10 Ways To Save On Thanksgiving Dinner

10 ways to Save On Thanksgiving Dinner

One of the best meals of the year is Thanksgiving. It’s a chance to get filled to the rim with family and friends and enjoy that ever popular “Turkey Coma” feeling afterwards. And let’s not forget about all the crazy sales that will be starting on Thanksgiving Eve and Day, insane!

However, if you are hosting Thanksgiving for your family at your home or just cooking for your immediate family, the prices can quickly add up and make Thanksgiving easily a stretch in your normal food budget. I’m already in the early stages of planning my Thanksgiving menu. I plan to start shopping in just another week or so.

How can you save your sanity and wallet at this time of year? Check out these tips for saving money on Thanksgiving meals:

1. Start buying now. You can buy things that are shelf stable like stuffing, condensed milk and canned green beans months ahead of time. This will lessen what you have to buy as cooking time gets closer.

2. If you are hosting the meal at your home, ask others to make it like a potluck. Have everyone bring a side. Then, all you are responsible is refreshments and of course, the turkey.

3. Make as much as you can from scratch. Convenience foods are over-priced and let’s face it, are not nearly as good. Dinner rolls can cost as much as $1 each at the store, but if you make them, you can expect them to cost less than 10 cents each.

4. Pay attention to great deals that many grocery stores offer soon for free turkeys. Some stores offer a free turkey when you buy a certain amount of groceries near the holiday. You don’t have to buy your dinner groceries then, just plan to hold off until the promotion time to get your regular groceries and score this freebie. If you have a Meijer they usually have the best deals on a Turkey!

5.  Coupon, Coupon, Coupon. The holidays are one of the best times of the year to get your coupon game on. Look in Sunday papers, online, or even write your favorite brands for coupons. Combine these with holiday sales and stock up! And we will definitely have coupons and grocery deals for Thanksgiving! So be sure to stay tuned!

6. Don’t get caught up in expensive seasoning mixes. You can easily make your own poultry seasoning with sage, thyme, nutmeg and pepper.  Pumpkin pie spice is just cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.

7. If you are super strapped for cash, and want to do something good on the holiday as well, try volunteering for a soup kitchen’s Thanksgiving meal. Not only will you get a free meal and skip the stress, but you will do something amazing for others.

8. While not a suggestion for the actual meal, one big part of Thanksgiving is decorations, especially at the table. Try using natural found objects for this such as a nice arrangement of  Autumn leaves, pine cones and twigs. You can check out a recent one I posted here- Fall Table Decor

How do you save on Thanksgiving dinner? What are some of your favorite savings tips? Favorite recipes? Feel free to share them in the comment section!