If you’re the one doing all the cooking and hosting for Thanksgiving dinner this year – this post is for you! We wanted to give you a few ideas and reminders of the best ways to save your money and your sanity! It can be a daunting task making a huge spread for your family and friends and with the economy still not great, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed! Most of us still don’t have the disposable income we may have once had, so here’s a few tips to help save some money while you prepare this week!
- Make a reasonable budget and stick to it! Write out a guest list so you know exactly how many are planning to attend. You can make out lists for your grocery shopping trip(s) and try to stick to it as much as possible. Did you know that most of us spend over 60% of our grocery bill on things we don’t have on our list?! Here’s an idea from America’s Cheapest Family – put a basket inside your shopping cart and put anything that’s NOT on your list into the basket. Just before you check out you can easily see just how many things you’ve put into your cart that weren’t on your list and you may decide to keep a few things or put a few things back, but this could you save you a TON of money!
- Don’t be afraid to ask family and friends to each bring a dish with them! This will help you feel less stressed putting everything under the sun together on the big day and people love to get involved and help out! You can delegate veggies, salads or desserts.
- If you plan well enough you can feed your family on left overs for the next several days after Thanksgiving. My mom always makes turkey pot pies that are out of this world! You can also make great sandwiches, casseroles and soups! All Recipes has over 180 recipes for left overs from Thanksgiving dinner!
- It may seem intimidating, but try to make as much as you can from scratch, this will save you so much money and it’s healthier! These days you can find a video to show you exactly how to make something yourself when reading the recipe seems a little too cryptic and confusing!
- And finally, if you are local to Cincy, check out Cincy Savers, which lists ALL the local stores and a link to their weekly circulars! Hopefully this will help you find great sales this week to get all your Thanksgiving day needs!
What are your tips and tricks to save $ during the holidays? Have any favorite Thanksgiving traditions??! We would love for you to share them with us!
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