A BUDGETING expert proved you don’t have to break the bank to host a Christmas dinner party.
She bought the main dishes, sides, and dessert for under $25.
A Dollar General fanatic and home cook combines her two passions and shares the results on her TikTok @dollartreedinners.
In one clip, she took us through her Christmas dinner grocery shopping at the chain store.
“I’ve got a $25 budget to make a Christmas dinner at Dollar General,” she began.
Although she said it wasn’t the “cheapest place to shop,” she noted that it has more physical locations than any other retailer nationwide, so anyone can mimic her budget buys.
Starting with ham, she said there are a few options you can go for.
“The best option is the ham steak, but it is $4.25 and is only eight ounces.
“We also have the canned ham, which is very good. It’s 16 ounces for $4.20.”
The kind she chose, however, was what she thought gave the most bang for your buck.
“What I ended up getting was these Armour Cooked Ham Slices, because I thought it was a good value for $3.50 at 12 ounces, and it’s whole ham slices.”
Next, she moved on to pineapple, noting that she wanted it pre-sliced.
While the store brand version was 20 cents cheaper than the one she got from Dole, at $2.50 she thought it was worth it given it was already sliced and had the juice.
For condiments, she got Dijon mustard for $1.50 and brown sugar for $2.
“Since I have brown sugar and pineapple, we might as well make a pineapple upside down cake for dessert, so I grabbed a box of cake mix for $1.75.
“We will have to go without the cherries because we can’t fit those in the budget,” she said about the $2.75 maraschino cherries.
Thinking about the cake, she also bought eggs for $2.50 and margarine for $1.50.
“People love to hate on margarine, but if you only have $25 and butter costs about a quarter of that, you’re either going to go with margarine or you’re going to go without.”
While the cheapest milk she could find was $2.70, she opted for canned evaporated milk at $1.15 – which can be diluted to make regular milk.
Moving onto some more savory dishes, she bought mac and cheese for 85 cents and scalloped mashed potatoes for $2.15.
“Instant mashed potatoes are $1.35, but this is a holiday meal so I’m going to splurge on scalloped.”
She also went for two cans of green beans, which cost her $1.34 total, and cream of mushroom soup for $1.
While she wanted carrots, she was disappointed to find that the store brand’s cheaper version was sold out.
“Sometimes you have to get the name brand, which is more expensive. I grabbed the can for $1,” she said, adding that she got two.
As for what side dish she was planning to whip up, it was green bean casserole – but she replaced the more expensive fried onions with bags of Funions for 50 cents each.
Knowing she’d have left over eggs after baking the cake, she wanted to make the most of her carton, so decided she’d make deviled eggs as well.
The mayo needed for that was $3.25.
“The final item was a pack of dinner rolls for $3.”
Because she had a $5 off coupon, she was in the clear: her grand total was $24.99.
“I don’t think I could have planned that better if I had tried.”
