Price Of Traditional Thanksgiving Meal Is Lower This Year
These are not the kind of savings that will make you stand outside in the cold for Black Friday savings but nevertheless, it does mean more money in your pocket. According to information recently released by the American Farm Bureau Federation, you and I won't be paying quite as much to gorge ourselves silly this Thanksgiving.
The study took into account ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving meal for ten including enough food for leftovers. The final cost for that meal was determined to be $48.90 or a little under $5.00 per person.
The biggest savings this year will come from the star of the show. The cost of a 16-pound turkey is down about .68 cents. In fact, turkey prices haven't been this low since 2014.
USA Today chronicled the expenditures for the rest of the holiday meal this way:
- Stuffing: 14-ounce package, $2.87 (up from $2.81 in 2017)
- Sweet potatoes: 3-pound bag, $3.39 (down from $3.52)
- Rolls: A dozen, $2.25 (down from $2.26)
- Green peas: 1-pound bag, $1.47 (down from $1.53)
- Fresh cranberries: 12-ounce bag, $2.65 (up from $2.43)
- Carrot-celery tray: 1-pound, 75 cents (up from 74 cents)
- Pumpkin pie: 30-ounce can of mix, $3.33 (up from $3.21); two 9-inch pie shells, $2.47 (up from $2.45); whipped cream, $2.08 (unchanged)
- Milk: 1-gallon whole fat, $2.92 (down from $2.99)
- Coffee and ingredients needed for recipes, such as butter, evaporated milk, onions, eggs, sugar and flour: $3.01 (up from $2.72)
As you can see the traditional Thanksgiving meal is not only filling but it's pretty economical. Have you priced fast food combo meals? When you compare the price of what it costs to feed 10 for Turkey Day or 10 through the drive-thru window I think most of us would opt for a little extra time in the kitchen to keep that extra money in our pockets for Black Friday bargains.