Thanksgiving Dinner For $25 Or Less

Money can be tight around the holidays, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the important things, like sitting down to a successful Thanksgiving dinner with your family and friends.


I was challenged by our local Fox News affiliate to create a Thanksgiving dinner for $25 or less. Being the frequent Nik Snacks reader you are, I know you're familiar with my $20 Challenge TV show. I come up with some tasty things virtually every time. This time was no different.

Natalie Wilson of Fox 8 and me post-dinner

I scanned this week’s grocery store circulars to see if I could come up with a Thanksgiving feast for four to six people for $25 or less. And believe it or not, I DID IT!

I'd love to see others create their own meals. Do you think you would do this for YOUR family?

The average American spends $50 on Thanksgiving dinner. With a little planning, there’s no reason you can’t find excellent deals between now and the big day.

My first choice in grocery stores for this challenge was Aldi. High quality, premium products at reasonable prices is exactly what I was looking for and Aldi always delivers.

For everything I couldn't find at Aldi, I went to my grocery store chain of choice: Harris Teeter. But Publix, Walmart, and Food Lion are acceptable too.

Using very basic items I have on hand (salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, eggs, flour, mustard, brown sugar, olive oil, onions) I made it happen.

I was concerned mostly for the turkey. You could easily roast a chicken, but to me, Thanksgiving means turkey. It's not really Thanksgiving without it. And we got turkey. Gobble, gobble, y'all! I found that AND MORE!

Here’s the menu for a Thanksgiving meal that will feed a family of four to six for under $25 (including tax; In North Carolina, food tax is 2%):

Turkey Breast: $5.99
Cornbread Dressing: $1.00
Roasted Carrots: 79¢
Mashed Potatoes: $1.00
Gravy: 69¢
Baked Macaroni And Cheese:
*cream cheese 89¢
*milk 2.09
*cheddar 2.79
*pasta 1.25
Jellied Cranberry Sauce: 89¢
Brown 'N' Serve Rolls: 89¢
Sweet Potato Pie
*sweet potatoes 1.89
*butter 2.29
*pie crust 1.25

Total: $24.09

What Nikki Ate

In retrospect, I would not have purchased the butter because I had some already, but I wanted more for this dinner. I would have purchased additional cans of green beans and a can of cream of mushroom soup to make a green bean casserole. That would have been $2.20 at most since I had onions in my pantry.

Tips:
Plan, plan and plan.  Make a list of everything you plan to make

Limit the number of grocery stores you visit. You want to spend more time with your family or cooking and less time shopping.

Don't reinvent the wheel. Don't try new recipes on Thanksgiving Day. If you're unfamiliar with a technique or a specialty ingredient, this is not the time to test out a new theory. If you're trying a turkey for the first time, I suggest practicing with chicken wings, in order to understand the mechanics of the propane and to feel comfortable come Turkey Day.


If you're unsure of your cooking skills, start prepping 2 days up until the night before. Everything can be assembled the night before and put in the oven or on the stove on Thanksgiving Day.

Dinner tips:

Turkey: If you can find a 10-lb turkey for 56¢/lb or less, get it! Don't worry about creating a roulade. The average consumption per person is 1 to 1.5lbs.

The turkey breast package came marinated and was only 2 lbs so to maximize the meat, I pounded it out thin and stuffed it with the cornbread stuffing, rolled it up and baked it off! Boom! Roulade! You can find the recipe HERE

Dressing/Stuffing: on sale for $1 per box, moistened with chicken broth, I added sauteed onion for a little crunch. You could do the same with celery or even toasted nuts. Normally, I add hot sausage and fresh or ground sage. Both can be purchased for a low price.

Carrots: 79¢ for 2lbs. Roasted simply with salt, pepper and olive oil for 30 minutes, this was my favorite part of the meal. And simplest.



Mashed Potatoes: I used good ol' Idaho Potato flakes, on sale for $1. Potato flakes are indeed real potatoes and you're simply adding moisture and flavor into them. A little trick: add diced potato to your boiling water or hot milk and add it to your potato flakes. The potato will be cooked and those seeking texture can have it.

Gravy: some people prefer gravy in a jar because they don't know how to make it. That's okay. But, made-from-scratch gravy using flour, butter or oil, chicken broth and a little caramelized onion goes a long way.

Macaroni and cheese: milk, cream cheese, eggs, sharp cheddar, macaroni, prepared mustard, salt and pepper makes up my family's famous macaroni and cheese. Well, it's famous in our house, anyway.

Cranberry Sauce: only 89¢, I can't have Thanksgiving without the gelatinous wiggle and jiggle of canned cranberry sauce. That's all I really want. And I got it. For less than a dollar. I win.

Rolls: I could have easily made some some yeast rolls with flour, yeast and butter, but 12 rolls for 99¢? Why not?

Sweet Potato Pie: mashing together sweet potatoes, brown sugar, milk, egg, pie spices and pouring it into an unconventional graham cracker crust, was one of the best decisions of the day. $3 pie, anyone? My recipe is HERE