How to Shop Early for Thanksgiving

All of the food to feed large amounts of people during the Thanksgiving holiday can be very expensive, especially for those on a tight budget. Shop early for Thanksgiving and either save money, or at least spread the costs out over a longer time period.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Find out how many people will be attending your Thanksgiving event. Shopping is much different for two people than it is for ten people. While you are making your list, take into account any allergies or preferences your guests may have. Someone may have a nut allergy that needs to accounted for (or at least inform the guest if an allergen is in the recipe), or your uncle may love your apple pie above anyone else's.

2. Create a Thanksgiving menu. List every recipe that you will be using then list all the ingredients in each recipe. Add any items that you will buy and not make from scratch. Be sure to add every item you will need. You do not want Thanksgiving Day to arrive and then realize you forgot to buy yeast rolls.

3. Estimate how much your Thanksgiving dinner will cost, and then spread the cost out over several weeks before the big dinner. If your dinner will cost one hundred dollars, then if you begin shopping two months before Thanksgiving, you will only have to spend about thirteen dollars a week. This is an excellent way to buy Thanksgiving dinner when on a tight budget. If your Thanksgiving dinner will cost more than one hundred dollars, or if you cannot budget out that much a week then give yourself extra weeks to prepare.

4. Search for sales and coupons each week before you go grocery shopping, specifically for the items on your Thanksgiving dinner list. By shopping several weeks beforehand and by looking for sales and coupons in those weeks, you may even find that the one hundred dollars you had expected to pay for your Thanksgiving dinner ends up much less.

5. Buy items that will not expire, first. It will not do you any good to buy fresh cranberries if they spoil a month before Thanksgiving. Many of the items used for Thanksgiving dinner can be bought ahead of time. The turkey can be bought as soon as you see a good deal since it is generally frozen. Any items that are frozen can be shopped for ahead of time as well as flour, sugar or canned items. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, you should only have fresh items left to buy.

Tips & Warnings

• If you cannot afford to buy all of the food, have each of your guests bring a dish.
• If you cannot shop early, then at least put back money each week for the cost of the meal.

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