There is a lot to be said about working from home. Never is it more obvious how different the environment is than during the holidays. My home is decorated for Christmas. Not the holidays, Christmas. Even my office is decorated for Christmas. I don’t have to worry about offending a coworker with my Christmas music. I don’t have to play Secret Santa and I don’t have to navigate the minefields that are the holiday parties. There is no company party, no coworkers having parties. Not only do I save a bundle on the clothing that would be necessary for these events but I also save a lot on food. I don’t have to take goodies to the office and I don’t have to pitch in for a potluck.
My Christmas season list includes tons of cookies and candies for family and close friends. I’ll cook special dinners on Christmas day and New Years Eve.
Christmas dinner will be a ham centered feast, there will be sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs, salad, broccoli and cheese casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls and apple pie. New Years Eve will just be the two of us and we’ll have a midnight supper of filet mignon, sautéed scallops, baked potatoes, rolls and salad. The ham itself was purchased on sale and I had a coupon to boot. I ended up paying .35 cents a pound. I paid .12 cents a pound for the sweet potatoes.
I’ve become a big fan of extreme couponing in the last year and save nearly a hundred dollars a month on groceries. Due to the coupon savings along with the local specials in my grocery stores, I will be spending in the neighborhood of around $40 on both meals. Most of that will be spent on the Christmas dinner. Considering that the leftovers from Christmas will last nearly the whole week before New Years Eve, that isn’t bad.
The cost of the cookies, cakes, pies and candies that I make yearly will actually top the cost of the main meals. The way I look at it is that I only do this once a year. Only at Christmas do I make fudge and caramels; cookies and cakes to this extent. This is a tradition that is worth it to my family. There are other ways to save money and cut back that don’t involve out holiday treats. We will take advantage of those methods while eating fudge.