Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for family gatherings and great eats! I know at my house this meal is steeped in traditional foods and memories of other great dishes we enjoy at this time of year. But we all know how much it can cost to create and serve all of those dishes that we love. When budgets are tight, there are some things we can do to help ease the cost. Check out these tips to help you this holiday!
5 Money Saving Tips for Thanksgiving
* Plan Ahead for the Best Savings – Start planning your meal early. By knowing what is on the menu means you can start buying ingredients early and getting all of the savings available. Clipping coupons, watching sales and snagging the deals will help reduce the cost and reduce last minute runs to the store for forgotten ingredients at full price.
* Keep it Simple – While it is nice to be able to serve Moms stuffing, Grandma’s sweet potatoes and your famous mashed potatoes, cutting back on some of the dishes will help save on the costs.
* Use the Pantry – Plan your meal around around what you already have. If your recipe require fancy ingredients that cost a lot, change it up and keep your meal a bit simpler for increased savings.
* Buy for Multiple Meals – Grab a bigger bird than you normally do and make sure to use it all. Even grab the free turkey that some grocery stores offer with purchase before the holiday. This way you can plan for more meals like shredding meat and freezing it for tacos, salads, turkey tettrazzini and other favorites. Also use the meat and bones for soup base, stock and gravy.
* Make it Potluck – Keep your Thanksgiving meal easy by making it potluck. I know it is easy to do the whole meal and not think about it but you can save quite a bit by assigning dishes for others to bring. It makes it fun and interesting too!
Have fun this Thanksgiving and save money too with some of these tips. What do you do to save money on holiday meals?
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(5 Money Saving Tips for Thanksgiving Dinner) All great ideas for keeping it within budget. My brother and I always check to see what is in the shelves and pantry first before making out our list-
I agree with all these great tips. it helps a ton to plan ahead and to not try to do too much. we just keep it simple and enjoy it all!
I am hosting Thanksgiving this year for a good sized crowd so I really appreciate these tips. There are traditional dishes that I make year after year that don’t get eaten so I have decided to do without them this year.
Great tips. I agree planning ahead is a must otherwise you may scramble and grab unnecessary things. Shop sales.
These are good tips. It is easy to get caught up and not realize how much you are spending. I need to keep it simple, I compile recipes all year for the holidays, then it seems impossible to keep it a few choice things!!! But it is so true!
I always plan ahead to get the best savings. I also have my daughter-in-law(s) make something and bring it so that I do not have to do all the cooking. I use some leftover turkey in other dishes and freeze some for later dishes.
I have to heed the first tip…I am constantly buying my turkey at the very last minute. Most times, I wind up with a frozen one that I have to defrost. Without fail, I am always making a trip to Walmart for at least one thing on Thanksgiving Day.
These are all great money saving tips. To save money on holiday meals we buy items on sale and we buy i bulk. Thank you for sharing this post.
Good tips. Holiday gifts and traveling are expensive. It’s great when you can save somewhere. We shop the holiday sales. Our grocery store even offers a buy a turkey get a ham deal. Great for two big dinners.
One of our regular grocery stores started selling frozen turkeys for 49 cents a pound last week, so we’ve already had one turkey dinner! I was careful to make sides different from the ones I usually make for Thanksgiving, though, so the holiday will still be special. We just have dinner for the two of us, so cooking for the holiday really isn’t a big expense, although I will make the meal a bit fancier than usual.
Good tips! Also most grocery store chains have a buy a ham get a turkey free or something similiar- I use the ham for Christmass since it snt too far away.
Oooh, great tips! Thank you!