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If you’ve ever hosted Thanksgiving, you know that feeding and entertaining a group of any size for the holiday can be pretty expensive. But you’d never know that from the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual report on what the cost of a Thanksgiving meal should be. They’ve just come out with this year’s report, and it’s ridiculously low, once again.
According to the American Farm Bureau Federation:
- The total cost of a Thanksgiving meal for 10 should be $64.05.
- That comes out to less than $6.50 per person, but it’s an increase of $10.74, or 20% more than last year.
- The centerpiece of most Thanksgiving tables, the turkey, is also the most expensive item at $28.96 for a 16-pound bird that’s $1.81 a pound. That’s an increase of 21% from last year.
The rest of the meal they’ve priced includes:
- 14-ounce bag of cubed stuffing mix: $3.88 (up 69%)
- 2 frozen pie crusts: $3.68 (up 26%)
- Half pint of whipping cream: $2.24 (up 26%)
- 1 pound of frozen peas: $1.90 (up 23%)
- 1 dozen dinner rolls: $3.73 (up 22%)
- Miscellaneous ingredients to prepare the meal: $4.13 (up 20%)
- 30-ounce can of pumpkin pie mix: $4.28 (up 18%)
- 1 gallon of whole milk: $3.84 (up 16%)
- 3 pounds of sweet potatoes: $3.96 (up 11%)
- 1-pound veggie tray (carrots & celery): 88 cents (up 8%)
- 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries: $2.57 (down 14%)
- The Farm Bureau also looked at what the cost of adding ham, Russet potatoes and frozen green beans would be. It does raise the overall price by $17.25, making the total $81.30
- Those numbers may seem really low, but the group comes up with their estimates based on information from 224 volunteer shoppers who checked grocery prices in all 50 states.
Source: American Farm Bureau Federation