And how many people will you serve?
I haven’t made thanksgiving dinner in a long while (probably 4 years).
When I did, the turkey was something like $0.70 a pound.
So about $10 for the turkey.
About $4 for the rolls.
Maybe $10 for the dessert ingredients
$5 for stuffing ingredients
$3 for mashed potato ingredients
So roughly $30 for a meal that served a half dozen people.
Probably $200 for 4 people.
A bottle of dom Perignon champagne for you and 3 banquet turkey dinners for everyone else?
When’s the last time you priced a bottle of Dom?
That arrangement would cost closer to $612.00. With the cheap Dom.
I’m not doing the dinner for a mob as I did for many years, but when I did, it easily cost $3-500.00. By the time I purchased expensive ingredients for appetizers, salads, sides, desserts and wines… yes, easily that. It was usually for around 8 people.
But I always enjoyed making a fuss. What else are holidays for? 
Damn I feel cheap. I was assuming $30-50 is what most people are spending.
One of the nice things about Thanksgiving dinner is you can spend a lot, or you can spend not very much. Your choice. But you don’t have to buy Dom to spend a lot.
Example: Pecan pies are a traditional dessert dish (along with pumpkin and apple) in my family. I just spent $26 on pecans to make pies for a friend with cravings.
We always do potluck for Thanksgiving, so not all the financial burden falls on one person. The biggest splurge the past couple of years has been a local free-range turkey for more like $2.50/lb. It tastes like a totally different creature than the usual supermarket bird; much more flavorful. Usually the other dinner ingredients aren’t anything particularly expensive.
Counting the drive time, I’ll spend about 8 hours I’ll never get back.
We’re doing a pot luck, and I’m doing the turkey/stuffing/gravy, and it’ll probably be about ninety bucks all in, because I get to meet and greet my turkey before I cook her.
I grew the sage I’ll use myself, so it’s hard to put a price on that.
We’ll be driving from MD to Ocala, FL to be with my husband’s parents. It’s still a little early, but I expect we’ll be contributing a fair bit to the meal since we’re pretty much the only ones in the family still working. It won’t be that much, tho.
No one drinks, so there goes a huge expense. Generally we have one turkey, a couple of racks of ribs, and the assorted veggies. I’m guessing 10-12 for dinner and if it costs over $300, I’ll be amazed.
I’m always responsible for getting the alcohol. I’ll make sure our bar is well stocked and there are mixers, lemons, and limes. I get a bottle of wine per adult plus a few box wines for insurance. One of my last purchases will be a big bage of ice, which goes in a cooler on our porch. I usually “forget” to buy “soft dinks” so my gf’s 16 year old nephew will be “forced” to drink beer or wine.
My gf handles the food. No idea what she spends, but the turkey order will be placed soon with the local turkey farm. She will schedule an appointment to pick Tom up; he will be fresh, never frozen. The turkey costs >$100 but <$200.
It’s an event, and worth every penny. Even the dogs celebrate, with turkey liver added to their dinner.
I still need to cost it out. I’m cooking for…7? I think I can get away with a pretty small turkey. Dunno how much anything costs though, especially if I want a nicer turkey.
Already spent like $80 on congac for making Admiral Russell’s punch.
We’re going to my brother’s for Thanksgiving, so I told him I would make mac ‘n’ cheese. Probably 20 bucks for cheese and stuff.
I’m only doing the turkey this year with my mom doing the sides but I buy a fresh one. So probably in the neighborhood of $35 (14lbs @ $2.50/lb)
If I was doing it all for just my household, I’d get a smaller bird but be spending more on other things. I’d guess around $50-$60 total. Not too bad when you consider it’ll also be feeding us for a few more days after, then soup stock out of the turkey remains.
I couldn’t cook a random Tuesday night dinner for $30.
Don’t know yet. My Wife and I will drive to my Mom’s (100 miles). There may be two others there this year. Lately, I just get T-day dinner at Whole foods. It’ll be 1-2 hundred when all is said and done. Lot’s of left-overs for everyone of course.
I think this year I’ll just get a turkey breast well in advance and toss it in the slow cooker. Really the only parts of Thanksgiving that any of us likes are the sides - stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie. I’ll just keep the turkey for curry and potpie or something.
Anyway, it’ll probably be around $100 for the four of us.
Thank you. I thought I had entered another dimension.
This is traditionally the point where people start talking about how they buy chicken in 15 lb packages, a 60lb sack of lentils, seven pounds of corn meal and a barrel of apples from the dry goods store and makes a month worth of meals for 14¢ a serving.
I think that’s significantly fewer dishes than is usual at Thanksgiving. We would usually have two types of meat (turkey and ham), a couple vegetable dishes, mashed potatoes, dressing, bread, and a couple types of dessert. Now, we also usually have more than 6 people, but even with six people, it’d be worth it to eat leftovers for a week in order to have variety on the big day. Variety it is a big part of Thanksgiving.
The things I always spend a ton on are:
Nuts. Aspenglow already mentioned this. It’s not just pecan pie–it’s pecans in the dressing, almonds in the green beans, hazelnuts in the brussel sprouts, etc. I can spend a lot on nuts.
Dairy. Thanksgiving mashed potatoes have a lot more butter than normal mashed potatoes. I use heavy cream when I am cooking for Thanksgiving, for all kinds of things from dinner to desert.
Disposable dishes, plastic wrap, baggies. This sort of thing adds up fast, and you go through a lot of them at Thanksgiving.
Nicer and out-of-season vegetables, like fresh Brussel sprouts.
Spices. Obviously, you don’t use the entire bottle of cloves or whatever, but they don’t last forever, and certainly over the holiday season in general I have spent $10-12 on spices.
When you add things like that in, it doesn’t take long to hit $150-$250 to feel 6-10 people.