Celebrating Thanksgiving on a Budget
Who doesn’t enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving? Almost everyone loves to celebrate with family and friends and delicious tasting food. However, if you’re on a budget, celebrating Thanksgiving can be a bit of a challenge. We’ve provided some helpful tips so that you can still celebrate Thanksgiving even though you might be on a budget.
Advanced Holiday Planning – Create a list with your family about your plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Make sure that you include everything related to the holidays from gifts you plan on buying, to where you plan on traveling to, as well as family dinner and parties you plan on hosting. The idea with this is that if you plan ahead then you can decide what’s more important and what’s worth really spending money on. Maybe you don’t need to go away this year for the holidays and you can save money by celebrating in the comfort of your own home.
Create a Budget – Make a list of all the things you plan on buying during the holidays from the food to the gifts. When it comes time to grocery shopping for food make sure that you’re looking for discounted/sale items or for any good deals. Check what food items you have at home and make a grocery list in advance so that you know exactly what you need and nothing else. When it comes to buying gifts for family and friends make a list of who you’re getting gifts for. Rather than buying individual gifts for family members, it might not be a bad idea to get a decent sized gift per family.
Simplicity is Key – Usually, during the holidays most of us want to decorate our homes and buy new dining sets for when our family and friends come over. If you’re on a budget then this can be a bit of a problem but don’t worry because you can still decorate and dine with a simple style. The key when you’re on a budget is to spend less, so rather than going out and spending money on a new dining set or new decorations try and create decorations from things you find around the house or from things you find outside in your backyard or from a nearby park. Also, instead of splurging on an unlimited variety of food for your guests, just stick to the basic Thanksgiving meal. Maybe you can serve turkey or ham, two side dishes, and two desserts or you could always turn your dinner into a potluck and ask guests to each bring 1 dish. This way there’s plenty of food and then rather than you making all the dishes, you can just make 1 or 2.
Accept Invites – If you’re really on a budget then accepting invites is all you’ve got to do! By opting to go to someone else’s place for a Thanksgiving meal not only will you save money but you’ll save on having to do extra work. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to take a small side dish or a small gift to show your appreciation.
Smart Shopping – Are you someone who loves shopping and throwing elaborate get-togethers? If this sounds like you then you want to make sure that you become a smart shopper during the Thanksgiving and even Christmas Holidays. Whether you are going shopping or grocery shopping before you head out come up with a list of items you need to purchase and make sure that you’re only sticking to the list so as to not spend more. When going grocery shopping, looking for deals, use coupons and find out where the sales are. If you’re shopping ahead of time for Christmas gifts, then check out the Black Friday Sales or shop online for Cyber Monday deals!
Hopefully, these tips about Celebrating Thanksgiving on a budget will allow you to enjoy the holidays and make them less stressful.