How to Save Money on Thanksgiving Dinner
November 7, 2009 by Karen Weideman
Filed under entertainment, food, holidays, save-money, saving money
Many of you will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner at your house this year. It doesn’t take long to figure out that this feast can break your food budget. Here are some tips to help you to spend less and hang on to that money for upcoming Christmas expenses.
Prepare the foods yourself. Don’t go out to the ham store and order a precooked ham or turkey. I’ve heard of some people paying $30-40 for a precooked ham. Yikes!
Shop the pre-Thanksgiving sales. Some stores offer tremendous weekly specials to lure you in. Look for buy 1 get 1 free specials on vegetables, potatoes, stuffing, and frozen pies. When the turkey and sweet potatoes hit rock bottom prices, go ahead and buy those too. Make sure you freeze the turkey and follow these safety tips to avoid food-related illness.
Ask others to contribute. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner by yourself is a big undertaking and it’s costly too. Most people will ask what they can bring. I recommend suggesting something easy like a pie and green bean casserole. If you can’t think of anything at the moment, tell them you’ll get back to them in a few days. If the person doesn’t offer to bring anything, you can say, “Is there a special dish you like that you’d like to bring?”.
Borrow or use natural decorations. Avoid spending money or new decorations. See if someone has something you can borrow. If not, go outside and gather pretty fall colored leaves, pinecones, acorns, etc. If you’re looking to save money on new decorations, try stores like Michael’s and A.C. Moore. Many of them offer 50% off sales before the holiday. Sometimes The Dollar Tree has some good finds.
You might also want to read Tips for Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner.
What ways can you save on Thanksgiving dinner?
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There are LOADS of FREE coloring paper and crafts for kids to make with holiday themes on the internet. If you have kids, grand kids, nephews, nieces, cousins ect have them color and make crafts for your holiday decorating! This way they feel like they have contributed and will feel that they are an important part of the celebration. Best of all it’s FREE!
Great idea! I remember when I was in school we made turkeys from pinecones. There are all sorts of crafts and coloring activities that the kids can do.