5 budget-friendly Thanksgiving dinner ideas

By Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet

Hosting the Thanksgiving meal — with its traditional turkey, multiple sides and showstopper pie — can be daunting. But with a little preparation, it can be one of the most affordable ways to feed a large group.

“In general, Thanksgiving is one of the cheapest holidays to host. The foods are so cheap — potatoes, squash, carrots, apples, turkey,” says Andrea Dekker, who publishes simple home organization and cooking tips on her eponymous website.

Indeed, the American Farm Bureau Federation, an agricultural industry group that tracks food prices, reports that in 2024, the classic Thanksgiving meal for 10 costs just over $58. That’s a decrease of 5% from last year, but 19% higher than five years ago.

In addition to selecting the right ingredients, the following strategies can also make it easier to host Thanksgiving on a budget:

1. Focus on seasonal ingredients

Try featuring root vegetables like sweet potatoes and carrots, which are in season and affordable, in your Thanksgiving meal, recommends Annie Berger, co-founder of Meal Better, a weeknight dinner planning service. She says the freshest veggies may not even need to be peeled as long as they get a good scrub.

“They’re seasonal, inexpensive and colorful,” she says.

Bari Tessler, a financial therapist in Boulder, Colorado, and author of “The Art of Money,” makes a galette from scratch for dessert, selecting the fruit ingredient based on what’s in season or on sale at the moment. That could include berries, apples, plums or cherries.

Dekker suggests leveraging ingredients you may already have tucked away at home. She pulls all of the bread ends out of her freezer, which she saves throughout the year for baked French toast and stuffing.

“Otherwise, I would throw them away, but if you add Craisins, sausage and apples, it’s almost like a free side dish,” she says.

Dekker also heads to her local orchards in western Michigan to pick up bags of blemished produce sold at a discount.

“You can turn them into apple sauce, pies or apple bread,” she says.

2. Substitute high-cost items

“Stick with recipes that don’t have a laundry list of ingredients,” says Brooke Caison, food editor at Delish, a website that features recipes, videos and food news.

If you buy an obscure spice for a specific dish, you might not use it again until next year, she adds.

Caison also suggests making last-minute substitutions when you see what’s on sale at the grocery store.

“Maybe you’re making green bean casserole but you see Brussels sprouts on sale. Be OK with that substitution,” she says.

Casseroles that feature canned goods as their base — such as canned corn and canned pineapple — make cost-effective side dishes, she adds, noting that pineapple casserole is one of her family’s favorites.

If you want to serve greens, Caison suggests braised collard greens or bacon-fried cabbage. Those leafy vegetables tend to be lower-cost than salad mixes like arugula.

“If mustard greens are on sale, then go for that,” she says.

(Kimberly Palmer shares how she’s hosting Thanksgiving dinner for under $150.)

3. Make the meal a potluck

Inviting guests to bring their own dishes to share is an easy and fun way to host a Thanksgiving meal, says Amanda Christensen, an accredited financial counselor and extension professor at Utah State University.

“It’s a great way to include everyone in the planning as well as share the monetary burden,” she says.

4. Turn leftovers into new dishes

Dekker turns her leftover turkey into enchiladas, broth, soup, pot pie and alfredo.

“I don’t want to eat the same thing for the next four meals, so I figure out ways to mix it up so it doesn’t taste like Thanksgiving,” she says.

She adds that you can freeze almost anything to help the leftovers last for weeks or even months.

Caison recommends mashed potato pancakes and other creative ways to reuse food.

“Think about using leftovers at different times of day. Repurposed turkey can be an omelet for breakfast. Cranberry sauce can be a dessert. Let your mind play outside the space of just being dinner,” she says.

5. Rein in decor

While it can be tempting to purchase Thanksgiving-themed lights or banners, Dekker recommends using branches, dried flowers or pine cones instead. Evergreen trees, sage or rosemary can add warm scents to the room.

Berger says she creates a tablescape with seasonal items like apples, clementines and small squashes, which can later be rinsed and eaten.

Reusing, repurposing and recycling can unlock new levels of Thanksgiving creativity.

Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

The article 5 Budget-Friendly Thanksgiving Dinner Ideas originally appeared on NerdWallet.