Entertaining and feeding a group of people can be pretty pricey, as anyone who’s hosted Thanksgiving can tell you. 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. The 39th edition just came out and once again, their price is ridiculously low.
According to the group, the total cost of a Thanksgiving feast for 10 should be $58.08.
- That comes out to just $5.80 per person.
- That’s down 5%, or $3.09 from last year’s cost, but it’s still 19% higher than the total in 2019.
- The centerpiece of most Thanksgiving dinners, the turkey, is, of course, the most expensive item. The average price for a 16-pound bird is $25.67, which is $1.60 per pound, down 6% from 2023.
The rest of the cheap meal they’ve priced includes:
- 14-ounces of cubed stuffing mix: $4.08 (up 8.2%)
- 2 frozen pie crusts: $3.40 (down 2.9%)
- Half pint of whipping cream: $1.81 (up 4.7%)
- 1 pound of frozen peas: $1.73 (down 8.1%)
- 1 dozen dinner rolls: $4.16 (up 8.4%)
- Miscellaneous ingredients to prepare the meal: $3.75 (down 5.1%)
- 30-ounce can of pumpkin pie mix: $4.15 (down 6.5%)
- 1 gallon of whole milk: $3.21 (down 14.3%)
- 3 pounds of sweet potatoes: $2.93 (down 26.2%)
- 1-pound veggie tray (carrots & celery): $.84 (down 6.4%)
- 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries: $2.35 (up 11.8%)
- The Farm Bureau also looked into how much it would cost to add boneless ham, Russet potatoes and frozen green beans to the meal.
- These additions raise the overall cost by $19.26 for a total of $77.34.
While these prices seem absurdly low, the group comes up with their averages based on prices from shoppers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, who visit local supermarkets during one week.
Source: American Farm Bureau Federation