Save Money: Good Food

This week we are in Scarborough and we are road testing Christmas.

Matt is challenged to save money on the biggest and most expensive meal of the year. He will be raiding the kitchen to find treats to create homemade party food- and then he will be making a three course traditional Christmas feast for less than five pounds a head!.

Susanna is finding out how we can get the best value for money when we buy wine to go with our Christmas feast and we will be taste testing mince pies to find out which of the budget buys tastes best.

Susanna and Matt are in Essex with the Evans family.This family rely on premade sauces and packets for their meals and make nothing from scratch. Desperate to save money and take their children on holiday, shows them some fantastic family favourites – each for under a pound a head – to get them cooking and saving. With a classic fish pie and delicious chicken curry for less than a fiver for the family the Evans' cooking habits are transformed. Susanna is taste testing cola and pitting the supercheap with superbrand giant Coke to see which shoppers prefer. And as many of our favourite snacks seem to have fallen victim to ‘shrinkflation' – and we could be being charged the same amount for smaller packets - Susanna investigates how we can fight back and beat the shrink.

In this episode, Susanna and Matt join the Puri family in Kent. Stuck in a rut of cooking the same things week in week out, this family need some inspiration in the kitchen. Matt takes on the challenge to broaden their culinary horizons with light, bright and low-cost dishes; meanwhile, Susanna finds out which supercheap instant coffee shoppers prefer before putting the winner up against a market leader. Susanna also investigates how we could save hundreds of pounds in our weekly meat shop.