You said yes to hosting Thanksgiving. Now you’re looking at grocery prices and hoping you won’t find out on Wednesday night that you forgot the cranberries.
So what does it cost? The American Farm Bureau’s 2025 survey put a classic Thanksgiving dinner for 10 at $55.18, about $5.52 a person. We priced our own menu on walmart.com on Oct 22, 2026, with mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and gravy added, and by our math it came to $52.34 for 10.
Below is everything you need to copy this: the menu dish by dish, one shopping list with prices and buy dates, and a week by week countdown to Thursday.
What Thanksgiving dinner costs this year
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) prices the same classic menu for 10 every year. These are its 2025 numbers, the latest available.
| Where | Classic dinner for 10 (2025) |
|---|---|
| United States | $55.18 (about $5.52 a person) |
| South | $50.01 |
| Midwest | $54.38 |
| Northeast | $60.82 |
| West | $61.75 |
The 2026 survey is priced Nov 1 to 5 and comes out Nov 18. We’ll update this page then.
For context, grocery prices were up 1.8% over the 12 months to September 2026, according to the BLS. Eggs are far cheaper than a year ago, down 23.0% per USDA. Turkey went the other way: whole frozen turkeys in store ads averaged $1.23 a lb in mid October 2026, up from $1.08 a year earlier (USDA turkey ad report).
Set your number before you shop
Count heads, then pick a per-person amount
Count everyone at the table, kids included. Multiply by what you can spend per person, and that’s your budget.
Example: 10 guests × $5 = $50. That’s a little under AFBF’s 2025 average of $5.52 a person, and close to the $5.23 a person our Walmart menu below works out to.
Write it down.
Ask guests to bring one dish
Ask each family that’s coming to bring one specific dish. Name the dish, so nothing doubles up:
- A side (sweet potatoes, green beans or a salad)
- Rolls
- A dessert
- Drinks
Each dish a guest brings comes off your list. Ask the week of Oct 26 and confirm the week of Nov 16.
Thanksgiving dinner on a budget: the menu for 10
The table below prices each dish, as an example for 10 people.
These prices come from one walmart.com store (Sacramento, CA) on Oct 22, 2026. Prices vary by store and region, and some are temporary Rollbacks, so check them before you shop. Item prices and links are in the shopping list; the dish totals are our math.
| Dish (for 10) | What to buy | Cost (as of Oct 22, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Roast turkey and gravy | 16 lb Jennie-O turkey at $0.84/lb ($13.44), 2 gravy packets ($1.64) | $15.08 |
| Stuffing | 2 boxes stuffing mix ($2.00), onions ($2.25), celery ($1.48), chicken broth ($1.50, shared with the gravy) | $7.23 |
| Mashed potatoes | 5 lb russets ($2.47), 1 lb butter ($3.06, shared) | $5.53 |
| Roasted sweet potatoes | 3 lb sweet potatoes | $3.88 |
| Green bean casserole | 2 bags frozen green beans ($1.96), cream of mushroom soup ($0.86), French fried onions ($1.06) | $3.88 |
| Cranberry sauce | Fresh cranberries ($0.76), sugar ($2.50, shared with the pies) | $3.26 |
| Rolls | 12 brown and serve rolls | $1.05 |
| 2 pumpkin pies and whipped cream | 2 cans pumpkin ($2.00), 2 cans evaporated milk ($2.00), eggs ($1.67), 2 pie crusts ($1.36), pumpkin pie spice ($2.44), heavy cream ($2.96) | $12.43 |
| Total for 10 | 21 items | $52.34 (about $5.23 a person) |
The turkey: what size and what to pay
USDA’s food safety service says to allow 1 pound of turkey per person, so 10 people need about a 10 lb bird. AFBF’s menu uses a 16 lb turkey for 10 anyway, and we kept it: the extra is planned leftovers.
At Walmart on Oct 22, 2026, frozen whole turkeys were $0.84 a lb (Jennie-O) to $0.97 a lb (Butterball). AFBF’s 2025 survey priced turkey at $1.34 a lb, and AFBF notes that stores often cut whole turkey prices in the days before Thanksgiving, so watch the November ads.
Feeding a small group? A turkey breast is the easy swap. In mid October 2026, frozen bone-in whole turkey breast averaged $1.36 a lb in store ads (USDA turkey ad report).
Thanksgiving sides on a budget
- Mashed potatoes: 5 lb of russets, mashed with butter.
- Sweet potatoes: a 3 lb bag, cut up and roasted with oil and salt.
- Stuffing: two boxes of mix with onion, celery, butter and broth. Bake it in a casserole dish, which FSIS advises over stuffing the bird.
- Green bean casserole: two bags of frozen green beans, a can of cream of mushroom soup, fried onions on top.
- Cranberry sauce: a 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries was $0.76 on Rollback, less than a 14 oz can of jellied sauce at $1.72 (Walmart, as of Oct 22, 2026). Simmer with sugar and a splash of water until the berries pop.
- Gravy: two packets of mix, whisked with the pan drippings while the turkey rests.
- Rolls: brown and serve, baked last.
Dessert: two pumpkin pies from scratch
Each pie takes one can of pumpkin, one can of evaporated milk, eggs, sugar and pumpkin pie spice in a frozen deep dish crust. One 2-pack of crusts covers both pies, and one carton of cream whips up enough to top them.
Your Thanksgiving shopping list (with what to buy when)
Every item from the menu by store section, with the Walmart price as of Oct 22, 2026 and the week to buy it. Shelf-stable things come first, so the last trip is small.
| Item | Price (Oct 22, 2026) | Buy by |
|---|---|---|
| Meat: Jennie-O frozen whole turkey, 16 lb | $0.84/lb (about $13.44; final cost by weight) | Week of Nov 2 |
| Produce: Fresh cranberries, 12 oz | $0.76 (Rollback) | Week of Oct 26 (freeze them) |
| Produce: Russet potatoes, 5 lb | $2.47 (Rollback) | Sat Nov 21 to Mon Nov 23 |
| Produce: Sweet potatoes, 3 lb | $3.88 (Rollback) | Sat Nov 21 to Mon Nov 23 |
| Produce: Yellow onions, 3 lb | $2.25 | Sat Nov 21 to Mon Nov 23 |
| Produce: Celery | $1.48 | Sat Nov 21 to Mon Nov 23 |
| Dairy: Great Value salted butter, 1 lb | $3.06 | Week of Nov 9 |
| Dairy: Great Value cage-free large eggs, 12 | $1.67 | Sat Nov 21 to Mon Nov 23 |
| Dairy: Great Value heavy whipping cream, 16 oz | $2.96 | Sat Nov 21 to Mon Nov 23 |
| Frozen: Great Value cut green beans, 16 oz (×2) | $0.98 each | Week of Nov 9 |
| Frozen: Great Value deep dish pie crusts, 2 ct | $1.36 (Rollback) | Week of Nov 9 |
| Bakery: Great Value brown and serve rolls, 12 ct | $1.05 (Rollback) | Sat Nov 21 to Mon Nov 23 |
| Pantry: Great Value chicken stuffing mix, 6 oz (×2) | $1.00 each | Week of Oct 26 |
| Pantry: Great Value chicken broth, 32 oz | $1.50 | Week of Oct 26 |
| Pantry: Great Value turkey gravy mix, 0.87 oz (×2) | $0.82 each | Week of Oct 26 |
| Pantry: Great Value cream of mushroom soup, 10.5 oz | $0.86 | Week of Nov 9 |
| Pantry: Great Value French fried onions, 6 oz | $1.06 (Rollback) | Week of Nov 9 |
| Baking: Great Value 100% pure pumpkin, 15 oz (×2) | $1.00 each (Rollback) | Week of Oct 26 |
| Baking: Great Value evaporated milk, 12 oz (×2) | $1.00 each (Rollback) | Week of Oct 26 |
| Baking: Great Value pumpkin pie spice, 2 oz | $2.44 | Week of Nov 9 |
| Baking: Great Value granulated sugar, 4 lb | $2.50 (Rollback) | Week of Nov 9 |
Check your pantry first
Already have sugar, butter, eggs and pumpkin pie spice? Cross them off the list. By our math that’s $9.67 less, and the menu for 10 drops to $42.67. Check for salt, pepper and oil too, since our total leaves them out.
Feeding 6 instead of 10
Fewer guests doesn’t mean a much smaller bill. For 6, we swapped in a 10 to 16 lb turkey (Walmart’s average for that size was $11.58 on Oct 22), one gravy packet, one box of stuffing, one bag of green beans and one pie. By our math the total still came to $45.68, about $7.61 a person, or $36.01 with those pantry items already at home.
Packages don’t shrink with the guest list: you still buy a whole bag of potatoes, a carton of cream and a 2-pack of crusts. So for a small group, the savings come from the pantry check, a potluck dish or a turkey breast.
Walmart or Aldi?
Aldi has its own Thanksgiving list for 10 and says it costs “under $39”, with prices good through Nov 25. It’s the AFBF classic menu, so there are no mashed potatoes, gravy or green bean casserole on it. The item prices we could read on Oct 22, 2026 added up to $33.28 before the whipping cream, which wasn’t listed. Aldi’s turkey goes on sale Nov 4.
The towns differ because each website shows one store’s prices at a time, and we read the store it showed us: Sacramento, CA on walmart.com and Geneva, IL on aldi.us.
If there’s an Aldi near you, price your list at both stores and buy each item where it’s cheaper.
Your Thanksgiving timeline, week by week
The 2026 countdown, from this week to Thursday dinner, with buy dates matched to when the sales start.
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| Week of Oct 26 | Set the guest count and budget, pick the menu, send potluck asks, check the pantry. Buy shelf-stable items (pumpkin, evaporated milk, stuffing, broth, gravy mix). Fresh cranberries can be bought now and frozen (Aldi’s go on sale Oct 26). |
| Week of Nov 2 | Buy the frozen turkey and keep it frozen (Aldi’s goes on sale Nov 4). Clear freezer space. |
| Week of Nov 9 | Pie supplies, butter, cream of mushroom soup, fried onions, frozen green beans (Aldi pumpkin pie mix from Nov 11). Compare the turkey ad price with what you paid. |
| Week of Nov 16 | Check the new AFBF figure (Nov 18). Confirm who brings what. |
| Fri Nov 20 to Sun Nov 22 | Move the turkey to the fridge: Fri Nov 20 for over 20 up to 24 lb, Sat Nov 21 for over 16 up to 20 lb, Sun Nov 22 for 12 to 16 lb (like our 16 lb bird). |
| Sat Nov 21 to Mon Nov 23 | Fresh produce, rolls, cream, eggs. |
| Tue Nov 24 | Make cranberry sauce; chop onions and celery. |
| Wed Nov 25 | Bake pies; roast the sweet potatoes; assemble the green bean casserole and stuffing dish (cover and chill, bake Thursday). Last day of Aldi’s prices. |
| Thu Nov 26 (dinner at 3 pm) | Turkey in at 325 °F by about 10:15 am (see the oven schedule below). Leftovers in the fridge within 2 hours. |
When to move the turkey to the fridge
Thaw the turkey in the fridge at 40 °F or below. FSIS says to allow about 24 hours for every 4 to 5 lb:
- 12 to 16 lb: 3 to 4 days
- 16 to 20 lb: 4 to 5 days
- 20 to 24 lb: 5 to 6 days
So a 16 lb bird goes in the fridge on Sunday, Nov 22, and a 20 to 24 lb bird on Friday, Nov 20. FSIS says a thawed turkey keeps 1 to 2 days in the fridge, so a little early is fine.
Running late? FSIS’s cold water method takes about 30 minutes per lb: change the water every 30 minutes, then cook the turkey right away.
What to make the day before
Tuesday: cranberry sauce, and chop the onions and celery. Wednesday: bake the pies and roast the sweet potatoes, then assemble the green bean casserole and stuffing, cover and chill. Thursday is left for the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy.
Thanksgiving Day oven schedule
Example: dinner at 3 pm with a 16 lb unstuffed turkey. FSIS times a 14 to 18 lb unstuffed bird at 3¾ to 4¼ hours, with the oven no lower than 325 °F.
- About 10:15 am: turkey in at 325 °F.
- Early afternoon: start checking with a food thermometer. The turkey is safe at 165 °F.
- About 1:45 pm: the chilled stuffing and green bean casserole go in next to the turkey, so they have time to heat through. Stuffing is safe at 165 °F too, so check it with the thermometer.
- About 2:30 pm: turkey out and resting (FSIS says 20 minutes before carving). Wednesday’s sweet potatoes go in to reheat.
- Meanwhile, on the stove: mash the potatoes and make the gravy.
- Last: rolls in the oven, then carve and eat.
If your oven is too full for the sides at 1:45, bake them as soon as the turkey comes out and plan to eat closer to 3:30. And if the turkey is still frozen Thursday morning, you can cook it from frozen, but FSIS says it takes at least 50% longer.
Leftovers: keep them safe and make them stretch
The big bird was bought for leftovers. FSIS says to get them in the fridge within 2 hours, then eat them within 3 to 4 days or freeze them for 3 to 4 months.
- Friday sandwiches: leftover rolls, sliced turkey and a spoonful of cranberry sauce.
- Turkey soup: simmer the bones with the leftover onion and celery for broth, then add chopped turkey.
- Freeze some for later: pack sliced turkey in meal-sized bags and write the date on each one.
Start here tonight
Count your guests and write your number at the top of your shopping list.
Christmas is next: here are 25 Christmas on a budget ideas for families. To save a little each month for next November, give Thanksgiving its own box on the sinking funds page of our free budget printables, the same set you can use to plan January.
