Is it possible to celebrate Christmas without breaking the bank? How?

Plan ahead

Begin shopping for your noche buena dinner in November. Know your menu so you can streamline and schedule the purchases of ingredients. You can opt to buy the expensive ingredients this month and buy the cheaper ingredients on December so your budget for that month can accommodate for other pressing purchases.

Last year, my children and I spent our noche buena on a shoestring budget. Our menu was:

I managed to save a few some cash by:

1. Opting for pansit bijon rather than spaghetti. With the bijon, I used only 1 breast of a chicken, one pc of carrot and half a head of cabbage. This for a 1/2 kg bijon. To make the pansit real tasty, I used real chicken broth from scratch the day before;

2. I decided to shop for the vegetables in the regular market; It only cost me less than 100 pesos for the vegetables for the chopsuey, and hey, my chopsuey was meatless (1/2kg baguio beans; 1 pc. sayote; 1 pc. carrot; 1/4 head cabbage; 1 small head of brocolli) . For tasty chopsuey, use oyster sauce or hoisin sauce– 2 tsp will do.

3. For the fruit salad, I bought a cheaper fruit cocktail brand. I used 1 pack of branded cream and half a can of condensed milk.

Focus on your family

Good relationship within the family supersede good food. Try to focus on enjoying the company of your family and friends during the holidays. With some planning, you can actually have a frugal noche buena without ending high and dry financially…

Do you have any frugal ideas? Frugal Stories? Email me at frugal.pinoy@gmail.com