How can I make Holiday Meals on a Budget?

Ralph, I love hosting during the holidays, but every year the food costs seem to explode.

Is it even possible to serve a great meal without overspending?

I got that question.

I was like, that is a great question to talk about on the show today because the truth is, big meals, big gatherings and too often it leads to big bills.

But you can absolutely feast with abundance and stay within your budget.

And I'm going to show you exactly how to do that on today's show.

This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence.

Welcome to the show.

I'm Ralph.

I'm all about helping you break that cycle of financial shame with confidence.

And today, as we continue our series of planning for the holidays, let's talk about how to save money and still have that abundant feast that we all love.

And I want to tell you a story about my own Thanksgiving situation.

I never forget.

It was a couple years ago and the grocery bill nearly gave me a heart attack.

When I looked at what we spent on Thanksgiving, I said to my wife, I said, we got to stop doing this.

This is crazy.

We had two fresh turkeys and this pie and that pie.

I'm going to tell you what, it looked like a feast for the pilgrims.

I mean, this thing, this table was laid out with all kinds of stuff, looked great.

It took us about three minutes to eat it, which is another whole discussion, probably talk about that on another day.

But the bill, when I looked at it, like, this is insane how much we spent.

So the following year I said, I'm going to do this differently.

It's all about planning.

And that's what we did.

My wife and I sat down, we developed a plan because if you plan, you can get ahead with this.

The next year we used store brands.

We found that the food tasted just the same.

If we used that store brand, we actually added a little bit of fun to it.

We made it potluck style.

So instead of making my wife do the whole thing, we said, listen, let's encourage everybody else to bring stuff.

You can bring this and you can bring that.

And it was cool because it was sort of a, here's a, here's a nice Thanksgiving term.

It was a cornucopia of different stuff.

And it was cool because it was things I hadn't even thought about.

Like some people brought some stuff.

Like, I don't know if I'm going to eat that or not.

It looked kind of scary, but it was fun.

The other thing we did is we started buying stuff in September.

Now, as you're listening to this, we're already in November.

But it's not too late.

You can still plan for the holidays.

Start buying a little bit every week.

And like I said, that potluck was fun.

Just make sure you coordinate it, because what you don't want to have is everybody decides to bring the same thing.

My sister is great with that.

Well, I'm going to bring this or bring that.

Like, wait a minute, we already got that.

But when we did that, guess what happened?

We had a bigger variety.

The food tasted better.

And listen to this.

The cost dropped by almost 30%.

And here's the way I knew that it was good.

Everybody was quiet after dinner.

Everybody was taking a nap.

Everybody left full, and they left happy.

That's the whole point.

That was a great time.

There's joy in that.

Well, let's get right to our quote today.

This one comes from good old Benjamin Franklin.

And this is what Ben said.

He said, contentment makes poor men rich.

Discontent makes rich men poor man.

Talk about a dichotomy there, huh?

Contentment makes poor men rich.

That's seeking that contentment.

But.

But that discontent makes rich men poor.

So let's get to our question today.

And I love what the listener asked.

Ralph, Is it even possible to serve a great meal without overspending?

Well, guess what?

I've got some answers for you.

I'm gonna give you my creative meal planning and saving tips.

First thing I'm gonna encourage you to do, plan early.

Avoid that last minute rush pricing.

Because here's the thing that you don't really understand.

The stores know this.

I firmly believe that right before the holidays, man, those prices go up.

So if you start to place, my wife does a great job at this.

In September and October, she starts thinking about, okay, we're going to have Christmas at our house, we're going to have Thanksgiving, whatever that looks like for you.

And she'll buy a little bit as we go each week.

Now listen, you can't buy perishables.

Obviously, you can freeze a lot of stuff, but you can start to think about, what can I do.

Second thing I'm going to encourage you to do is shop smart.

Like I learned, you don't have to buy the name brands for everything.

Here's another great idea.

Test out some of those store brands.

Now buy some of that stuff and try it out.

You might be surprised at just how good it is.

There's also a ton of early sales because, see, retailers understand this too.

And that can cut your cost by 20 or 30%.

Another thing I want to encourage you to do like we did is encourage that potluck thing.

It helps everybody get involved.

It takes the stress off.

Because if maybe your wife likes my wife, she feels this stress of the holiday.

She's got to put it all together perfectly.

I said, stop doing that.

Let's make a list.

Here's what we're going to provide.

Like in our house, we provide the turkey.

I go get fresh turkeys from a local farm.

People like, oh, that is the best turkey ever.

But that's what I provide.

My wife might do mashed potatoes and gravy, but we say to everybody else, listen, here's the other things we'd like to have or give us some ideas that you'd like to do.

Those potluck gatherings are fantastic.

Another thing I'm going to encourage you to do, because people get crazy at the holidays.

Make it simple.

A joyful meal doesn't need to have 15 side dishes.

I always think it's funny.

At Thanksgiving we had this whole, I used the term earlier, cornucopia of food.

How much of that can you really consume?

You can only eat so much.

And here's my big takeaway.

Quality conversation beats quantity of food at the table.

Listen, just don't talk politics and religion.

Like, that's the thing they say, like rap.

I'm guilty of that.

Like, I like to stir people up.

I'm kind of like a prognosticator of comments, right?

So I'm just going to tell you right now.

Raph's little tip for today is don't talk about politics.

Politics and religion.

And here's another one, avoid waste.

And we're going to get to our Bible verse in a second.

But Jesus modeled stewardship even after feeding thousands.

Let nothing be wasted.

It's right from the Book of John, chapter 6, verse 12.

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, gather the pieces that are left over.

Let nothing be wasted.

So two takeaways from that.

Let's not be wasteful.

And hey, encourage the people to come to your house to bring containers and send those leftovers with them.

Some of those leftovers, especially from Thanksgiving, all are fantastic.

I love those turkey sandwiches a day or two after Thanksgiving.

But that's all Christian, right?

That's all about stewarding our food.

Don't let anything be wasted.

Well, how about we pray together?

Father God, we come to you and we're just grateful for the great provision you give us in our lives, Lord, and we get so caught up in the holidays and planning that we sometimes forget just how much you really give us.

So grant us wisdom as we plan for these things.

Have us wisdom to plan those meals with your stewardship in mind.

Help us to see the true joy in sharing food and sharing fellowship, not impressing others.

Help us not to get stuck in that social media trap of, you know, those click on comparisons and the highlight reel that so many people look at.

Help us to focus our minds on you and not to impress others.

And we ask this in the power of Jesus.

Amen.

So here's my one action item for today.

I want to encourage you plan one holiday meal this week.

It's not too early to do it.

Write down how you're going to save at least 20% compared to last year.

Build that plan, shop early, simplify or share the cost with others.

Hey, make it a big potluck dinner.

Plan that meal today.

Keep it simple and really enjoy your time with family and friends.

Because that's what the holiday season is all about.

It's about building those relationships.

Because truth is, you're not going to remember what you had to eat, but you'll remember those relationships.

I want to encourage you right now.

Be a financially confident Christian.

You can do this.

I have confidence in you.

Stay financially savvy, God bless you and I'll see you on tomorrow's.