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Carving Your Holiday Budget
Tips for a Thrifty Thanksgiving
By Deborah Ng
While discounts and coupons help, there are other ways to ease the stress Thanksgiving can cause to your budget:
Loss leaders are supermarket goods being sold at a "loss" to "lead" people into the store. The bargains are usually identified in the supermarket flyers found in your mailbox or at the front of the store. Shop ahead of time, and stock up on items needed for Thanksgiving dinner.
Use coupons for the items on your list and note any store sales. Don't stray from the list and buy impulsively. Holiday impulse shopping can escalate out of control if you're not careful.
If you must use a credit card for your shopping, pay off the balance immediately upon receiving the bill. If not, you'll be paying for more than dinner, especially at today's interest rates.
For Brown, simplicity is essential for saving. "We changed Thanksgiving a lot by 'simplifying,'" she says. "So much time is spent cooking and so little time socializing that we decided to do less to have more. This extended in all areas. We reduced the number of side dishes – who eats more than a scoop of anything anyway? – and reduced the number of casseroles requiring a lot of ingredients. It's more about the relationship than the effort on the food."
If you have a large family, your pocketbook can really take a hit preparing all that food for all of those people. Instead, why not have everyone bring a dish? We all have our specialties, and sharing them with our loved ones makes them even more special.
In fact, experts don't see any difference between a fresh or frozen bird. Your best bet is to watch for the sales and go for the type of turkey that's right for you.
Don't discount the dollar store.Many folks prefer to purchase foil baking pans to make cleanup easier. While it's definitely cheaper to use your own pots and pans, if you will be going the disposable pan route, it may be in your best interest to purchase foil pans at the dollar store where they're much cheaper than those found at the supermarket.