Thanksgiving is expensive. Even if you’re just feeding a family of four, that Thanksgiving grocery bill can really creep up on you! But you don’t have to give up a side dish or even dessert to cut costs. You can have a cheap Thanksgiving dinner that still feels luxe. If you’re hosting Thanksgiving and don’t want to go broke—or if you’re bringing something to a Friendsgiving and don’t have much scratch to spend—here are our picks for some delicious, cheap Thanksgiving sides, along with an affordable appetizer, drink, and dessert. Splurge on the turkey, save on the rest.
These little pastry purses of salty, creamy feta cheese and sweet, caramelized onions are pretty cheap (you get 12 for just over $5), but they taste great and they look impressive. They’re warming and cozy and a perfect way to set the stage for a Thanksgiving feast.
For just $1 you can get six servings of extremely good mashed potatoes from just one package of Betty Crocker’s instant mashed potatoes. They are one of the best cheap Thanksgiving side dishes you can buy. If you’ve never had these before, you will be absolutely blown away and shocked by how good they are. You will wonder why you spent so much time peeling and mashing potatoes when you could’ve just been mixing some powdered taters with boiling water.
While this didn’t come in at the very top of our boxed stuffing ranking, it tastes great and is among the cheapest of the bunch. The Kroger brand cornbread stuffing mix is sweet and salty—but not overly salty. It’s rich and homey and channels that cornbread texture. Thanksgiving needs stuffing, but you don’t need to spend money on bread and vegetables and broth, etc. Just buy this instead.
Made with a blend of cabbage (green and red), lettuce, smoked white cheddar, carrots, kale, apple cinnamon chips, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and green onion, this is a superb fall salad in a bag. The sweet onion vinaigrette leans into that sweet-savory thing that Thanksgiving foods have going on, and the smoked cheddar makes the whole thing taste almost bacon-y, even though it’s meat free.
You could just get a bottle of three-buck-Chuck from Trader Joe’s, but cider is going to pair better with all the different flavors in a Thanksgiving meal. And it’s still pretty cheap at $8 for a six-pack. It tastes like fresh-pressed apple cider (including that earthy apple skin flavor) and it’s really nice and dry. It’s not cloyingly sweet like some hard ciders, which makes it very food friendly.
You can get the best premade pumpkin pie we’ve ever tasted for just $5. That’s crazy. It’s a whole dang pie and you can get it for less than a Starbucks Frappuccino. Even though it’s sugar free, this pumpkin pie is just sweet enough thanks to the natural sweetness in pumpkin. The crust is buttery and flaky. The filling holds together. It’s the perfect (cheap) Thanksgiving dessert to end your (cheap) Thanksgiving dinner.
Hi! I’m the editor-in-chief of Sporked. I will never turn down a fresh-shucked oyster but I’ll also leap at whatever new product Reese’s releases and I love a Tostitos Hint of Lime, even if there is no actual lime in the ingredients.
Why you should trust me: I have been writing about food and beverages for well over a decade and am an avid at-home cook and snacker. I began my career writing about fine dining and recipes, moved into cocktails and spirits, and now I talk about groceries. If you can eat it or drink it, I’ve probably written about it.
What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s dried okra. Appleton Farms prosciutto from Aldi. Some sort of Trader Joe’s cheese (I’m into the aged gouda at the moment). Frozen waffles (usually the Eggo Cinnamon Toast Minis). Spindrift water (loving the Cosmopolitan right now).
Favorite ranking: Smoked salmon. Imagine me as Scrooge McDuck but instead of coins I’m diving into a vault of slippery smoked salmon slices. Pure joy. I also found some real steals in that taste test!
Least favorite ranking: Canned oysters. I had such high hopes for this but it quickly became a chore. The kitchen smelled like an uncleaned aquarium.
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Justine Sterling
Vinz Karl
Alex Yakimova
Angela Guglielmino
