Five ways to make your Thanksgiving dollar go further

Thanksgiving is a great time to catch up with the three Fs:  Friends, family and football.  It can also be a costly endeavor, bumping your food budget astronomically for the month of November.  With that in mind, here are a few ideas to help you get more bang for your buck this Turkey Day.

1. Create a list—and stick to it.  Maybe you already have a list saved somewhere, and if you do, consider building and saving it in FitFin.  Why?  Because with FitFin, you can build prices into your list, which will give you an estimate of what you’re going to spend.  And after you go to the store, update the list with the actual prices that you paid.  That way you can keep the list for next year and have a very good idea of what you’ll spend each year going forward.  Sign up for free at www.fitfin.com.

2. Find good deals that make sense. A lot of manufacturers create package deals to entice customers to buy their products.  For example, right now, you can get $3.00 off a Butterball turkey when you buy any three Betty Crocker, Green Giant or Pillsbury items.  In fact, that coupon resides on FitFin’s coupon section right now.  I don’t tell you this to go to our site and get the coupon (okay, maybe a little bit), but the point is to look for similar deals.  You’ll most likely need green beans, rolls, etc. for dinner, so why not take advantage of this or other types of deals AS LONG AS THEY’RE ITEMS YOU’D BUY ANYWAY!  Don’t buy them just to buy them, but look for deals that make sense for you.

3. Don’t overbuy your food.  Yes, we all love days upon days of turkey sandwiches, but according to the Worldwatch Institute, Americans waste an extra 5 million tons of food between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.  Think about how much food you threw away last year—was it a little or a lot?

4. Get creative with leftovers.  This kind of goes with number three, but once you can’t stomach the thought of shoving another piece of turkey into your mouth by the Sunday after Thanksgiving, consider how you might turn that bird into something new and exciting.  There are tons of recipes to make that turkey come back to life, so to speak.  I have included the Google search results for Thanksgiving leftovers, because there’s only so much cranberry sauce one person can take.  https://www.google.com/#q=thanksgiving+leftover+recipes

5. Buy bulk and share the cost.  Chances are that everyone on your block will be eating the same thing on November 27th.  So rather than everyone buy a 5 pound bag of potatoes only to throw away two pounds in early December, consider investing in a 20 pound bag with several neighbors.  Think about all the things that could be purchased in bulk and consider making a group run to a discount warehouse, like Costco or Sam’s Club.  This mob-mentality could also apply for liquor, wine and beer.  Which reminds me, if any of my neighbors are reading this, please let me know if you have any extra Sam Adams lager or ale–I’m not picky.

These are just a few ideas to help you save costs on Thanksgiving.  Who knows, you might be able to take those savings and parlay them into Black Friday gold!  Above all, please remember that the most important thing on Thanksgiving is to enjoy your family and friends, and to give thanks for all the things that you have.

Cheers!