Merry & Broke? Christmas Dinner Costs Soar 4.8%, Leaving Scrooge Happy

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According to Creditnews Research, for an American family of four, Christmas dinner is going to cost $80.58, or 4.8% more, this holiday season compared to last year. Although the increase isn’t as substantial as last year’s, it’s the cumulative inflation that’s going to strain household budgets. Since 2020, consumer prices have soared by 19%. Over the same period, food prices have gone up a staggering 25%.

  • For an American family of four, Christmas dinner is going to cost $80.58, or 4.8% more this holiday season compared to last year.

  • The price of sauces and gravy (7.5%) and frozen turkey (7.2%) jumped the most compared to last year.

  • Meanwhile, pastries, including biscuits and rolls (5.7%), and frozen pies (2.7%) saw more moderate increases.

  • The only category that dropped in price was vegetables, which are 0.7% cheaper this holiday season compared to a year ago. Potatoes saw the biggest year-over-year price decline of 3.3%.

  • While yearly inflation has moderated, the real strain on consumers is cumulative inflation. The price of food is up 24.8% since 2020—much higher than headline inflation (19%).

There is good news and bad news says Sam Bourgi, Senior Analyst at Creditnews, “When it comes to holiday shopping costs, there’s both good and bad news. The good news is that inflation, specifically food inflation, is moderating compared to last year. The bad news is that food inflation has compounded since the pandemic and has far outpaced overall inflation.”

Embrace Vegetables

To save money on food costs increase your vegetable intake and be creative in ways to increase those cheap veggies and less meat.

Eat Veggies as Sides

Load up on those delicious sides and cut down on your main dishes to increase the variety and cut down on the expensive mains.

Add Veggies to Your Pasta and Casserole Dishes

Adding veggies to pasta and casserole dishes is much quicker than cooking them separately. This increases the vitamins and minerals in your favorite comfort foods. You won’t even notice that can of corn or shreds of broccoli in your mac and cheese.

Make Huge Pots of Soup

Soups are usually pretty cheap, and you can make them with any seasonal vegetable that is on sale. So load them up with vegetables and enjoy! Make and freeze pots of soup to fill up your guests with yummy soups and save that money!

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