Christmas Dinner (All Aldi) for $2.12 per person
Aldi is the best place to get groceries for the holidays while staying on a budget. This Christmas Meal plan will keep the cost down to about $2.12 per person and can easily be changed to fit your number of guests. Check the bottom of the post for a shopping list to get everything you need!
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Main dish: Appleton Farms Spiral Sliced Half Ham
Ham is a classic Christmas dinner main dish and is generally cheap and easy to prepare. At the time of writing this the Spiral Sliced ham from Aldi is $0.95/lb which is a great price for a main dish especially because you will not lose much weight from cooking, bones, trimmings, ect. You should plan on one half pound per guest so going with Aldi ham would be about $0.48/serving. Get a ham that is a bit bigger incase there is an extra guest and to have leftovers for sandwiches.
Aldi Christmas Dinner Side Dishes
You can choose from any of these side dishes or add your own it. I would go with at least two sides for a full meal and go with more sides if you are having guests or larger groups so everyone has options that work for them. If you are just cooking for you and your close family and you know what they like you can just pick out the two or three that everyone is going to like.
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
This is a classic side dish that goes well with ham and most other main dishes. I recommend going with mashed potatoes from scratch and I will base the meal price on this Basic Mashed Potatoes Recipe along with Aldi’s brown gravy mix. If from scratch mashed potatoes is too time consuming or intimidating go ahead and use one of Aldi’s instant potato mixes or Bob Evans refrigerated mashed potatoes. For the gravy you can use the mix along with the pain drippings from the ham or the mix by itself or using you own gravy recipe. The cost per serving I am including the cost of potatoes, butter, and milk based on being able to make a batch from 5lbs of potatoes which would be enough for about 10 people. You want to plan on about one half pound of potatoes and 1/4 cup gravy per guest. The total cost for the mashed potatoes would be about $6.97 or about $0.70 per person and you will have some leftover milk and butter for other dishes. The gravy packet makes about 4 servings if you don’t add any drippings and costs $0.35 per packer or about $0.09 per person for a total of $0.79 per person.
Aldi Frozen Vegetables: green beans, peas, corn, or a mix.
This is a quick and easy Christmas side dish that goes with everything. I like green beans to go with ham and mashed potatoes but you can go with whatever you like. You can go with fresh vegetables as well depending on the selection in your store and how comfortable you are with cooking them. For this meal I will base our pricing on using Season’s Choice Steam Cut Green Beans which is a 12 oz packet and about four servings for $0.85. The price per serving is about $0.23 per person.
Aldi Bread or Dinner Rolls
In my family we almost always have dinner rolls at holiday gatherings and oftentimes they are homemade by my grandmother which is tough to beat but Aldi does have very respectable bread and roll options. I recommend going with a option that you bake at home like Specially Selected Italian Bread or L’oven Fresh Brown & Serve Rolls. Crescent rolls or biscuits are another tasty and cheap option. Lets pick the Rolls which are $0.85 for a pack of 12 small rolls or $0.07 per bun. You probably want to plan on bout 2 rolls per person if using smaller rolls like these so lets call it $0.14 per person.
Aldi Holiday Deserts
Specially Selected Mini Eclairs or Cream Puffs– These are one of my favorite deserts from Aldi, find them in the freezer section and one box should serve 8-10 people. They are advertised at $4.79 right now or about $0.48 per person. This is what we will use in our meal price.
Bake Shop Apple Pie or Specially Selected Bourbon Pecan Pie– These are about $5 right now and look like they will serve about 6 good sized slices. The cost will end up being about $0.83 per person.
Any other Aldi deserts– Aldi has tons of desert options and they are often rotating week to week. I have been really impressed with their cheesecakes and just about every other desert we have tried.
Total cost for Christmas Meal from Aldi: $2.12 per person!
This is a super affordable way to celebrate and indulge without breaking the bank! Feel free to add in some appetizers or fancier side dishes or homemade deserts but if you just go with this you will have an easy to make Christmas dinner on a budget.
Aldi Christmas Meal Shopping List
- Appleton Farms Spiral Sliced Half Ham- one average ham (about 9 lbs) per 18 people: one half pound per guest ($0.48/serving). Pick a ham that is closest to the size you need but leftovers are likely unless you have a large gathering. Leftovers can be frozen or used in sandwiches, soup, scalloped potatoes, or with eggs for breakfast.
- Potatoes (red, gold, or russet)- one 5lb bag per`10 people : one half pound per guest ($3.29 for 5lb bag-10 servings or $0.33/serving)
- Milk- One half gallon for up to 32 people ($1.69 for .5 gal- need 1/4 cup per serving of mashed potatoes)
- Butter- 1 package (1lb) for up to 32 people: ($1.99 for a pound- need 1/2 tablespoon per serving of mashed potatoes + extra to spread on bread)
- Aldi Brown Gravy Mix- 1 packet per 4 people: ($0.35 per packet- makes 4 servings)
- Aldi Frozen Vegetable- 1 bag per 4 people: pick your favorites (Green beans are $0.85 for 4 servings or $0.23/serving)
- L’oven Fresh Brown and Serve Rolls- 1 package per 6 people: ($0.85 for 12 rolls- plan on 2 rolls/person or $0.14 per person)
- Specially Selected Mini Eclairs (or cream puffs)- 1 package per 8-10 people: $4.79 per box which is enough to serve 8-10 people (about $0.48/serving). Extras can be kept in the freezer for another time.
