Thanksgiving Dinner the Frugal Way

With the holiday coming up, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite ways to save on Thanksgiving dinner. It's easy to overspend on the feast, but with a bit of planning, it can be cheaper. Sorry it's a little late, but hopefully you can still use some of the tips.

* Even if you aren't responsible for buying the turkey for the family gathering or if you are a very small family, buying a big turkey may be worthwhile. There is a lot of meat for a good price during the Thanksgiving sales. I always stock up on groceries a week or two before Thanksgiving (staples or sale items that we need) at a store that has a promotion that gives $10 or $20 off of the cost of a turkey if you spend a certain amount. I commonly get 20 lb turkeys for around $7. I toss it into the freezer until February or so when I'm no longer sick of turkey and roast it on a cold day. After we have roast turkey one day and leftovers the next, I package the meat up into chunks or shreds (to use every last bit of the meat)  and freeze in meal-sized portions. I make s big batch of stock from the carcass. We get dozens of meals from that one turkey, making it a fantastic deal, even for a household of two (Here's a post on how I make the most of chicken; use turkey the same way).

* Make your own gravy instead of buying those packets. It's easy and pretty close to free when you use pan drippings, flour and water. If you'd like, you can use stock instead of the water for even more flavor.

* Start saving bread ends or stale bread for stuffing; you can start up to a month before the holiday. Cut into small pieces and allow to thoroughly air dry. As long as it gets really dry (if it's humid, use a dehydrator, then store in air-tight packaging), it won't mold. Make your own stuffing for cost savings, better flavor and fewer questionable ingredients. When bakeries sell bread cubes or crumbs, all they do is save the bread leftover at the end of the day, cube it and dry it in a low oven. Then they bag it up and save it for up to a month or longer before the holiday. It keeps well. Doing it yourself not only saves on the purchase price of the bread cubes, but also reduces your waste since it is the perfect way to use up bread that gets stale before you can use it.

* Make you own pies, even if you have to buy the pie dough. The cost savings of making it yourself versus buying it is phenomenal. At the bakeries I've worked at, pies sell for $12-20, so it is worthwhile.

* Load up on veggie sides. Vegetables are cheap, and if one is going to overindulge, it's better to overindulge on corn, green beans and carrots than turkey and pie.

* As you prep vegetable dishes for main meal, save the peels and trimmings from sweet potatoes, pumpkin rinds, green bean ends and strings, onion skins, carrot peels, celery leaves, garlic skins, winter squash rinds or corn cobs. Put them in a large freezer bag and toss into the freezer. After dinner, package up the turkey carcass in a couple of freezer bags. Later on you can use all this goodness to make a massive batch of turkey stock that will be perfect for warming, healing and practically free winter soups.

* It may be too late for this year, but in future years you can always plan a potluck. My mother's family does this with the host family supplying the turkey and drinks and everyone else bringing sides, desserts and breads. It's not expensive for anyone, and lower income families can bring cheaper dishes. When we were on a very tight budget, I was able to bring bread that I got for free from my jobs. Everyone enjoyed the bread that was fancier than we'd usually had, and no one knew that I hadn't spent a penny. There's always enough leftover for anyone who wants to bring home something to eat later.

* Excess is not necessary. I don't know where "thankful" turned into "stuffed-full". Especially if you're trying to watch your weight/eat healthfully, avoid going to extremes. It's not a failure if you don't have to undo your pants buttons. Plan a nice, special meal with plenty for everyone to eat, but there is no need for everyone to have 4 desserts.

What are your favorite ways to save money on Thanksgiving?

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This Week...Beyond Money 11/17 - 11/23

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* Trucker brought home a 5 gallon bucket of coffee grounds. The snow was completely covering the ground, so I just dumped it over the bed. Not ideal, but I suppose just getting it onto the bed is better than nothing, even if it's not evenly worked in. There's time for that in spring.
* Lots of true leaves on the greens in the salad container. They grow really slow at first, especially since this container is in a North-facing window. Once they get to baby green size, though, I'll be able to snip individual leaves as needed.


* I planted 4 small containers to greens to put in a south-facing window. I didn't get to it as soon as I did last year, but better late than never. I planted one container to Sweet Genovese Basil, another to arugula, another to cress and the last to mustard. By planting a variety of types, I can get an instant salad mix as I harvest the larger leaves individually from all the pots.




Cooking/Groceries:
* I found a great bargain on bulk sausage. It was on sale for $2.50/1 lb package (Marked down from $4). At this price I would have stocked up on a few pounds. I had coupons for $1/2 packages. I bought 8 packages at $2/lb. This is by far the cheapest I ever find ground meat around here. Usually the best I find is $3. Each pound will be used for making (at least) two different meals, with leftovers for another two meals, so the cost per meal is $.50/person. We will also use tiny bits of leftovers for pizza toppings or to put into omelets where just a little bit adds enough. We made sausage gravy the first night over bacon cheddar scallion scones from Trucker's job (free since they were day old)

Food Preservation:
* Dehydrated 6 dehydrators worth of apples, peel on.

Fun:
* Trucker found a free concert for us to go to in the next neighborhood over. It was a tribute band to one of my favorite bands (that I will never, ever get to see in person). The band was good, we had a lot of fun, and the drinks cost us $6 total.

Nature:
* Does admiring the snow from inside sipping hot cocoa count?

Frugality:
* We paid off two of our loans. This frees up $175/month to put towards other debts/savings. We are knocking off a few small loans then putting that money towards other debts to knock them down.We are hoping within a year and a half to be free of all debt except for the mortgage. We pay extra onto the principle of the mortgage every single month.
* Paid extra onto the car loan. It's a very low interest loan, and we are focusing more on paying down other debts, but I wanted to throw a little something extra towards it.
* We have been squirreling away a large portion of Trucker's tip money into savings.
* I used a coupon when buying cat food to buy 5 get 5 free. It's a brand the cat likes and the cost was less for the nicer brand than for store brand. Eventually, I want to get her onto a whole-foods diet, but first need to get us onto a completely whole-foods diet! (Since we are on a limited budget, we are taking baby steps and learning to do things ourselves. This spring we are going to get into meat raising, and at that time, we will start weaning her onto the parts that we don't eat)

Waste Reduction:
* Used the apple cores leftover from dehydrating apples to make another batch of vinegar.

Work:
* Trucker brought home some free day-old goods: 2 english muffins, 3 scones, several bagels, and a piece of coffee cake. We slice the bagels to use in place of bread with dinner and the scones and english muffins make a good breakfast. We'll split the coffee cake for dessert one night. Sometimes we give away bagels to family members if we see them.

Preparedness:
* Put 8 jars of dehydrated apples into storage.

Future:
* I worked on my book a little very day.

Health:
* Went for a run on a bitterly cold day. It was 19 degrees. I bundled up and went for a run anyway. I cut it a bit short, but was still proud of myself for doing it.

What did you do this week?

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This Week...Beyond Money 11/10 - 11/16

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.


Gardening:
* Not much to do now. I'm already missing it desperately. We got a heavy snow fall late Sunday night, so everything is blanketed now.
* Harvested some more lettuce seed from the front-garden containers. I have about a packet's worth now. It's not saving me a lot of money, but I'm learning and hopefully over time will end up with the best lettuce seeds for my microclimate.

Cooking/Groceries:
* Didn't grocery shop at all this week. Ate from the pantry and freezer.
* Made pork stock from leftover bones and loads of veggie scraps. It's delicious and practically free.

Food Preservation:
* Dehydrated lemon peels to use in making syrup later in the winter.

Fun:
* A musician friend of ours hooked us up with discounted tickets to see the symphony. Tickets were $12 instead of $50. We were beyond thrilled. It was one of the nicest nights out I've had in a long time. I was wide-eyed and smiling the entire time.

Nature:
* We went for a hike at a local state park. It was a 5 mile hike around a lake. We off trailed a bit, so we went around 6 miles. With the autumn colors, and just enough leaf fall for great views, it was breathtaking.

Frugality:
* Avoided shopping as much as possible.
* Switched health  insurance for a savings of $50/month, plus lower costs when we use it.

Waste Reduction:
* Planned to use leftovers in other meals to avoid waste.
* Rinsed cans of salsa, tomato sauce and enchilada sauce and put in the Trash Chili container in the freezer. I almost have enough to make a batch.
* Cooked with animal fats saved from cooking other dishes and making stock.

Work:
* Trucker picked up an extra shift so we could have a little more money to put towards visiting a sick family member out of state.
* We packed our lunches instead of buying something. I drank free coffee in the break room.
* Trucker brought home english muffins and scones from his job that were expired. Absolutely delicious, even though they were day old.
* I signed up for our insurance at my new job. We were on a private plan through the marketplace. Even with our subsidy, we were spending a lot for a really bad plan (and just got a notice saying that in the new year it would go up by $30+/month). The insurance at my job is fabulous with a much lower deductible. It includes health, dental, prescription, vision, life and disability insurance for $50/month less than our old plan would cost us (for just really bad health, dental and vision insurance).

Preparation:
* Winterized the vehicles. Put blankets in the cars just in case. Also put in a couple granola bars for emergencies or just in case we forget our lunches for work. I get granola/protein bars for less than a dime at the salvage grocer so this is cheaper than anything we could buy for lunch.

Future:
* Every day on my lunch break I've been writing on my book. I am getting in the habit of writing daily. Even just writing on my lunch break every day would add up to around 60,000 words a year.

What did you do this week?

This Week...Beyond Money 11/3 - 11/9

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* Aphids got into the house! Not sure how, exactly, but one day I found one container of peppers covered in them. This was the container of plants that I was going to continue harvesting all winter. I quickly took it outside and picked all of the little peppers on it and let the frost have it and kill the aphids (hopefully). I've watched the plants indoors and they seem fine.
* The indoor planting of lettuce looks fantastic. Very small still, but beautiful. Can't wait!
* I peaked outside at the shade garden. It has been frosting most nights and has been really cold a few days. Surprisingly, the volunteer pepper and tomato plants are still alive. Two of the pepper plants even have flowers that survived last night's frost! They are both filled with tiny peppers. Another tiny volunteer plant had a 1.5 inch pepper. One of the tomato plants had produced 2 small tomatoes. I picked them all and will leave them to see if anything else grows.

Cooking/Groceries:
* Made an incredible leftovers pizza. We had a little leftover BBQ pork, but not enough for a meal of sandwiches. I spread the pizza with blue cheese dressing, then spread the BBQ pulled pork over the top, smothered the whole thing in caramelized onions, sprinkled with chopped mock pickled peppers from jalapenos from the garden, then topped with cheddar and a drizzle of BBQ sauce. Wow. Incredible.
* There is a local grocery store that is kind of expensive for most things. However, they always have really good produce sales as a way to lure you in, and occasionally have good prices on non-produce items. I do not shop here often, as it is on the other side of town, but whenever I see that there are fabulous deals, I'll make a trip and stock up. This time I got: parsley ($.50/bunch), cilantro ($.50/bunch), cabbage ($.50/lb), onions ($.50/lb), 7 lbs of bulk popcorn ($.99/lb, half the price at work), 8 lbs butter ($2.99/lb; $1 cheaper than the cheapest sale price for store brand I ever see elsewhere. My stash had gotten down to 1/2 lb so I was worried. I do not use margarine and like to make pop tarts from scratch, so butter is a necessity), 3 6oz packages of raspberries ($1.50/each, I rarely buy berries because they are so expensive, so I do indulge when I find them at a good price. They are usually $4 for the same sized container here), 1 6 oz package of blackberries ($1.50/each) and a large bunch of spinach ($1). This store sells really good ends and pieces bacon for $3/lb and is therefore cheaper than the cheapest store brand on sale. Unfortunately, there was none there this time. I still have a few packages in the freezer at home, but always try to stock up when I'm there since I don't know how soon I will return.
* I made an enchilada casserole. I had some tortillas that were crumbly and not good for using for tacos. I layered the pieces with ground beef (a small container from the freezer leftover from another meal), refried beans, a can of tomatoes (sale+coupon=$.25), and covered the whole thing with enchilada sauce and cheese.

Food Preservation:
* My homemade vinegar turned out wonderfully. I'm very excited. It smells and tastes great. Now I'm thinking about making apple wine...

Fun:
* Trucker had bought a Living Social deal for a local miniature golf course. 4 rounds of mini golf and 70 pitches in the batting cages for $12 ($30 value). We weren't able to get there right away and it closed for the season three days before we got there. The owner was there cleaning up and said that we could go ahead and play so he got out the leaf blower and cleaned the courses for us. We had a fantastic time. It was the most beautifully landscaped course I've ever seen. Afterwards, we went to a local ice cream shop for sundaes. I had a coupon in my Entertainment book for buy one get one free, so it only cost $4.50. Our entire date cost $16.50 and it was incredible!
* We went to a benefit spaghetti dinner for the local food pantry. We each donated several items for the silent auction and raffle. Trucker donated some books he had duplicates of (purchased at thrift stores for less than $1 so we could give them away when someone said they wanted to read it, for gifts, etc) and I donated a hand crocheted scarf and two sets of washcloths. We also donated some canned goods that I had gotten really cheaply from combining sales and coupons. We paid $10 each for dinner but considered it worthwhile since it benefited the food bank. We had a wonderful time with our friends and enjoyed the music. At the end of the event, they auctioned off a couple items that hadn't gotten bids. One of the items was a $50 gift certificate for a nice Italian restaurant. No one else bid so I got it for $15. This will provide two dates for us.
* Went grocery shopping with a couple friends. Short, fun and didn't cost me anything (except for the groceries I was going to buy anyway).
* Coffee and writing/studying session with a good friend at a local coffee house.

Nature:
* Every nice day we went out for a short walk through the neighborhood. Just a half hour, but we get a bit of exercise, a bit of sunlight.

Frugality:
* When I went out for coffee with my friend, I reused my coffee sleeve. It was my 10th time reusing it, so next time I get a free drink. I don't go to this coffee house often, but make sure I always have my sleeve when I do.
* When I went to a grocery store that was on the other side of town, to maximize the value of the gas used, I combined the trip with getting together for coffee with my friend that lives just down the road. We met another friend at the store. Whenever I have to go out of my way for something, I try to combine as many errands/experiences in that area as possible.

Waste Reduction:
* Planned to use leftovers and random items instead of wasting them.
* Made vinegar out of apple cores.

Work:
* Some changes at work mean my work schedule will improve in the coming week. Very grateful as some changes (to cover vacations, plus a change in management, plus complete elimination of third shift work) had meant for weird scheduling for me. It's going to be better from here.
* Trucker got some free bagels and english muffins from his job that would otherwise have been thrown away since they had expired.
* I brought apples from the orchard for my lunch each day. It's cheap and just enough to get me through the day.

Preparation:
* Bought a couple cans of canned shrimp for the stockpile. I don't eat canned meats on a regular basis, but do like tuna or canned shrimp on occasion. I found it in a clearance bin for $1/can and bought a few.

Future:
* Rough start to National Novel Writing Month. I've had trouble hitting my word count as I'm still getting used to my work schedule completely changing the way I live. (This week I've had two hours when first waking up before heading off to work and an hour after work before getting ready for bed...hard to cram everything into those time frames). That being said, on one day off I wrote 2500 words.

This Week...Beyond Money 10/27 - 11/2

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* I was able to harvest some lettuce seed from the front garden containers. I'm beyond thrilled. This lettuce was in a black container in direct sun. I planted it in spring and it didn't bolt until early autumn. That's definitely something I want in a lettuce, so I definitely wanted to save seed. I've never saved any seed before this.
* Lots of little tiny greens have germinated, but none have their true leaves yet. The first of the Ruby Red swiss chard has germinated too so there's a bit of color. I just threw in random seeds I had leftover from this growing season. I love the idea of having some mixed salads all winter long and it doesn't cost me anything since I've already bought the seed (and between Trucker and I, we always buy more seeds than we can possibly grow on our 1/5 an acre...I think he gets more excited about it than I do!)
*Speaking of, the first of our seeds for next year arrived. Trucker ordered them from individuals in this state and one state over. So far...basil, parsley, gingeng, venus fly trap and bat flowers.
* I was able to harvest a few more green tomatoes (to harvest on the shelf) and peppers from the garden. Not much, but something.

Cooking/Gardening:
* I had some crab apples leftover from making crab apple candy, so I mixed them with some Rome and Fuji apples for a grilled apple crisp.
* I made BBQ Chicken pizza on the grill. I par baked the crusts in the oven, then slid them onto the grill, topped with BBQ sauce, chicken, pickled jalapenos and cheddar cheese. Delicious!
* After 7 PM at the grocery store I work at, all breads made in the in-store bakery are half off. I bought two loaves of bread: a cinnamon swirl bread that was usually $4, marked down to $2 and an everything bread that was usually $2.50, marked down to $1.25. My employee discount took off $.20 from the cinnamon bread (now $1.80) and $.13 off the everything bread (now $1.12). I had two coupons for $1 off a loaf of bread, bringing the final cost to $.80 for the cinnamon swirl bread and $.12 for the everything bread. I bought 5 bags of organic carrots for $1/lb bag.

Food Preservation:
* Dehydrated 3 loads of apples.

Fun:
* My favorite novel as a teen was The Giver. Trucker took me to the cheap theatre for a $2 showing of the movie. I cried the whole time. I love that story. $4 and it made me so happy!
* Strolled around Half Price Books while waiting for our movie to start. I found a few Ray Bradbury (my favorite author) books I didn't have. They were half off the cover price of $.75. So excited! I got The Illustrated Man, Golden Apples of the Sun, S is for Space and The Martian Chronicles.
* We hosted a beer tasting at our house. Every time we bought beer, we saved one beer until we had a nice assortment. We had a few friends over and split each bottle among everyone. I bought chips on clearance and served with salsa. I also made a pear crisp and an apple sauce. It was cheaper than going out for drinks with friends and we had a blast.

Nature:
* We went for a long walk at a metro park near us. It was meadowland and forest. I particularly loved the diversity of the edge areas and enjoyed looking at different seed pods and dried grasses.
* I took a 6.5 mile walk through the city and parks.

Frugality:
* One day I was off and Trucker had to work. After doing some stuff around the house I walked to his job-6.5 miles away-for free coffee, free wifi and getting out of the house. Sure, I could have driven somewhere, but this just got me some exercise, saved me gas, I got free coffee, and didn't have to have the furnace/lights on at home.

Waste Reduction:
* I had some apple cores leftover from making apple crisp, so I decided to try my hand at making vinegar. I put them in a sugar water mix in a gallon jar, covered with a cloth and am going to let it ferment. After several days I tasted it. It tastes like a mild hard cider right now. It's kinda lovely. I may try making hard cider with the next batch of cores, but I'm really excited about having a gallon of apple cider vinegar.

Preparedness:
* Put up a few jars of dehydrated apples.

Future:
* I started National Novel Writing Month to write a frugal living/personal finance book. I am a little behind on my word count, but I have not had a day off yet. I'm off a couple days next week that Trucker will be working and plan to write at a coffee house the entire time he's gone. I'm very excited and enjoying the challenge.

What did you do this week?