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Credit Crunch Christmas Part 3: Food and drink

Credit Crunch Christmas Part 3: Food and drink

Credit Crunch Cristmas, cards, card, decorations, gifts, presents, cheap, frugal, dad, tree, fairy lights, christmas pudding, turkey, £50, crackers, cranberry sauce, recipes, ideas, dad, kid, mum, mom, parents, paper chains, clove, oranges,

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Christmas Dinner - Budget: Less than £22

Credit Crunch Christmas, £50, Cheap, Decorations, gifts, cards, tree, fairy lights, food, drink, turkey, crackers, festive, presents, kids, mums, dads, parents, season's greetings,

Of all the ways you can cut your costs for christmas, food and drink is probably the hardest, as the costs are fairly fixed. There are however a few shortcuts you can take.

Most supermarkets carry value ranges, many of which are surprisingly edible, and you can save plenty of money by purchasing these cheaper products.

You can also eat less - sure, eating a bit too much and crashing out on the sofa in front of Moonraker is half the fun of Christmas, but why not try and scale it back a bit this year?

For the main meal, you might also want to consider a chicken instead of a monster turkey. There's a nice recipe here for a Christmassy chicken.

Snacks - Budget: Less than £5

Why not make your own mince pies this year? They're pretty staight forward, all you need is some puff pastry, a jar of mincemeat and some sugar and flour. You can make between about 25-30 mince pies with this recipe, which is still cheaper than you can buy them for, and they taste better too!

Also, think about having a large supply of fruit on hand, because it fills you up nicely between meals.

Drink - Budget: Less than £10!

You can get some value squash and fizzy drinks for the kids (it is christmas after all) but you'll want something for yourself too.

Mulled wine is a cheap to make, and not too alcoholic, so won't get half-cut and burn Christmas dinner by mistake. You can get around 24 servings from just two bottles of cheap red wine, and again, it really makes things feel festive. Good old Delia has a good recipe for this on her site, but bear in mind you can pretty much chuck in any old fruit and wine and it'll still taste nice. .