Today my mother-in-law and sister-in-law will arrive from Texas to spend the next week with us. I am so happy to see them and to spend Thanksgiving with them. My kids have been counting down the days until Grandma arrives!
As I was planning our menu for their visit, I realized that this is actually the first Thanksgiving that I have ever hosted. (Does that mean I am officially an adult now?) So I eagerly began thinking through our Thanksgiving meal plan. Being the good blogger that I am, I hopped over to Pinterest to see what I could find under “Thanksgiving side dishes.”
I found a lot. That is probably an understatement. I found more information than I could possibly process. And I quickly become overwhelmed. I also become discouraged as I saw the elaborate (albeit incredibly delicious) dishes that I knew I wouldn’t be able to make.
You see, our weekly grocery budget is $70. By the time I bought a $20 turkey, how could I afford these dishes that required costly ingredients I typically didn’t use? One mouth-watering recipe for roasted brussels sprouts called for bacon, honey, dates, and almonds. That’s over $15 for a single side dish!
I realized that I needed to think frugally about my menu. I also realized that other people may be having the same problem. So today I want to share The Most Frugal Thanksgiving Side Dishes. These delicious dishes will please your guests without blowing your budget!
Mashed Potatoes
You seriously can’t go wrong with a simple bowl of mashed potatoes. A five pound bag of potatoes typically costs around $3. Add half a stick of butter, a spoonful of sour cream, a little milk, and salt and pepper, and you’ll please everyone at the table.
Total Cost: $4
Roasted Vegetables
There are hundreds of amazing roasted vegetable recipes out there. But, really all that you need to make fantastic roasted vegetables is some olive oil and salt. That’s it! You can roast almost any vegetable that you can think of: sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and more. Cut the vegetables into uniform pieces (typically around an inch to an inch and a half), toss with olive oil and salt, spread evenly on a nonstick baking sheet, and place into a 400 degree oven. Baking time varies depending on the vegetable, but it usually takes between 10-20 minutes. We will be having roasted broccoli for our Thanksgiving. I purchased two large crowns of broccoli for $2.50. Talk about inexpensive!
Total Cost: $2-$5 depending on the vegetable you select
Butternut Squash Soup
I personally love a nice soup with Thanksgiving dinner. And, it’s hard to find a tastier one than my Vegan Butternut Squash soup. You can get the recipe HERE. Simple, real ingredients combine together to make one heavenly soup.
Total Cost: $4-$5 depending on the size of the butternut squash
Homemade Rolls
One of my earliest Thanksgiving memories is of helping my grandmother make rolls for dinner. I would stand on a chair, my hands covered in flour, and love feeling like I was one of the grown ups. Soon making the rolls became my job, and I looked forward to it each year. There’s just something about the smell of bread baking! This Butterhorn Roll recipe from Money Saving Mom is a great one. It makes a ton, so you can either freeze half or have leftovers. Best of all, the recipe uses baking ingredients that you most likely already have on hand (flour, sugar, butter, yeast, etc.).
Total cost: $3 (if you keep baking supplies in your pantry)
Cranberry Relish
I was never a fan of the cranberry sauce in a can. Maybe its the way it retains its shape….. However, when I discovered homemade cranberry relish, I was in love. This recipe from Simply Recipes only takes four ingredients (raw cranberries, oranges, apples, and sugar) and is delicious. Raw cranberries are usually on sale this time of year for less than $2 a bag, which makes for a very frugal side dish that is sure to get rave reviews.
Total cost: $4
There you have it! Frugal side dishes that taste great without completely draining your weekly grocery budget. What frugal side dishes do you make?
(Linked to Tips and Tricks.)
Great list! Thanks so much for sharing. I am not hosting this year, but I am making pumpkin cookies http://www.homeecathome.com/the-home-economist/pumpkin-cookies-with-browned-butter-glaze, although pecans are expensive unless you have your own pecan trees, they are such a treat. I am making homemade bread machine rolls, so easy! (also a recipe from Money Saving Mom) http://www.homeecathome.com/the-home-economist/bread-machine-buttery-rolls, and I am making blueberry pies from blueberries my husband picked last summer and put up in the freezer.
Ooh, blueberry pies sound so good! I love freezing fresh produce and using it later Growing up we had a peach tree. My mom would freeze bags and bags of fresh peaches, so we would have pies all year long!