- “I don’t know how people are making it,” says one Mississippi mother.
Families across America are once again preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving this week. While prices have moderated a bit since last year’s feast, a Thanksgiving meal is still 19 percent higher than it was in 2019 pre-pandemic.
A mother of two shopping at Ramey’s in Pascagoula told Magnolia Tribune on Monday that she is feeling the pinch already this holiday season.
“We’re trying to stretch things further this year and not make as much to try and save money wherever we can,” the mother, who did not want to be named, said. “Everything just costs so much more these days. I don’t know how people are making it.”
The American Farm Bureau Federation has been sharing their annual Thanksgiving Dinner Survey for 39 years using national average costs with pricing data from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The shopping list for Farm Bureau’s informal survey includes turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream, all in quantities sufficient to serve a gathering of 10.
According to Farm Bureau’s latest survey, this year’s classic holiday feast for 10 will run roughly $58.08 or about $5.80 per person. This is a 5 percent decrease from 2023, which was 4.5 percent lower than 2022. However, two years of declines do not erase the dramatic increases that led to a record high Thanksgiving Dinner cost of $64.05 in 2022, Farm Bureau reported.
The overall cost for the classic meal was the most affordable in the South at $56.81 but hit pocketbooks the hardest in the West at $67.05
Leading the way in the reduced cost category is the centerpiece on most Thanksgiving tables – the turkey. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service data showed that the average price for a 16-pound turkey is $25.67, down 6 percent from last year.
Farm Bureau also noted that most ingredients in the survey saw a decline in prices, including fresh vegetables and milk. Yet, items like dinner rolls and cubed stuffing both saw an 8 percent increase.
Here is a breakdown of the cost of individual items listed in the survey:
- 16-pound turkey: $25.67 or $1.60 per pound (down 6.1%)
- 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%)
- Misc. 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%)
If consumers added boneless ham, Russet potatoes and frozen green beans to expand their menu choices for the classic Thanksgiving Dinner, the overall cost would increase by $19.26, to $77.34.
The current inflation rate for October 2024 is 2.6 percent, up 0.2 percent from September but down from a high of 9.1 percent in June 2022.
Frank Corder
