Thinking about this some more, I realized I spent >$30 on peanut oil for the turkey deep-fry pot.
Several hundred for six people. But I buy Mary’s free-range fresh turkeys, which are significantly more expensive than your normal frozen birds.
We do potluck. My husband and I provide the turkeys and gravy - and the house. So 2 - 20lb turkeys will cost about $50 and gravy (I buy it and doctor it up) around $10. We usually host 12-20 people but always do extra turkey for leftovers. Some years we do 4 turkey breasts and 2 turkey legs (for my BIL). Breasts are a little more expensive.
Our son is studying in Florence, Italy this semester and Thanksgiving is the week we’re going to visit him. So…plane fare…hotels…twice daily gelato…a lot…we’re spending a lot. 
We will either join another couple for an early buffet (I work that night) at a cost of roughly $60 for the two of us or have basically a small turkey dinner at home for a cost of maybe $10 with plenty of leftovers for the weekend.
LOL, exactly.
If I were to cook a complete Thanksgiving dinner for 6 people, which wine included, I’d need at least $500. Probably more.
Thank God it’s not just me!
$30 for six people? That’s $5 per person. I spend more than $5 per person on dessert- and that’s with me doing the baking.
My adult kids will be in along with an assortment of girlfriends, friends from other countries etc. Minimum of seven but likely 9 or 10. I expect the grocery bill to be around $200. The alcohol bill will most likely top that by quite a bit. I think it will end up around $500 in all at a minimum.
You people spending in the hundreds, I’m curious what you all eat. Geeze. For ten people we usually have 16-18 lb. turkey for about a buck a pound, so we’ll say 20 bucks. We have homemade noodles which is basically trivial in cost, but we’ll say 5 bucks for flour and eggs and chicken broth. Mashed potatoes, we’ll say five bucks. Oyster dressing maybe 15 bucks. Stuffing maybe 5 bucks. Cranberry sauce a couple of bucks. Sweet potatoes are maybe a couple of bucks. Corn is a couple of bucks. Green beans are a couple of bucks. Pumpkin pies are a couple of bucks each and we might have three of them. We’ll sometimes have another dessert, so say another five bucks. Rolls are almost free, how much does flour milk, yeast and butter even cost? We just grab it out of the pantry. There are some miscellaneous dishes that always seem to make the table, so I’m guessing somewhere around 60-70 bucks for 10 people.
I don’t know where you get pumpkin pie - but I’m going to pay at least $6 at the warehouse store for a pumpkin pie. That’s $18 for three right there. And I probably spend close to $15 on the salad and dressing for 10 people- it’s not just iceberg lettuce and a tomato. The rolls aren’t free- sure, you have the flour, butter, etc in the pantry but if you’re trying to figure out how much an event costs, you include to the extent possible the cost of items in your pantry that will have to be replaced. Sure, you’re not going to count the teaspoon of salt but that’s not because it’s already in your pantry, it’s because it’s a small enough amount of money that it doesn’t really matter. I have five boxes of almond paste in my pantry. When I use 2 of them for Thanksgiving, that $12 is getting counted.
But even using your numbers , I get $50 for the turkey (20), oyster dressing (15) stuffing (5) mashed potatoes (5) and noodles (5). That leaves 10-20 for the cranberry sauce, green beans, corn, pumpkin pies, and another dessert . And even if you have only 2 pumpkin pies, I can’t see how that’s less than $10. Add $5 for the extra dessert and now you have only $5 for everything else- the green beans, the corn, the sweet potatoes, any disposable products you use (even if it’s only napkins) and any beverages other than tap water
Exactly, Doreen. Even if you are making the bread and pie crusts from scratch, the butter and flour adds up. And if I’m making pumpkin pie from scratch, I’m making real whipped cream. That’s a couple bucks all by itself. Another $5 to replenish spices, maybe a disposable pie pan (if I’m taking the pie somewhere). A couple pumpkin pies from scratch are gonna cost at least $5 each. No way it’s $2. And I think the same is true for all those other veggies: at Thanksgiving, I don’t just steam veggies and salt them a little . . .there’s gonna be butter or cream or nuts or balsamic vinegar or something. And even plain green beans for 10 are more than $2. That even lf you’re just opening a couple cans and microwaving them.
What does everyone pay for pie pumpkins? My gf likes to buy too many small/medium pumpkins, the roast them and taste test. She typically discards a few as “unworthy” then blends the remaining pulp.
For how many people? $30 is about £23. I can knock you up 3 courses for 4 people with wine for that!
It’s only that cheap if you’re ok with serving frozen Butterball to guests.
I get my turkey from a local butcher who gets them from a local farm. Very fresh and tasty. We prefer white meat so get turkey breasts. They are 7-9 lbs at $7.99 per pound. We will either get two breasts (around $130) or one breast and a beef tenderloin ($65 for the turkey, $100 for the tenderloin). Add the other things all in and it isn’t hard at all to hit $200 plus.
I’ll probably get 6 bottles of good but not expensive wine (~$15 each), a sixth barrel keg of beer for the keg fridge (~$70) a couple of handles of liquor (~$30 each) so we are at $220. Add mixers etc. and we will be close to $300.
Granted, this won’t all be consumed on Thanksgiving day, but it is what I will spend to prepare for the feast and have some left over for the rest of the weekend. If the alcohol sounds like a lot, it is basically stocking the bar for 4 to 5 days for 7 to 10 people.
I get pumpkin pie from my wife who makes them. Canned pumpkin is 2 bucks a can if she’s not buying a squash and making it from scratch. She makes the crust from flour, sugar and lard. 25 lbs of flour is like 15 bucks. I don’t have a clue what lard costs. There are other things that she does to it, but I can’t imagine the materials pushing it above maybe 4 bucks a pie. I know that she was selling them for six bucks for a church fundraiser, so there had to be a little profit in there.
We don’t use disposables. We use silverware and plates with cloth napkins. There are drinks, but I’m a water guy. Mostly the others drink milk I suppose, so we’ll add in four bucks for 2 gallons of milk. I’m willing to concede 80. Truthfully, the corn and beans don’t cost anything since they come out of the garden, but I figure other people have to buy them. Cranberry sauce is 1.50 in a can and since Mom is the only one that eats it, that’s what she gets. The sweet potatoes I really don’t have a cost on. My wife buys them and I don’t know what she does with them. I might be on the low side, but I can’t imagine it going over 100.
Man, I wish I’d never opened this thread. Discussing it with my gf, she reminded me about flowers. She does flower arranging as a hobby and has taken classes at Phipp’s Conservatory. She will spend a few days time and a couple of hundred dollars (wholesale) on flowers for displays for each table, the entryway, and the living room.
Fucking pilgrims.
According to this survey
Average cost for Thanksgiving dinner is about $50 for ten people, so about $5 a person.
I have nothing against people who spend $50+ a person, I’m just curious what they serve. Even my brother who likes to cook usually doesn’t spend too much on ingredients unless he is making good cuts of steak.
Sometimes we have both ham and turkey, but even then that only adds another $15 or so to the total cost for a spiral ham.
I feel poor despite not being poor.
Looking at it, I think it’s people that buy really high end stuff. Like 8 bucks a pound for Turkey breasts. That’s nuts man. Twenty week old Toms are selling for .70 cents a pound here. 17 bucks will get you a whole live Turkey. 25 if you want a heritage, organic. It’s crazy to drop 50 bucks for processing fees. I don’t even know that I would pay more than 15 for processing, but everyone has their own point at which it’s cheaper to do it yourself. Truthfully, I think the frozen birds taste fine. The feed they use gives the meat a sweeter taste than free-range birds, but I understand why people like free-range - I still wouldn’t drop 65 bucks on one.
I am guessing that people buy processed stuff too maybe and that throws off their values. There’s also probably just CoL stuff going on as well. I’m in West Virginia. Our groceries are likely cheaper than groceries in larger cities and urban people don’t always understand livestock and produce prices or have access to producer’s markets and auctions, so they can get hit a little harder without realizing it.
This will be the sort of post that causes people to roll their eyes. All I will say in my defense is, I really enjoy doing it.
Here’s a typical Thanksgiving dinner menu at my house for 8 people:
The Nibbles
- Crudite (olives, carrots, celery, grape tomatoes, artichoke hearts, etc.) with homemade dips.
- Appetizers, usually Parmesan cheese straws, melon balls and charcuterie.
- Served with champagne (not Dom) and/or cocktails.
Salad Course
- Waldorf salad made with butter lettuce, smoked salmon, toasted pecans, shredded celery root and sliced apples from my trees, tossed with champagne vinaigrette.
Main Dinner
- Fresh free range turkey, brined overnight with aromatics.
- Dressing made with homemade bread, butter, celery, onions, and possible add-ins such as sausage, oysters or pecans.
- Mashed potatoes with butter.
- Giblet gravy. Tons.
- Sweet and sour red cabbage.
- Roasted Brussels sprouts with garlic and lemon.
- Carrot coins glazed in orange juice with dill and garlic.
- Corn fritters.
- Dinner rolls.
- Served with a variety of wines, usually whites and Beaujolais.
Dessert
- Pumpkin pie
- Pecan pie
- New York style cheesecake for the non-pie eaters.
- Served with coffee
Afters
- Liqueurs, brandies and mints.
Virtually all is made from scratch, including the salad dressings and dips, smoking the salmon for the salads, processing pumpkins for the pies, making pie crusts (with lard), the stock for the gravy, the bread for the dressing, the dinner rolls. I don’t make the wines, liqueurs or mints.
It takes a couple of weeks to do everything ahead and the special ingredients can cost a fair amount. I do grow a lot of what I serve, but not everything. My sweet and sour cabbage recipe needs juniper berries, cloves and molasses. The stock for the gravy includes fresh herbs and spices, carrots, celery and onions. Most of that comes out of the garden but not all. Nuts for the pies, a good quality turkey. Oil for the corn fritters. The booze. The candles, the flowers.
I could shoot a wild turkey outside my front door, but I don’t process poultry often enough to make that a job I love and no assurance of quality. Although given that a significant part of their fall diet consists of my apples and pears, they would likely taste ok.
Anyway, it all adds up.