Ten Ways to Save on Thanksgiving Groceries

Everyone feels the money crunch around the holidays but this year seems so much worse. With the price of everything going up, you may try to skimp on the Thanksgiving tradition, but there are ways to get by on a budget and still enjoy turkey and all the trimmings.

1.Go to someone else's house. Be honest with yourself, do you have to cook for Thanksgiving? If your kids don't come home anymore or it's just you and your husband, maybe you should take an invite from a friend or family member. If you make the best green bean casserole in three counties then make sure your host knows that you will bring it.

2.Potluck anyone? Make your own family meal a potluck. This is what my family does. My Stepmother makes the turkey, dressing, and gravy and the rest of my family and our extended family bring the sides. Everyone has their own special dish that they make and if everyone brings their special dish then you have the best of the best at your Thanksgiving feast. Do you have a family member that can't or shouldn't cook? No problem, he/she can bring napkins, large divided paper plates, drinks, or the canned cranberry sauce that seems to make it to every Turkey Day table. This divides the cost and makes the dinner affordable for everyone, not to mention, less stressful because one person isn't in charge of a meal big enough to feed an army.

3.Don't forget Christmas! Consider what items your family eats at both Christmas and Thanksgiving. Pecan pie, macaroni and cheese, homemade bread...all of these things can be frozen. Save yourself time and money by doubling your recipes and freezing half to use for Christmas dinner. If you are not coupon savvy then buying in bulk can be cost effective. By buying one time for two holidays you could potentially save yourself money in the long run.

4.Check your cabinets and freezers and make a list! I know this is shopping 101 but how many times have you been at the grocery store, tired, irritable, your heels hurting from the third time someone has run you over with a shopping cart, standing in front of the shelves wondering to yourself if you have nutmeg (or whatever) at home? So what do you do? You buy it, you have already had a bad grocery experience, you want to go home and there is no way you are coming back for nutmeg. Fast forward to an hour later, there you are at home putting your purchases away only to discover a full container of nutmeg in the cabinet. If you know what you have at home and what you need you can eliminate this type of unnecessary purchase.

5.Coupons, coupons, coupons. Even if you don't normally use coupons the holidays are a great time for them. Some of the best coupons for traditional Thanksgiving table fare are in the Sunday paper during the month of November. Clip the coupons, sort them, but don't forget to match them up to sales. Grocery stores aren't stupid; many of them have sales on items right after a coupon for that item has been circulated. By getting an item on sale and using a coupon you can cut your grocery bill marginally.

6.Work rewards. At my job we are given a gift certificate for a local grocery store before Thanksgiving and again before Christmas. I am continually amazed at how many women I have seen at work cleaning out their purse, on break of course, only to pull out one of these gift certificates 6 months after the holiday only to exclaim, "I forgot I even had this thing." Don't forget! This is a no brainer. Ten or fifteen dollars off your grocery bill shouldn't be misplaced.

7.Grocery store deals. Look for grocery store promotional offers. Last year one of our local chain stores had a coupon that you could cut out and have the cashier scan weekly. If you spent 40 dollars and got the coupon scanned for 6 weeks in a row the store would reward you with $25 towards the purchase of Thanksgiving groceries.

8.Ounce for ounce. Pay attention to your purchases and calculate the per ounce cost. A lot of larger chain grocers have the per ounce price just below the total price on the shelf tag. Since this is probably one of the few times a year you will be shopping for a small army, you will be buying larger quantities and as a general rule larger is cheaper. The exception to that rule can be when there is a sale and you have a coupon for multiple items. (Example: save .50 cents when you buy 2 cans of green beans.) In this case the smaller items combined with the sale and coupons may be cheaper per ounce than the larger ones.

9.Are you a night owl? Try shopping at night or during the middle of the day on a weekday. The less people getting in your way the more likely you will be to pay close attention to your spending. When the store is a madhouse, with people running all over, all trying to get the same items you are less likely to shop thriftily.

10.Ready, on your mark...start shopping! Shop a little at a time. Starting the first week of November, watch the sales ads and when you go on your regular weekly shopping trip add to your regular items the Turkey Day items you need that are on sale. . You aren't going to catch all the things you need on sale at the same time so this is the best way to get the most for your money.

Hopefully these tips will help you have, not only a happy Thanksgiving, but a thrifty one as well.