100 Days Until Christmas - Low Cost Christmas

It's 100 days until Christmas today! Christian's Against Poverty, a UK Charity that offers free debt help, are starting their debt free Christmas campaign today. I know Christmas starts earlier every year, and that the shops try to force seasonal spending on us for longer and longer periods. But thinking and planning ahead can save you a lot of money and stress, and today is a great time to start.

1. Start Saving for Christmas - NOW
   
   With 100 days to go, if you get paid monthly you should have 3 pay days between now and Christmas. Set aside a little each month, and next year maybe start even earlier. Most big supermarkets offer schemes to save money if you shop with them every week in the run up to Christmas, so this could help, but switching to a more expensive supermarket to get this deal might actually cost you money, so be careful not to get dragged into spending more money on groceries than you normally would just to qualify.
   
   
2. Set a Budget - STICK TO IT
   
   This can be hard, but decide how much you can afford to spend before you start planning what you buy. It can help if you write down what's most important to you about Christmas Celebrations. What would it not be Christmas without, and what is something you could maybe go without this year? Could you forgo the tree in favour of home made decorations? Or does no one in your house really like sprouts and turkey, and the family's favourite mexican food would be far more welcome? These ideas may sound odd, but Christmas isn't about doing everything everybody else does. Decide what's important to your family, and prioritise spending money on that, and don't spend money on the things that don't matter as much to you.


3. Food
   
   Christmas is often a time of over indulgence when it comes to food, and I for one can see why! I love turkey, mulled wine, mince pies and pigs in blankets. I love socialising with friends over my favourite seasonal food. However, if you plan to go the whole hog with food, plan in advance how you will use the leftovers. Using leftovers in tasty meals will save money on normal grocery bills, and mean you can afford your seasonal favourites. Planning it before hand will also prevent you buying too much food that will just go to waste.
   
4. Hand-make Gifts
   
   Crafters, take a deep breath, there's still 100 days to go! If you're going to make lots of hand made gifts you need to start early, as this is far more time consuming that just ordering from amazon. It can also be cheaper, and people are often very touched by homemade gifts. However, don't fall into the trap that handmade is always cheaper; we live in a world of mass production, and some things are far cheaper to buy. Other things, toys for example, are sometimes safer when bought, as they'll have been through stringent safety checks. Remember thoughtful is always more welcomed and remembered than big or expensive.
   
   I'll post some more blog posts in the coming weeks about giving thoughtful gifts.
   
   
   What are your top tips for a stress free, low cost Christmas?

Menu Planning

I've recently been watching The Box on BBC1. It's a cooking show where contestants are given a box of ingredients and challenged to cook a meal. On a recent episode one contestant was given a box marked "leftovers". In it was some cooked pasta, boiled potatoes, half a bell pepper, cooked salmon and the stalk from a floret of broccoli.

The contestant visibly groaned when he saw those ingredients. I felt a thrill of excitement. I can make a meal out of that! One of my greatest culinary achievements to date was learning from my housemate how to make leftover broccoli stalks tasty! No gourmet food in our house, but nothing ever goes in the bin.

I love cooking. I find it relaxing to prepare food, I love trying a new recipe or idea out in the kitchen. I love opening the fridge, seeing what we've got, and coming up with a bizarre concoction out of leftovers. My husband is a capable cook, but he is not the king of leftovers. He needs a recipe, and all the ingredients laid out in front of him. If he's not got something on the list he begins to panic.

Recently I've been all but banished from the kitchen. I get numbness in my limbs which means I can't tell if I get hurt, and my arms will spasm out of my control, causing me to drop or throw things (like pans of boiling water, or knives). My legs hurt if I stand for long periods of time. I manage to cook maybe one simple meal a week, and even then I probably shouldn't. So the burden of food preparation has fallen on my husband.

Suddenly, we found we never had the right food in the fridge. We were reaching for the takeaway menu more often than was reasonable (or affordable!). And we found ourselves arguing about food, about the cost, on a fairly regular basis.

So we sat down and planned a menu.

At the beginning of the week we write down 7 meals we want to eat. Then, based on that menu, we write a shopping list. We include one meal I can safely cook for a day when I'm feeling well, and one "easy" meal for a night we just can't be bothered, so something like a frozen pizza. If my husband hasn't cooked it before I will write out a simple recipe for him, or find him a simple recipe online.


We then ensure that we buy all the ingredients needed to make those meals, and not more (so there aren't any leftovers for me to fret about throwing away!). We don't designate a meal to a given night because my condition is so changeable. We never know when I'm going to have a good day.

We're three weeks into this new plan, and we've not yet had a meal out or a takeaway, which is a big step for us, and a huge saving financially!

It's been hard to let go of the control of the kitchen, but my husband is so much happier for it being arranged in a way he feels comfortable to cook. Not only has he started to feel comfortable with preparing our meals; this morning I was woken with pancakes for breakfast.