Thanksgiving Frugal Tips

Thank you grocery stores for pulling out some of the biggest sales of the year right now. You thoroughly help my grocery budget. I use this time of year to stock up on some basics that we use all year round, but are expensive in the off-season, or hard to find.

Turkey - many stores offer huge discounts on turkey if you buy a certain amount in that store. Usually easy to meet that quota. Turkey is a healthy meat. I cook them several times a year and each turkey provides enough meat for several meals, plus I freeze the cooked meat for soups later.

Canned Pumpkin - I love pumpkin added to pancakes, muffins, etc. It's a great way to sneak a very healthy food into my kids everyday foods. Aldi's only offers this seasonally at a price way less than regular grocery stores. I'll be buying a couple of cases of it shortly while they still have it.

Spices - great sales

Baking Supplies - I reference Aldi's a lot. I admit it. It use to be a big deal to go there because you had to bag your own groceries. But now I can go to Meijer, Walmart, Family Fare, etc. and do the same thing AND pay a bit more. If you aren't a Aldi's fan, that's fine. But baking supplies is where you can save an enourmous amount of money at the holidays. Find it in yourself to go, just once - and stock up on things like flour, sugar, confectioners sugar, brown sugar, marshmallow, mixes, chocolate chips, cinnamon, pie crusts, pumpkin, etc... all the things you will use frequently over the next 5 weeks. Your holiday budget will thank you.

Frozen Vegetables - Great sales on these pop up around the holidays and is a great time to stock up. When cooked correctly, they are fairly close to the quality of fresh veggies at a fraction of the cost. Chopped carrots, spinach, and veggie blends are a huge time savings too when it comes to soups and sauces. Canned veggies are on sale too, but I don't care for their consistency much.

Most of all, enjoy Thanksgiving, Christmas, and everything in between. Keep your focus on the purpose of your entertaining, gifts, and good things to eat. More of that coming in my post about our 3 Week Thanksgiving.