Tough Times: Cost of Homemade Thanksgiving Dinner Up 13% This Year

With Thanksgiving a week away, chances are you are spending a lot of money – and we don’t necessarily mean by getting a jump on your holiday shopping!

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the retail cost to make Thanksgiving dinner at home has increased 13% this year!

The AFBF crunched some numbers using a classic Thanksgiving dinner spread, including turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie and all the basic trimmings. The 26th annual informal price survey of classic Thanksgiving food items revealed that the average cost to make a dinner for ten people is $49.20. That is a $5.73 price increase from last year’s average of $43.47.

AFBF President Bob Stallman, a rice and cattle producer from Texas, said in a statement, “The cost of this year’s meal remains a bargain, at just under $5 per person. The quality and variety of food produced for our dinner tables on America’s diverse farms and ranches sets us apart from our contemporaries around the world. It is an honor for our farm and ranch families to produce the food from our nation’s land for family Thanksgiving celebrations.”

The AFBF survey tracked the cost of buying a turkey, bread stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a relish tray of carrots and celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, coffee and milk. The biggest price increase this year is the cost of turkey. A 16-pound turkey cost $21.57 this year!

That is an increase of 25 cents per pound from last year. Milk and other dairy products have also increased in price. This year mail increased in price by 42 cents per gallon, to $3.66. Pumpkin pie mix is up 41 cents, 1/2 pint of whipping cream is up 26 cents a carton, and three pounds of sweet potatoes are up 7 cents to $3.26.

Makes us wonder if we should just be going out!