Inexpensive Thanksgiving Dinner – How to Save on Thanksgiving Dinner

Save money making your traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year! These easy tips make your Thanksgiving feast less expensive and reduce the stress!

Here are some easy ways to save money making your traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year! These easy tips make your Thanksgiving feast less expensive and reduce the stress!

Inexpensive Thanksgiving Dinner – How to Save on Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving can be a great opportunity to enjoy time with family and friends, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed at the thought of everything that you need to do, especially if you’re preparing a big Thanksgiving feast. By making some simple changes to the way you approach some of the Thanksgiving preparation, you can save time and money and spend more time enjoying your Thanksgiving dinner and less time dreading it! Here are a few tips to help you make this Thanksgiving more fun and less stressful!

For More Ways To Save On Thanksgiving, Check Out Our Video!

How To Save On Turkey At Thanksgiving And All Year

Larger turkeys are usually less expensive so buy the largest one you can. I hear some of you groaning now about what to do with all those leftovers because you really don’t need a 22 pound turkey for 6 people. Not to worry — just don’t bake the whole thing.

I discovered one year by accident that my butcher (at a regular national chain grocery store) would cut the turkey in half for me. Even if it is frozen, he can still cut the turkey in half. This discovery really changed my life. (That sounds dramatic, but I was really having a problem becoming “one” with my turkeys.)

I suddenly had the revelation that I didn’t have to deal with the mounds of leftover turkey that haunted my post-Thanksgiving menu for years. I had just enough for a good old turkey sandwich and some soup. I mean Thanksgiving really isn’t Thanksgiving without a few leftovers, is it?

It was so much easier to handle and prepare an 11 pound turkey rather than to manhandle a 22 pound one. Getting the turkey cleaned and into the pan was a breeze and getting it in and out of the oven was just plain simple.

Just wrap the other half and freeze it to use for Christmas. I’ve often made ham for Christmas just because by Christmas we are so sick of turkey that we don’t want to think of preparing another one — ever! If there are fewer leftovers after your Thanksgiving dinner, your family might not mind having turkey again. Then you would have one less thing to buy for Christmas dinner.

If you still don’t want to have turkey for Christmas, save it for some cold day in January. If you have a large enough crockpot, cook the turkey in the crockpot. If not, cook it on very low in the oven so that it slow cooks all day. It is amazingly delightful it is to come home to the yummy smell of slow cooked turkey!

Save On Thanksgiving Pies That Taste Better!

Save money by making your own pies instead of buying the expensive pre-made ones. If the thought of making pie crust is too daunting, just buy a ready made crust. They are usually on sale for very little around Thanksgiving.

It really isn’t that hard to make the filling for most pies. Pies are often easier to make than cakes or cookies. If you like the traditional pumpkin pie, most cans of pumpkin have the recipe on the back. I also know of a really good cookbook that includes the recipe called Dining on a Dime Cookbook, Volume 1. HA! HA!

If your family and friends aren’t fussy about having the traditional pumpkin pie, you can make banana cream, chocolate, or butterscotch pie. Just mix a box of banana pudding and pour it into a baked pie crust. Cover it with sliced bananas and whipped topping. For the chocolate pie, use chocolate pudding with chocolate chips in it and cover it with whipped topping. For the butterscotch, use butterscotch pudding and whipped topping and sprinkle with butterscotch chips. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

You don’t have to make so many pies that you could open a bakery. I have found that most kids are just as happy with a platter of cookies. Don’t overdo it. You’ll just wear yourself out! If you have time, make the cookies in the shapes of pumpkins and turkeys.

Save On Thanksgiving Sides And Relish Dishes

Save money on your relish dish. Buying ingredients for a relish dish can get expensive, especially where we live. One year I paid more for my relish dish items than my turkey. If you have this problem, only use 3 or 4 vegetables on the relish dish instead of 10 and cut out on the more expensive vegetables. Broccoli and cauliflower are very high priced for us so, if I needed to save, I would probably use carrots and celery. Fill the celery with cheese or peanut butter or cut them into fancy shapes. On this occasion, the turkey is the star and most people won’t even notice that you cut back on the relish dish.

Don’t make so many side dishes– Like I said, the turkey, gravy and mashed potatoes are more important for your traditional Thanksgiving dinner than everything else. By the time everyone stuffs themselves on those, they only eat a token amount of the side dishes. Why? —Because, of course, everyone wants to save room for dessert!!!!!

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Setting Up For An Easier Thanksgiving

Here are some easy tips to make setting up for Thanksgiving go a lot smoother:

Short of seating space for your holiday dinner? Pull out your ironing board (some of you may not remember what that is. HA!HA!). Throw a table cloth over it and it works great as a kids’ table. Because you can move it up and down to different heights you can adjust it to the height of the chairs that you have or to the heights of the kids.

No kids coming to your party or dinner? Use the ironing board as a buffet table. Once again, cover it with a table cloth and use it for platters of cookies, bowls of Chex Mix, etc.

The ironing board can work well as a serving table, too. If your dining table has room for everyone to sit but not enough room for all of the food, set up the ironing board close to the table (being narrow means it doesn’t take up much space) to hold the serving dishes. Then mom or grandma won’t need to jump up and run to the kitchen every time someone needs seconds.

Some ironing boards are a little wobbly but if you put your ironing board on a hardwood or tile floor or up against a wall, that will help. Use your own judgment in setting it up and determining what is light enough to put on it. I probably wouldn’t put my heavy crystal heirloom punch bowl full of punch on it, but a basket of dinner rolls, chips or cookies would work fine.

It seems that no matter what you do when setting up for Thanksgiving, there are always so many last minute things to do the moment before you get ready to set everything on the table. One of those last minute things is mashing the potatoes. This year, you can stay ahead of the game by mashing them early and keeping them warm in your crockpot. They will keep up to 2 hours on low in the crock pot and will be just as fresh as if you had just mashed them. Put them on low and grease your crock pot. They start going down hill after two hours, so don’t leave them in there any longer.

Cranberry sauce is always on sale for a very good price this time of year. Stock up on it and use it through out the year. You don’t need to save cranberry sauce just for Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. It makes a nice change from the usual side dishes you serve with chicken or ham in February or August. As an added bonus, it is really good for you. Don’t forget dried cranberries, too. They are great in homemade trail mixes (mix up some trail mix for Christmas gifts), or tossed into your favorite quick bread.

Would you like help preparing a Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner? Our Thanksgiving On A Dime e-book can give you peace and the confidence to know that you can do it! Learn More Here!