AU$60.

I saw a whole Steggles chicken on sale for AU$14 that can *just* serve 8, and by shopping at Aldi for veg etc, I got the price down to around AU$27 or $3.50 per serve.

Prefer pork?

With pork on sale at $8/kg, the cost comes to $35.60 in total or $4.45 per serve.

2 Meats + Dessert for $75 or Less

I’ve costed my old fashioned English trifle (again November 2024, full price, Australia), which adds $15 to the total meal.

Trifle is great for making ahead of time and serving a crowd. It’s also versatile – switch the port jelly for passionfruit and add some in-season mango and you’ve got a whole different flavour.

To bring the cost down, you can make some plain or madeira cakes, buy cheaper jelly, or shop at Aldi. The orange juice is for moistening the cake – traditionally you use alcohol, but it’s up to you.

If you add the trifle to the on-sale, chicken-only dinner, the total cost is AU$42.55 or $5.32 per serve for 8 people. If you have $50 worth of rewards, that’s a great meal for kinda free.

What about a Vegetarian Christmas Meal?

I’ve costed a vegetarian meal based on the popular BBC nut loaf recipe, which is one of their Christmas meal suggestions. The recipe serves 4, so I’ve doubled the quantities for the cost table below.

Based on 2024 full price items, the meal comes in at AU$58.39 or AU$7.30 per serve. However, there will be leftovers, i.e. leftover lentils and breadcrumbs etc, so that brings the cost down further. It also assumes you have basic pantry staples like oil, dried oregano, and paprika, but if not, that will bring the cost up.

4. Shop Around and Keep an Eye Out for Specials

Now that you have a Christmas day menu plan and shopping list, you can watch the store prices and shop around (i.e., at Aldi) or buy items when they go on special.

The further ahead you plan, the longer you have to save money. I like to buy just one or two half-price, shelf-stable items each grocery shop (if available) from about November onwards. Items like crackers or drinks that we don’t normally buy. It helps spread the cost and that way, there’s not a huge outlay at Christmas.

Items that can be frozen like meat or frozen vegetables can be purchased ahead of time and frozen to help spread the cost.

5. Be Generous with Portions, Without Being Excessive

Many of us overeat at Christmas and then feel yuck afterwards. The Christmas meal doesn’t have to be belt-loosening to be enjoyable.

By serving regular-size portions and lots of (cheaper) vegetables, everyone can enjoy a delicious meal without regret.

Portion Size Suggestions to Estimate Amounts and Costs

Below is a rough guide to portion size suggestions to help plan catering. The meat is based or *raw* weight, because meat shrinks as it cooks.

So if you’re cooking chicken for 8, 300g each x 8 = a 2.4kg raw chicken.

A portion of chicken is around 150g of cooked meat when catering (80g of cooked chicken according to Australian healthy food guidelines). The 300g accounts for the bone, helping you decide what size chicken to buy.

Category	Item	Serving Size (grams) (per person)
Main Dish	Turkey (whole, raw with bone)	300g-350g
	Ham (cooked, boneless)	250g
	Pork (raw, boneless)	200-250 g
Nibbles/Appetizers	Cheese (selection)	30 g
	Crackers	20 g
	Nuts (mixed)	20 g
	Dips (e.g., hummus)	50 g
	Cold cuts	50 g
	Olives/pickles	30 g
Vegetables	Roast potatoes	150 g
	Carrots/parsnips	100 g
	Brussels sprouts	100 g
	Green beans	75 g
	Salad greens	50 g
Side Dishes	Bread rolls	1 roll (~40 g)
	Gravy (prepared)	60 ml (approx. 60 g)
	Cranberry sauce	30 g
Desserts	Christmas pudding	100 g
	Mince pies	1 pie (~50 g)
	Custard or cream	50 g
	Chocolate or sweets	30 g

Note: This table was was generated with the help of AI and reviewed for accuracy using trusted guidelines, including Eat For Health by the Australian Government. Portion sizes are guidelines and can be adjusted based on the number of dishes served, guest preferences, and dietary needs. If serving multiple proteins or additional side dishes, reduce the protein portion sizes.

6. Cook as Much as You Can From Scratch

Convenience foods save time and ensure you’re not spending all of Christmas day in the kitchen. But they they often cost more than cooking from scratch using basic ingredients.

So it helps to strike the right balance between making stuff yourself and saving money, and having a few cheats to save you time.

To get the best of both worlds, I like to prepare as much as practical ahead of time. For example, if we’re having ‘roast’ pork for Christmas, I prepare it the day before (essential for crispy crackling anyway), and cook the pork (not the crackling) in the slow cooker. That means I really only spend minutes in the kitchen on Christmas day.

Sometimes we have croissants with ham and cheese for Christmas breakfast, and even these I prepare the day before and throw them in the oven on Christmas morning for crispy, melty croissants. That way, I’m also not spending all day in the kitchen and we can take them to the beach with some fresh fruit and portioned yoghurt!

7. Scale Back the Grazing

Have you ever sat down to a lovingly prepared meal, only to find you’re full on potato chips (crisps) and dip?

Nibbles can be pricey, so serving a small selection of choice appetisers along with a lot of vegetable like carrot an celery sticks, not only keeps the cost down, it’s healthier.

8. Bring a Plate

This may horrify some, but in Australia, it’s common for guests to ‘bring a plate’, especially if you’re catering for family – kind of like the American potluck.

(There are many stories of people moving from overseas and when asked to ‘bring a plate’ that’s exactly what they do, bring an empty plate. Another story: we had a ‘thank the volunteers day’ where I help out, and even we were asked to ‘bring a plate’, lol.)

Sharing the food cost (and prep time) amongst guests reduces the burden on the host of catering a large meal for a large crowd.

In our family, the host organises a list of general dishes (‘salad’ or ‘dessert’ for instance), and everyone picks out what they will bring. That way, you make sure that not everyone turns up with half a dozen bread rolls (true story!).

This is my favourite way to reduce the cost of Christmas catering, because you end up with more for less and everyone is satisfied.

9. Saving Money on Christmas Drinks

The easiest way to save on drinks is to ask your guests to BYO. Just like ‘bringing a plate’, bringing your own grog is also common in Australia.

Alternatively, to save money on drinks, start early and keep an eye out for specials on both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. These can be stored months prior to the day.

Punch is a great way to serve alcoholic beverages (or fun non-alcoholic ones) because the cheaper juices stretch the more expensive alcoholic drinks further and may even help deter Uncle Bob from singing carols in his underwear.

Christmas Recipe Ideas

Christmas dinner doesn’t have to blow the budget, even if you’re feeding a crowd. By planning ahead of time, sticking to your budget, buying food on sale and cooking simple meals from scratch, you can have a mighty feast without the New Year budget hangover.

What are you having for Christmas dinner this year?