Christmas dinner - Are you struggling to make ends MEAT. Well fret not because, this is the season to be jolly for the whole family. How can you fill the bellies of all who sit round the Christmas table with knife and fork in hand on a budget? Christmas dinner for those on a tight budget can still be extra special. Whether you paid less for a turkey, goose, or duck than that of your neighbour next door - will not make their Xmas food anymore more tasty or scrumptious than what you paid for your Christmas roast. As a matter of fact with what you saved on the pennies you can add extra Christmas novelties i.e. Christmas crackers, party poppers and a bottle of wine making your Christmas feast - into a Christmas banquet?



How you and your family can eat well on Christmas day and any other over the Christmas period on a budget. What you need to do the next time you are out shopping is - change you're spending habits. How many of you have picked up a fresh turkey or a lump of gammon thinking that the joint of meat is a well over their budget? Well a little advice, for those extra pennies it is well worth thinking ahead to Boxing Day etc. For example, if roast pork is your chosen meat to accompany your roast parsnips, sugared sprouts and creamed potatoes then it will also accompany the Christmas vegetables for the next day and the day after that and that, depending on the size of the joint of meat.

If the bird freshly killed (Turkey) is large - then better still because - Roast turkey and stuffing for Christmas dinner on December the 25th followed by Turkey pie on Boxing Day, then following that - turkey kebabs, cold turkey sandwiches and a turkey stew made from the carcass. So you see my point for those extra pennies you get to eat every day. Buying a smaller bird to roast from the butcher like duck, goose or pheasant - will only mean that when Christmas dinner is over - you then have to buy another meat joint for each day after that - thus making your budget even tighter, so less money to spend on Christmas gifts.

Spruce up the Christmas dinner table with a new colourful dinner set. The dinner set could be a gift to yourself or from a partner, hence one again more savings on the pennies, (killing two birds with one stone) i.e. you get a present as well as the opportunity to use the gift to make the food on the table look even more yummy and appetizing. Make your own table centrepiece with nuts, edible cherries and a candle so that nothing goes to waste. Excite all the dinner guests around the table by placing name tags to where everyone is to sit, this will save any fighting between the kids when it is time to eat. The tags can be made by you, use a little glitter to pretty them up so that the guests can keep them as a memento.

More money can be saved at Christmas by staying at home in the evening and watching the telly - and what better way than with a stuffed belly.

Christmas is the season of goodwill gestures - so happy Christmas everyone