Cost of M & S Christmas food

Usedtobeblonde
My daughter in law says the early slots are walk-in-walk out.
She did it last year, Christmas Eve.
By later in the day there are also the people who missed their slots queuing apparently.

They just bring down slots by time here she says.

On Christmas Eve in recent years I’ve dropped into our local M&S food hall to find bargains galore during the last 2 hours of business. All their remaining party food reduced by 75%.

Last year on Christmas Eve, shortly before the shop closed for 2 days, I bought a £95 turkey crown for £15. There were piles of them. It was dated Boxing Day. I froze it for a few days and cooked it for the family on New Year’s Day.

It’s not a good strategy if it’s something you are relying on for Christmas dinner but I’ve found it a great way to stock up on treats that would normally be beyond my budget.

My nearest M&S is on an out of town shopping place. Totally inadequate parking, went there last Thursday drove round twice, no parking and left. December it is chaos. I went once and just queuing to get out of the car park took ages. No where near to park as it's just off a busy dual carriageway with no parking. Just not worth it for me, I'd be so stressed by the time I'd got in and out and no matter how wonderful the food I couldn't face it. I'll go to Sainsbury's, I've got an early slot and if the car park is busy there's lots of parking nearby.

My DS works for M and S, he said that despite paying a deposit for turkeys, people don’t always collect them! When he lived near me he would bring goods that were on sale, I was delighted with the £9 fillet of beef! Froze it, and made beef wellington later on.

Couldn’t believe the prices. I too just buy a few treats from there but can’t believe the prices this year! I’m so glad Aldi do a similiar brochure I’ll just have to pretend I got them mixed up!😂😂

Think it has to do with some of the animals being free range before slaughter. There was a recent Thread about killing methods. So, could be prices reflecting practices.

M0nica

Gold costs S4,000 an ounce. You will not get much gold in a £50 pie.😁

You are not going to get much Wagyu beef either, it is the most expensive food

Nandalot

In recent years, we have bought our Christmas meal from M and S. A turkey crown and the prepared selection of veg. There is plenty for Boxing Day as there is such an assortment of veg. that we save some items for that day. The prices are perhaps a little bit more expensive than last year, but then food prices have gone up generally. I used to do the full works but now with a pacemaker and an induction hob it is easier to do it this way. Additional trimmings are bought/ made separately. I never buy bread sauce because nothing touches homemade.

I looked at the complete Christmas dinner in the brochure. There will only be three of us for Christmas dinner, but we will be visiting others on the day, so saving on prep time would be an advantage. We thought of going out for Christmas dinner, but decided not to. Although the complete meal looks expensive compared to eating out, per person it’s not.
We also host a houseful on Boxing Day so anything left over is a bonus.

After I stopped making my own Christmas cakes and puddings, I bought both from M and S. They were really nice and I felt the price was good.

After a few years I won an Aldi Christmas cake in a raffle and it was actually even tastier than M and S and when I checked, much cheaper. So I buy them at Aldi now.

I push the boat out on the meat at Christmas, turkey and gammon, I buy the best, and I am quite unapologetic about it.

Not a cubic centimetre of the bird is wasted, the carcass is picked clean, divide into meal size portions and frozen and the carcass is rendered for stock. The same applies to the gammon, cooking it provides stock and every gramme is eaten. It is usually February before the final morsel of the Christmas meat is eaten.

The rest, mincemeat, mince pies, puddings and Yule log I make myself, well in advance, and freeze as appropriate. I do not serve vast quantities of veg and extras with the turkey because, even with seven of us a lot gets wasted. Just roast potatoes and sprouts, which we all love, with the meat, stuffing and gravy.

I used to work for a charity which supported children with special needs (and their families). We used to get donations of surplus food from M&S - the Xmas surpluses were unbelievable. A couple of years ago, we got so much donated that even after handing out food to all our families, we had so much left that we had to advertise it on local residents' forums and get people to come and collect it. Much of it included their top-of-the range turkeys and meat joints - originally selling for around £70, £80 and so on. There were literally crates and crates of food being given away - if we (and other local charity groups) hadn't taken them, they would have been dumped. What a waste...

ViceVersa

I used to work for a charity which supported children with special needs (and their families). We used to get donations of surplus food from M&S - the Xmas surpluses were unbelievable. A couple of years ago, we got so much donated that even after handing out food to all our families, we had so much left that we had to advertise it on local residents' forums and get people to come and collect it. Much of it included their top-of-the range turkeys and meat joints - originally selling for around £70, £80 and so on. There were literally crates and crates of food being given away - if we (and other local charity groups) hadn't taken them, they would have been dumped. What a waste...

We have a Community Fridge here where surplus food from supermarkets, local farms etc is collected and given away, no need for referrals from GPs or Social Services.

At £50 for a meat pie they can keep it.

Grannynannywanny

On Christmas Eve in recent years I’ve dropped into our local M&S food hall to find bargains galore during the last 2 hours of business. All their remaining party food reduced by 75%.

Last year on Christmas Eve, shortly before the shop closed for 2 days, I bought a £95 turkey crown for £15. There were piles of them. It was dated Boxing Day. I froze it for a few days and cooked it for the family on New Year’s Day.

It’s not a good strategy if it’s something you are relying on for Christmas dinner but I’ve found it a great way to stock up on treats that would normally be beyond my budget.

This is a great way to go if you have the time and can take the risk. We have done it a few times and it reduces the time we have to go shopping between Christmas and the New Year.

I know this is probably the major time for food retailers and I don't mind splashing out at a special time of year but I hate the feeling of being ripped off.

£195 for M&S beef wellington to feed six people anyone?

A few years ago we did an M&S Christmas (at our daughter’s behest) and it wasn’t good.
Shan’t be getting anything from them this year, we live too far from one.

glammagran

£195 for M&S beef wellington to feed six people anyone?

Whole Beef Fillet from an artisan butcher is £132.00 - without the paté and pastry!!

We saw some beef on Tesco which was £58 per kg the other week.

The cost of production has gone up, of course, and farmers now have to put money aside to pay for that inheritance tax.

Grannynannywanny

On Christmas Eve in recent years I’ve dropped into our local M&S food hall to find bargains galore during the last 2 hours of business. All their remaining party food reduced by 75%.

Last year on Christmas Eve, shortly before the shop closed for 2 days, I bought a £95 turkey crown for £15. There were piles of them. It was dated Boxing Day. I froze it for a few days and cooked it for the family on New Year’s Day.

It’s not a good strategy if it’s something you are relying on for Christmas dinner but I’ve found it a great way to stock up on treats that would normally be beyond my budget.

I might do that as I'll be cooking after Christmas 🤞

And, if there's nothing left, there should be more stock coming in for New Year anyway, Grannynannywanny

My local M&S (food only) has stopped online collection so I'll be saving money this year !

So many Christmas foods bought from M & S and Waitrose have been disappointing. I have gone back to making everything myself in early December and freezing it. I like free range turkey from Aldi and use every scrap, including the carcass for stock.

I'm making my own beef, carrot and mushroom pie as we speak. I will make my own pastry [contains egg yolk, iced water, butter and plain flour} and bake it for half an hour. I wonder how much it would cost in the shops?

The increase certainly isn't because they're paying for more staff to man the tills. They'll be expecting customers to stack the shelves next!

Desdemona

Desdemona

The food is still made by the same minimum wage people as other supermarkets, just there is a slightly different recipe and a tiny bit more spent on ingredients.

I should add a caveat here, in that I don't work for M&S but from what I have gathered from the media all the big supermarkets use similar/the same supply chains for their food offerings.

They do, but they are not the same. Factories have separate production lines for different customers. The idea that all supermarkets sell the same (non-branded) products is a myth, as is the idea that branded and supermarket products are the same. (I'm not saying they are better or worse, but they are not identical).

Sainsbury’s had half price lamb leg joints on Sunday. Good to freeze for the festive season dear Gransnetters 😊