Thanksgiving brings families together for good meals and good conversation, but the cost of preparing the meal can be expensive. If you are hosting Thanksgiving at your home this year, you can have a good spread without spending a lot of money. Here are five Thanksgiving saving tips that can help you make your Thanksgiving meal for less.
Focus On Favorites
For every family, there are Thanksgiving favorites and foods that only a few people will eat. Focus your meal on the things that the most people enjoy to avoid paying for and preparing food that may be wasted. If you are unsure of which foods to focus on, send out an email or call the people that will be coming to see what foods they would enjoy the most.
Start With What You Have At Home
Many of the ingredients used to make a Thanksgiving meal are things that we keep around the house for daily cooking. Before heading out to the store, make a list of the ingredients that you already have at home to avoid buying more than you actually need. If your recipes call for a small quantity of a spice you do not have, ask around first before buying a whole container of a spice you rarely use.
Plan Portions
Take the time to plan how much food you’ll need for the number of people scheduled to come to your Thanksgiving dinner. Websites like Instructables.com have calculators you can use to determine what you will need to create the number of portions desired. Using this type of calculator will help you buy the right amount of ingredients and avoid wasting food.
Find The Best Turkey Deal
Many stores offer turkeys as a loss leader during the weeks before the Thanksgiving holiday, meaning they will heavily discount the turkeys in hopes of getting you in the door to buy other things. Look through the sales fliers of your local grocery stores to see who is offering the best deals on turkeys. Last year, one local grocery store was giving away a turkey free with a $30 purchase. Another was selling them for $0.29 per pound with an additional $10 purchase.
Plan A Potluck
Just because you are hosting the meal doesn’t mean that you have to be responsible for preparing everything. Focus your efforts on the main entree and the tableware, while having the other participants bring a side dish or a dessert to share. Send around a sign-up sheet beforehand so you do not end up with multiples of the same items.