For Michaela, a resident of Sector 4 and mother of an 11-year-old boy, the Month of Gifts is more stress than joy.

His bills for utilities, rent and subscription increased by 500 lei compared to last year. December 5 was Santa Claus, the 24th is Santa Claus, and the cost of the Christmas meal has drained her mentally, she says.

Michaela made her shopping list, drew a line at the end, and now begins to cut unnecessary dishes from the list. “I can handle gifts because Voyku is not demanding and I didn’t buy him expensive things. But we are reducing the budget for gifts for parents and relatives,” she says.

As for the Christmas meal, Mihaela says that last year it cost her 500 lei, and this year she would spend about 200 lei more for the same recipes. “At least this inflation made me miserable. And I prepared only the most necessary. Do the math for yourself and see if I’m not lying to you!” she told us in conclusion. So we set out to calculate based on the 8 main Christmas dishes.

“We didn’t make caltabosi this year either,” says Michaela. I would just pay the rent if I was doing kaltabosi too!”. Her son will have Christmas dinner with his father, but she invited her two sisters and parents to dinner. That it’s normal during the Holidays, let’s be together, she says. Mihaela is a teacher by profession. They earn little, and inflation hits the poor the hardest.

How I did it: I took the recipes of 8 traditional dishes and calculated the cost of the ingredients used. We averaged the prices at Carrefour, Auchan and Mega Image, where the products were available on the websites of the respective merchants. After that, all that remained was to collect. Final costs do not include the cost of electricity, water or gas used, as well as the cost of time spent in the kitchen. They also do not include costs for subsequent washing of dishes (detergent, water, etc.).

What should not be on the Christmas table in 2021

Our recipes look like this:

• 1. Sarmale (500 g of fatter minced pork, 1 medium chopped onion, 50 g of rice, 1 tablespoon of oil, salt, pepper, dried thyme, a little paprika, two medium sauerkraut (so that we have a choice of beautiful leaves). In addition, you need : 2 tablespoons of oil, 1 chopped onion, dried sprigs of thyme, 1 bay leaf (optional), 250 g of raw pork breast (with mouse), 250 g of smoked meat (ribs, kaisers, or even fresh smoked sausages), 500 ml of thick tomato juice (passata or thick), 500 ml of cabbage leaves

• 2. Beef salad: 700 g of veal, 500 g of chicken, 6-8 pickled cucumbers, 1 donut pickled in vinegar, 4 potatoes, 6 carrots, 1 parsnip, 1 small celery, 2 tablespoons of peas, mayonnaise from 2 yolks – 350-400 g, salt, pepper

• 3. Pifty: two pork legs, a larger piece of lean meat, peppercorns and bay leaves, garlic, 2 packets of gelatin, decorations: eggs, parsnips, carrots

• 4. Drum. Ingredients: 1.5 kg of pork legs (4 pieces), 1.5 kg of pork tongue (about 8-10 pieces), 500 g of pork heart, 500 g of pork kidneys, 1 kg of pork (from raw ham, leg or back ), 1.5 kg. bacon with mice (from pork belly). Seasonings: 80 g of non-iodized salt (special for pickles and the food industry) – divide into 2 parts, 30 g of freshly ground black pepper – divide into 2 parts, 50 g of paprika, 120 g of chopped garlic – divide into 2 parts. Optional: a little coriander, allspice. Additional: pork stomach or caecum, thick matés, chalk, bladder (main)

• 5. Sausages. Ingredients: 1 kg of pork leg, 1 kg of thigh (pork breast, 30 g of salt, 6 g of pepper, 1 spoon of sweet paprika, 6 g of thyme, 1 head of garlic, 400 ml of white dry wine, 4 m of pig intestine

• 6. Bake the pork in the oven: 1500-2000 g of pork leg (one piece), one spoonful of peppercorns, one spoonful of cumin, salt. Optional: sprigs of thyme, 2 medium white onions, 2 medium red onions, 5-6 cloves of garlic, 150 g lard.

• 7. Stuffed eggs: 1 box of pork pate, 1 bunch of dill, 6 eggs, salt, ground pepper, 1 tablespoon of cream, 10 g of butter, 2 tablespoons of mustard, 6 yolks.

• 8. Casserole: 1 kg of flour 000, 50 g of fresh yeast or 14 g of dry yeast, 350 ml (max. 400 ml) of warm milk, 250 g of sugar, 4 eggs, 150 ml of oil or 100 ml of oil and 100 g of melted butter, 3 sachets vanilla sugar or two teaspoons of extract or core of a vanilla pod, grated zest of 2 lemons and an orange, 15 g of salt (weigh!)

In addition, there is a need for wine serve boiled, with cinnamon. And obviously, past 3-4 strips, one water and one mineral.

Like Michaela, we removed caltabos from the menu. I didn’t even put the fruit that is served after the meal.

I also assumed that I took a bottle of oil, a bag of salt, 1 kg of white and red onions, a bag of rice, 1 kg of flour, a bag of paprika, a jar of mustard, a carton of cream, 1 kg of sugar, a liter of milk, two lemons, an orange and 4 cloves of garlic .

The total average cost of these recipes plus wine 35 lei per bottle (700 ml) came to 720 lei

That’s right, the average budget that Romanians want to spend on the holidays – including gifts and Christmas food, it is about 1090 lei. For a Christmas meal, 42.5% of Romanians are ready to spend less than 300 lei, 33.8% – from 300 to 600 lei, and only 23.6% allocate a budget of more than 600 lei. The average budget allocated for gifts is 509 lei, and 65% of respondents want to fall under this ceiling, while only 9.5% plan to spend more than 1,000 lei. Regarding the Christmas tree, 13% say that they will not decorate the tree, 56% will use an artificial Christmas tree from previous years, and 30.5% say that they will buy a Christmas tree with a maximum budget of 150 lei. a recent survey shows.

Inflation is reported INS in December (valid for the prices of the previous month) speaks of food prices rising by more than 21%. If we look at the increase in the prices of the ingredients we used, we find that there are larger increases for some food items: oils, butter, flour and sugar, ie. exactly those ingredients that are most often used for a Christmas meal.