If you’re unable to convince your family to give up their tradition of cooking Thanksgiving dinner at their home each year, invite some of your friends over. Not all of your classmates are going out of town for the holidays. Find out who’s in town and host Thanksgiving dinner ‘potluck’ style. This will reduce your costs dramatically, plus you’ll be celebrating with friends and not just your television.>/p>

Use foods that are “in season” in as many recipes as possible. This includes squash, pumpkin, yams, cranberries, apples, oh, and of course, Turkey! It’s best if you avoid the foods that are out of season because more than likely they are overpriced.

A good price for a turkey is $0.29 per pound and at that rate you might as well buy a large bird. You can always freeze the leftovers from what you don’t eat, for convenience, try freezing your leftovers in small zip lock bags and only pull out one portion at a time. Frozen turkey will keep for months and is very versatile. Try being a little experimental and look up fun turkey recipes on the web. You can add turkey to just about any casserole, soup, or salad. Just remember, turkey has the Amino Acid Tryptophan which calms you down and makes you sleepy so don’t eat it if you have a busy schedule ahead of you!

Another way to save this holiday season is to bake your own bread. You should be able to find all of the ingredients on sale during the weeks prior to Thanksgiving. And, as you probably all know, homemade bread is 100% better than store bought rolls. It may cost you more dough (no pun intended!) up front to pay for all of the ingredients, but over time it will pay off because of all the loaves you’ll make. However, if you are not willing to invest the time playing Betty Crocker, there are always Pillsbury rolls that run for about $2-3 dollars a container.