A Frugal Thanksgiving

So what do y’all do to make Thanksgiving a little more affordable?

Here’s what we do:

1. Have a potluck with all your stuck-at-home buddies (or ask your guests to bring a dish). This year there’s only four of us, but dividing  the cost and preparation of dinner will reduce the cost (and work) for everyone. We’re on mashed potatoes and stuffing duty this year.

2. Quality, not variety. Sometimes you have to make an extra dish or two because of family tradition, but remember you don’t need nine different kinds of vegetables or five kinds of mashed tubers. Just make one kind of each dish, but search out the absolute best recipe you can and make sure that there’s plenty of it. (This year is: Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green beans and rolls. Mmmmmm…)

3. Don’t get trendy. Every year the celebrity chefs come out with crazy new takes on our favorite dishes. While it’s okay to experiment, you don’t want to deal with 5 lbs of leftover stuffing the no one wanted to eat.

4. Make as much as you can from scratch. Sure, dinner rolls in a can are easy, but the cost of making them by hand is incredibly low for the quantity. If you have trouble keeping up with all the work, enlist some volunteers to help with specific dishes.

5. Get creative with your leftovers. It doesn’t have to be sandwiches. Try a turkey based “shepherd’s” pie to use up turkey and potatoes. The stuffing could be part of another casserole.

6. Remember you can freeze leftovers. I don’t know about you, but after three days of turkey on white for lunch, I start craving post-Easter egg salad. When you get sick of leftovers, pack up a few meal sized portions and stick ‘em in the back of the freezer. In a month or two, you’ll look forward to turkey again.

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