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Holiday Meals on a Budget · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized, award-winning podcast is hosted by the University
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  of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Holiday meals are always a fun time for families, but they do put a dent in the budget.
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  So if we start planning early, we can make some choices now that can impact
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  how much we spend and what we eat when it comes to those holiday meals.
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  You're listening to Talking FACS, and we share research-based information that
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  can impact your family, your community, and our state.
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  I am your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
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  with Family and Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
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  My guest today is LaToya Drake, who is the Communications Director for The Food
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  Connection, and we're going to talk about planning holiday meals on a thrifty
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  budget. Welcome, LaToya.
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  Hey, Mindy. I'm so glad that you're here to talk about this very important topic
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  because I know a lot of people drop a lot of coin on those holiday meals.
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  So what is it important to do to make sure that we don't have huge dents in
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  our holiday budget just from what we eat?
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  Yeah, we're thinking about holiday meals, especially with grocery inflation right now.
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  They can be extremely expensive and people tend to go all out for these holiday
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  meals. But if we plan ahead, we can budget properly and we can think about those high costs in advance.
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  And early planning is going to
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  reduce the stress and allow us to be more intentional about what we serve.
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  So there's lots of different tips that we can do and different things that we
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  can think about to save the money and be prepared for the holiday meals.
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  So what are some ways to make traditional holiday meals more affordable?
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  So like there's lots of ways that we can do that because I always tell my mom,
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  she always wants to go way far out.
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  There's always way too much food
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  and we have a small family and we don't necessarily have to do too much.
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  You can just focus on those favorite dishes and those traditional dishes that
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  everybody loves in your family. You don't have to do too much.
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  You also want to consider smaller cuts of meat.
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  One thing that we do in our family is we cook a turkey breast in a crock pot.
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  It's going to make that piece of meat really tender, right? Because that's a
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  kind of leaner piece of cut of meat.
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  But a turkey breast is a smaller cut, so it's going to be cheaper.
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  It still feeds us for days at a time because a turkey breast is a large piece of meat.
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  So we also have oven space when we have that crock pot, cook the turkey breast in the crock pot.
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  You can also consider doing turkey wings or you can roast a chicken instead of doing a whole turkey.
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  Something else to consider when we want to make holiday meals more affordable
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  is to use seasonal or sale price produce.
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  There's so much in season at this time of the year. Those good sweet potatoes
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  and winter squashes are so delicious and hearty in these holiday meals.
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  And we want to just serve plain side dishes. Everything doesn't have to be a
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  casserole. Everything doesn't have to be everything.
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  And then think about substituting in your recipes too. If it calls for spinach
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  and collard greens are cheaper, use collard greens.
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  So I've heard about this five-trip shopping strategy. Can you explain that and why it's helpful?
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  Yeah, thinking about planning your meals in advance and using this five-trip
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  shopping strategy is a great way to do that.
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  So you're thinking about making trips over the course of weeks or months, right?
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  And you're thinking about what is going to last longer in your pantry or longer in your home.
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  So the first trip, when you're thinking about these holiday meals,
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  you want to get those canned goods because canned goods and soups,
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  cream and mushroom soups, those type of things you might need,
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  they're going to have a long shelf life.
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  So they're going to last a while and you know they're going to be ready.
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  So your next trip, you're going to think about your dry ingredients and you
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  want to stock up on flour and sugar and baking supplies because they're going
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  to last too. When they're unopened, they're going to last a while.
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  You might even want to throw them in the refrigerator or the freezer to knock
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  those weevils out, right? There's weevils and flour.
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  You might want to throw them in there, but they'll be good if they're not open.
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  And then that trip three, you want to think about your flavor ingredients because
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  they're going to stay pretty good shelf stable too, right?
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  So you've got your spices and
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  your herbs and your extracts, your almond extracts, your vanilla extracts.
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  And you always want to check to see if you already have these items because
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  if you have them, you don't want to go waste your money and buy extra ones.
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  And then that trip four in our five series, you want to think about planning
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  ahead and freezer space. So you want to think about those frozen foods and veggies
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  and fruits, the breads, the meats that might be in the freezer.
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  You want to see what you have and you can cook those, right?
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  And you also want to buy what you need for the upcoming holidays.
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  And then the final trip, just right before that week before.
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  You want to think about your perishable items, those items that are going to
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  go bad quick, like the fresh produce, the dairy, the bakery items.
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  Those are the things you want to get or bake right before your holiday.
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  So this is just a phased out approach and it's going to spread your spending
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  over the course of weeks.
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  It's going to avoid any last minute issues and stress and it's just going to make things easier.
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  I love this idea because sometimes, you know, that last trip to the grocery
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  store, you're like, oh my goodness, I, you know, I was going in for four items
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  and I came out with a whole cart of stuff.
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  If you plan ahead, that's not going to happen. And it's always so busy because
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  everybody doesn't always plan ahead.
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  So like those days before the grocery, you know, the big event,
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  the big holiday, it's so many people at this grocery store.
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  If you get this stuff ahead of time, you don't have to worry about being amongst the crowd.
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  Yes. And you mentioned earlier checking your pantry and your freezer for staples
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  that you might already have so that you don't over-purchase.
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  Are there, you know, special strategies for ways to make sure that you use those
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  items for these holiday meals?
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  Yeah, we always want to shop our kitchen first and look what we have before
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  we go out and before we make a list.
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  And we want to use that special occasion casserole or bag of lentils in our freezer.
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  We can put that to use at our holiday meal. Like if you have a casserole that you made.
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  Just go on and use that up. It's going to taste tasty. And you want to rotate
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  those older items out of your pantry at the holiday time.
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  This is the perfect time to use everything up, use it all up.
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  And then these plain dishes, planned dishes around those pantry staples that
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  you already have so you spend less at the store.
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  Remember, a traditional holiday meal just has to be traditional for your family.
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  It doesn't have to be the traditional holiday meal.
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  It could be spaghetti and meatballs. It could be spaghetti, you know,
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  and meat sauce. It could be chicken alfredo because that's cheaper, you know.
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  It can be whatever you decide because it's about spending time together.
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  That is exactly right. So what are a few practical tips for stretching dollars
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  without sacrificing taste or tradition?
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  As you said, it can be tradition for your family. It doesn't have to be the
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  national tradition. No, no.
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  You do what your family likes and what they're going to enjoy and what's going
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  to bring you guys together and what you can afford.
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  But you want to think about stretching meals with those basics like potatoes
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  and rice and red and those delicious carbs and beans, right?
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  You want to think about using infused tap water or lemon or fruit.
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  This is low cost and it's going to have less sugar than those sodas.
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  Those are great ideas. You want to also invite guests to bring a dish.
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  You know, you can't eat in everybody's house.
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  So everybody doesn't need to bring the casseroles, but they can bring the paper
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  plates. They can bring the napkins.
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  They can bring other things that are going to help make the meal easier and
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  going to keep prices low for you.
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  You also want to keep in mind about switching ingredients because some things might be on sale.
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  You can use shallots instead of onions if those are on sale.
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  That might make it more fancy, but you can use different things depending on what's on sale.
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  And always remember, I'll repeat, the holidays are about gathering.
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  They're not about how much you spend at all. It's about being with the people that you love.
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  I think that that is a great way to wrap this up, especially at this time of
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  year, find the time to be with those you love and don't spend all of that time in the kitchen, right?
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  Right. If you are just tuning in, you are listening to Talking FACS and we
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  are available wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
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  Thank you for listening to Talking FACS. We deliver programs focusing on nutrition,
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  health, resource management, family development, and civic engagement.
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  or a show topic idea, leave a like and a comment on Facebook at UKFCSEXT or
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  Visit us online at fcs.uky.edu to learn more about the University of Kentucky
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  Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program or contact your local Extension
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  agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.
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  We build strong families. We build Kentucky. It starts with us.