Thanksgiving dinner costs soar

[janniecooks]

Not surprisingly, the cost of the traditional turkey dinner is up more than 13% this year over last year:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi...

[jeanmarieok]

You know, a bunch of Thanksgiving components have been on sale at Kroger for the last couple of weeks, including all the makings for the famous green bean casserole, etc. I am thinking this will be an inexpensive Thanksgiving this year. Even sweet potatoes were .49 last week.

[FrankD]

This is kind of amusing, in that there's a post elsewhere on Chowhound on a "low price" Thanksgiving dinner for EIGHT that's just under $100. The linked article details a dinner for TEN for $49.

Simplest way to cut costs that I know: buy a utility grade bird. It'll probably be missing a wing, or maybe a drum, but they're about $0.89/lb or less, so a 20-lb turkey won't even set you back $20. Carve it away from the table, and you might miss some of the "oohs" and "aahs", but chances are no one will notice what's missing (especially if you buy a turkey wing/drum to replace the missing part), and you`ll actually get more meat per diner than a $20 Grade A bird would provide.

[acgold7]

Grade A Birds are on sale all over the country (or will be by next week) for 29 cents a pound or less, usually with a minimum purchase at a market. I bought two today, a 28-pounder for about eight bucks, and a thirty pounder for less than nine, by splitting up my regular shopping into two pieces, getting the first bird, putting it in the car with the first half, and going back and getting the second Bird with the second qualifying purchase.

You just gotta pay attention to the circulars in the mail or go to your local markets' websites to see the deals.

Both birds are Grade A and have all their parts and are from the same packer, same brand, but interestingly, the 30 pounder is an all-natural, unbasted specimen with nothing added, while the 28-pounder is basted/injected.

This particular store has two-for-one sales on all the classic basic mirepoix veg today, and down the street they have a ten pound bag of taters for $1.99 this week. So I know my protein cost is about $.29 per person, and the potato cost of the mash is about $.10. Sure, there's lots of other stuff, but I have a hard time seeing where I'm going to exceed $2.50 per person this year.

Large discussion on this already underway in General Topics.

[coll]

$.39 is the cheapest I have seen in recent years around here. They usually start the beginning of November, but this week is the first time it's offered at my regular supermarket. No name brands though.

I managed to get a free turkey at BJs by buying 4 other things that I will use. But it was supposed to be Butterball; they ran out and subbed Carolina, which annoyed me a bit. Oh for the days of multiple free turkeys!

[FrankD]

See, this is the difference between living in Canada and the US. Canada persists in having food "supply management boards", where producers are assigned quotas, and consumers pay the price. A Butterball turkey is usually $1.79/lb; you might find it on sale for $1.29 from time to time. Even no-name Grade A birds are rarely less than $1/b.

Similar problems exist in eggs ($1.99/doz on sale, usually $2.29-$2.49), milk ($4 gal) and other dairy products. My wife regularly drives the 90 minutes from Toronto to Buffalo to stock up on eggs, butter, flour, and other staples that are much more expensive here.

[coll]

And my Mom crosses the border into Canada for liquor and prescription drugs. These turkeys are wholesaling for $1.29, so they are actually giving them away (for a nominal fee) to get you in the store to buy everything else. Maybe we pay higher taxes?