The holiday season can drain your budget bigger than any other time of the year. First our budgets are hit with Thanksgiving dinners and then immediately following, we’re hit with the Christmas season.
Aside from gifts, your biggest cost will likely be the holiday dinners! Groceries are expensive even without adding on the cost of the holiday fixings.
There are a few things you can do though to help stay on your budget for hosting your holiday dinners. The tips below will help you learn how to host a holiday dinner on a budget that your family won’t soon forget!
Plan early
Make your holiday menu plans at least a month early. This will give you plenty of time to scope out the sales to find the absolute best price that you can on meat and other ingredients. Plus, it will let you know just how long you need to plan for cooking and other preparation that will need to be done.
Use coupons
The holidays are GREAT for coupons and you can usually find them for the ingredients that you need to make those yummy dishes. Even if you don’t use coupons normally, putting them into play and combining them with already great sales can help you spend considerably less.
Divide and conquer
If you’re hosting family at your holiday dinner, don’t be ashamed to ask them to help. Pick a trusted relative or two and ask them to prepare a dish to bring with them.
If you want, you could even make the entire dinner a potluck and have everyone pitch in. It all just depends on how formal or informal you want your meal to be since potlucks tend to be a lot more informal than a hosted dinner.
Make enough for leftovers
If you want to help your holiday dinner save you even after dinner is over, make enough for leftovers. This will give you the option to make lunches or dinners for a day or two afterwards without having to rely on your other groceries. Plus? Leftover turkey sandwiches? Yum!
Get creative
If nothing else and your budget really just can’t handle a full dinner with all of the trimmings? No worries! The holidays are about your family and as long as you are together? That is all anyone will care about. Fix a Thanksgiving chicken or a Christmas roast, get your family to the table and enjoy the time spend together.
What about you? How do you save money on big, holiday dinners?