I read a news story that highlighted a survey about this upcoming Thanksgiving in the US. The survey asked if folks would skip Thanksgiving altogether because of our current high inflation, and 25% responded "yes." 1 in 4 Americans feel priced out of celebrating Thanksgiving. The survey also asked if folks would consider measures to reduce the cost of the meal. These measures included paying attention to deals, using coupons, start shopping early, sticking to a grocery list, comparing prices, buying in bulk, shopping the pantry first, planning leftovers for the turkey, skipping travel, and buying a smaller turkey. While I think these measures could help a family save some money on their Thanksgiving plans, I also think they missed several thrifty ideas.
Here are a few of my alternatives:
- choose a different main course. If turkey is too expensive, buy a whole chicken and roast that instead.
- focus on the cheap traditional Thanksgiving foods -- potatoes, onions, carrots, bread stuffing, and cabbage and build the bulk of the menu with those foods.
- find substitute ingredients for the more costly ones such as this recipe for sautéed onions and bread crumbs in place of Durkee's fried onions in green bean casserole
- bake the dessert at home instead of buying a ready-made pie. If someone doesn't feel capable of making a pie crust from scratch, skip the pie and bake a pumpkin sheet cake (in the pan) and frost with simple buttercream frosting. If canned pumpkin is too expensive, cook up the Halloween Jack o' lantern. Here are four methods for cooking whole pumpkins.
- host a potluck and assign menu categories (salad, vegetable side dish, starchy side dish, dessert) to each attendee.
- host a Thanksgiving brunch, tea, or hot dog cook-out instead of the traditional turkey dinner. (We had a hot dog cookout for Thanksgiving 2020, for other reasons, but enjoyable nonetheless.)
- if the cost of travel is out of budget for both Thanksgiving and Christmas or Hanukkah, choose one of the two holidays for traveling out of area and celebrate both special days, just one or two days apart. I know a family where the kids are grown and married. The parent couple "got" Thanksgiving weekend (instead of Christmas week) for all grown kids and spouses/grandkids. So they celebrate Thanksgiving on the traditional Thursday, then Christmas on the Saturday of that same weekend. It's not quite the same as being able to go to a Christmas Eve or Day church service together as the whole family, but they're grateful to get to spend holiday time as a large family.
- if any travel at all is out of budget, you can still have a wonderful Thanksgiving meal. Find other "orphaned" families/friends to celebrate with. For most of our marriage, we haven't had a single family member outside of our small group. We've hosted many "orphans" and have been lucky to be asked to many other families' celebrations. And we've caught up with out of town family with long phone chats early on the big day.
From what I've read, the original pilgrims likely didn't have a turkey at their first Thanksgiving. According to New England.com, they likely ate duck, geese, venison, shellfish, corn, nuts, and possibly cranberries, currants, corn bread or corn pudding, onions, beans, pumpkins and/or squashes. No green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, pie, or mashed potatoes. I think we get ourselves into a rut thinking that everything has to be exactly as we had it before and resist changes to family traditions. The fact is, this isn't the first Thanksgiving that many, many folks have struggled financially and won't be the last either. My thinking is that we should find alternatives that do work within our budgets and make the most of the holiday. I hope those 25% that have decided they'll just skip Thanksgiving will reconsider. Anyway, just my thoughts.
If you couldn't afford the typical American trimmings for Thanksgiving (or even Christmas, as the economy is not likely to fix itself between now and December), what tips and tricks would you employ to make your holiday celebration affordable?
