Thanksgiving: Steps to Save Money

Consider these Thanksgiving steps to save money. Thanksgiving celebrations embrace piety, thrift, simplicity, and, most of all, culinary skills. While we enjoy putting together a Thanksgiving meal, running up the bill with too many extras or too much food is not unusual. These five steps might save some money:

• Preparation
• Making choices
• Budget for Quantity
• Look for Deals
• Deploy relatives or friends to create Entrees.

Preparation

For a successful Thanksgiving celebration, start with preparation. This is a great place to discover ways to save money. Plan your meal, determine a budget and check your shopping list against it.

One major celebration factor to calculate is how many people attend the celebration. Today, Thanksgiving celebrations range from a small dinner to a big traditional turkey feed with a house full of relatives.

Ask the Basic Questions

The party’s size determines many things, including the Four Ws: Who’s coming? Who’s hands are available to help? When are they coming? When will your home be overwhelmed? What to do about the meal, the oerdeurvers, the desserts, the drinks?

And finally, How does anybody pull this stuff off? Start with a grocery list. After all, people are coming for turkey dinner. Everything else is just gravy, no pun intended. Your grocery list should be complete with everything necessary, including a list of places to buy the stuff.

When planning, the first question is: Where do you want to be when all those people come through the door on Thanksgiving Day? The answer? The table all set with the turkey out of the oven and the post-meal rituals lined up. You want to relax just before the celebration starts.

Organize the efforts directed at the one place you want to be.

Food Choices

Want a turkey recipe? Check this site for a champagne turkey recipe. I add a step between seven and eight, placing the turkey in the fridge overnight, then pulling it out in the morning and putting it in the oven. I substitute the champagne with a yeast-fermented homemade ginger ale to save money. With the homemade ginger ale, I can serve this bird with my best silver — and I’ve discovered other Thanksgiving steps to save money.

Inventory the kitchen and discover available foods that will work in the meal. That could knock a few things off the grocery list, and the shopping effort has already begun with a money-saving step.

Budget for Quantity

One item rarely on people’s lists is the idea of too much. “Hi Aunt Marie, you’ve made too much food!” is not an unusual lament. So it might be prudent to plan the meal with the number of people involved, how much food can be used for leftovers, and who in your crowd might want to take food home.

Remember, while leftovers represent real thrift, they’re suitable for no more than two days after the meal and should be frozen to store for a week or two. Want to keep reading for more Thanksgiving steps to save money?

The amount of beverages can be calculated too, which saves money when purchasing drinks.

Look for Deals after Halloween

Seasonal stuff is often on sale at different times of the autumn, during the holiday season starting after Halloween, and at various sales during the year. Take advantage of early sales to stock your pantry.

Speaking of inventory, now’s the time to recall those beautiful gifts received in the past, like expensive tablecloths, attractive cookware, and heritage silverware. Consider pulling it all out and using them. They’ll dress up a Thanksgiving at no cost.

The same applies to table settings like napkins, thanksgiving-themed paper plates, and orange plastic ware. If splurging for a new china set doesn’t seem practical, go with colorful paper table settings and save a lot of money, and the clean-up is so much easier. Buy Thanksgiving table settings in sets of twenty-five. Be sure to have a couple of large garbage bags available for waste.

The larger the group, the more people forgive servers for paper plate settings, but the seasonal stuff is a sure winner, as ordinary paper plates may look pedestrian. Read on for more Thanksgiving steps to save money.

No Turkey Alternative?

If you’ve always served an alternative meat alongside the turkey (gee, some people don’t like turkey), consider forgetting the second meat alternative. Substitute an inexpensive vegetable instead. Maybe serve corn bake, candied sweet potatoes, and french fried onion blooms, for example.

Deploying Entrees

Swedish meatballs can be a real chore to make. Ask the person who is always demanding Swedish meatballs, ham, or seafood to make the alternative meat and bring it to the meal.

Menu demands might be a smart way to deploy other parts of the Thanksgiving meal to people coming over. Or encourage anybody who asks, “Can I bring something?” Answer with, “You could bring cornbread, cranberries, pies, or other dessert dishes (suggest they stick to pies)” if they’d like to bring them. I used to carry a sweetbread as an offering to all my Mom’s Thanksgiving meals. Everyone seemed grateful.

Bidden or unbidden, many relatives splurge for wine, sodas, or snacks. Pitch such a notion to them as a time-saver. For instance, cite the lack of time as the issue when going to the store. Tell them to bring a pound of butter! Outsourcing will save money. In the same spirit, do not be shy if anybody offers to help financially by chipping in cash. Accept the offer.

Dine Out

In some circumstances, save money by not cooking at all. Who needs a big turkey dinner if it’s only a couple looking for a Thanksgiving meal? One option is to go to the local Co-op’s turkey dinner. In my experience, the table setting is outstanding (white tablecloth and expensive napkins make up for ordinary flatware), and the home-style turkey dinner comes with all the fixings. It’s an excellent way for just a couple to celebrate Thanksgiving.

While I can’t recommend it for a group, it’s a godsend for one or two people. A meal like this is an excellent alternative since two people can’t consume a whole turkey. And it’s inexpensive, not to mention that it’s pretty chore-free. Dining out can cost ten bucks a plate if you shop around.

In the End

In truth, Turkey Day traditions take over once the meal has been served. There’s football to watch on TV. The guests take long walks outside after such a feed or find a place to nap. The best Thanksgiving party is the one that fizzles out after a few hours.

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