8 Ways to Save on Shopping for Christmas Dinner

Image by Mike Fleming

It's a wonderful feeling, being surrounded by family in a warm house, enjoying a delicious home cooked meal. But it doesn't happen by magic, a lot of time and money goes into making this day special. If you find your purse a little empty after buying everyone presents, then maybe you can save a few quid on Christmas dinner instead.

1. Do an inventory of your cupboards. Find out everything you already have. You might have some sustainable food at the back that you'd forgotten was there, avoid buying it again.
2. Have something to eat before going to the supermarket – shopping on an empty stomach makes you more susceptible to impulse purchases.
3. Find out how much you can afford to spend by getting an overall view of your finances with an online money manager. By adding your accounts, Money Dashboard will sort through your transactions and let you know how much you have free to spend.
4. If you're worried about going over budget, you can bring a pad and pencil and add up the cost of all the items as you go along. If you don't trust yourself, bring your budget in cash and leave cards at home.
5. If you're cooking for all the family, you could save some money by buying multipacks, but take time to compare prices carefully. Which? are campaigning against Supermarkets who price items using different units and measurements. E.g. Loose onions at 87p per kg vs a pack of 3 onions at 16p each.
6. Only buy what you need for the holiday period – don't get distracted by other offers. Make a full list of ingredients required and don't over-buy.
7. If you're shopping in-store, have a look at the clearance section. Dented canned goods, open-top pasta boxes etc. will be marked down, but the food is still fine.
8. If you're ordering online, check out voucher websites to see if you can get money off. Netvouchercodes.co.uk reported that their users saved an average of £15.96 or 19% of the transaction value for online purchases on ‘Cyber Monday' this year.