what is everyone spending on their thanksgiving meal?

[Anonymous]

You can certainly cook a Thanksgiving meal for $50. Cheap turkey ($12 on sale), 5 LB. sack of potatoes ($3), winter squash is cheap this time of year ($4); 2 bags of seasoned stuffing ($4); and cranberries ($5), say. Big bag of greens ($5) and that gets you to $33. Add another $5 for milk, butter and spices for the meal. That leaves $12 for some pie crust, canned pumpkin for pumpkin pie, and coffee and drinks for the kids.

[Anonymous]

We're spending around $400 for 8 people, but that includes shrimp for nibbles and wine. It's really hard to imagine doing Thanksgiving dinner for $50, and I'm always skeptical about self-reporting on spending, but I volunteer with a faith-based meal program and we routinely feed 40 people for $150.

[Anonymous]

$200 or so. I'm feeding 8 people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's insane! It must be all canned/frozen. We buy the $80 cooked turkey from WF and I've probably spent another $150 for apps, sides, and drinks. All sides will be from scratch and mostly organic. There are just 5 of us, so there will be leftovers.

That sounds like us -- we did the ready to cook from balduccis plus sides, drinks, desserts. I have no idea how someone does it for $50 without getting crazy frozen deals.

[Anonymous]

In real America, many grocery stores give away the turkeys or sell them for a few dollars as a loss leader to get you into the store to buy the rest of your groceries. So if the turkey is free, the trimmings probably add up to fifty dollars. Bag of potatoes, can of cranberries, pumpkin, evaporated milk, frozen green beans, etc, etc etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's insane! It must be all canned/frozen. We buy the $80 cooked turkey from WF and I've probably spent another $150 for apps, sides, and drinks. All sides will be from scratch and mostly organic. There are just 5 of us, so there will be leftovers.

That sounds like us -- we did the ready to cook from balduccis plus sides, drinks, desserts. I have no idea how someone does it for $50 without getting crazy frozen deals.

See my post at 7:59

potatoes, squash, bread, greens are not expensive items.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That sounds way low.

+1.
We spent $50 just on ingredients for oyster stuffing.

[Anonymous]

http://www.fb.org/index.php?action=newsroom.news_article&id=191

The $50 covers turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, peas, sweet potatoes, rolls and pumpkin pie for 10 with leftovers, as well as things like butter and milk and a "relish tray" of carrots and celery. Nothing canned, boxed or processed except the pumpkin, the pie crust and the bread for the stuffing.

[Anonymous]

I spent that much on oysters! Thanksgiving can't happen without scalloped oysters on the table. Plus I bought A turkey from Moms not cheap!

[Anonymous]

Holy crap! $80 for a cooked turkey? Too lazy to cook? Thanksgiving is a cheap meal: stuffing from a few loaves of homemade bread, some sausage and rice. The veggies don't cost all that much. It's only expensive if you pay someone else to do the work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In real America, many grocery stores give away the turkeys or sell them for a few dollars as a loss leader to get you into the store to buy the rest of your groceries. So if the turkey is free, the trimmings probably add up to fifty dollars. Bag of potatoes, can of cranberries, pumpkin, evaporated milk, frozen green beans, etc, etc etc.

Not like in fake america

[Anonymous]

Frozen turkeys are much cheaper. Giant had them on sale for 8$. You could do thanksgiving for $50 if you had to. That said, I ended up throwing my 8$ turkey away after I tried to defrost in the microwave the day before. Then had to pay around $25 for a fresh turkey at WF. The vegetable sides were a little pricey since I bought organic and I bought the pie instead of making my usual dessert. I spent about $175 for 3 people. But we have leftovers and I have turkey soup/stock frozen for the next six months.

[Anonymous]

$400 for 10 people. Turkey was $80 from a local farm. Made all the rest from scratch except pumpkin pie filling, and used good ingredients. That includes drinks too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea but considering I can't figure out how to cook regular dinner for 2 adults and a toddler for less than $50, I'm pretty sure I'm hundreds over the national average.

Me again. Grand total was $600 for 4 adults and a toddler. Wine not included. I don't even know how this is possible.

What in the world did you buy?

[Anonymous]

About $400 for 4 people. But it lasts the whole 4 day weekend.