Stretch-It Kitchen

Thanksgiving Dinner for 8 on a Budget: The Full Shopping List and Total

A full turkey Thanksgiving for eight rang up at $124.09 at a Greer, SC Harris Teeter at regular shelf prices, or $91.36 counting only what goes into the dishes. Ham, chicken thigh and cut-down menus priced the same way, with every recipe.

Thanksgiving for eight, turkey and all, came to $124.09 at the register. That is a 12-pound turkey with gravy, sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, homemade rolls and a pumpkin pie, bought at regular shelf price at the Harris Teeter at Hudson Corners in Greer on October 22, 2026.

About $33 of that comes home as leftovers in the pantry: most of a bag of flour, half a box of butter, eggs, sugar, a second pie crust. Count only what goes into the dishes and the same dinner is $91.36, or $11.42 a person.

The whole list is below with every price, every recipe and its source, and three cheaper menus priced the same way. The cheapest is a chicken thigh dinner for $64.70.

How we priced it

• Regular shelf price only. The turkey was on sale for $1.49 a pound the day we checked. We used the regular $2.49, because sales come and go and a total built on one would not hold up next week.
• Two numbers for every menu. “At the register” is what you hand the cashier if your cabinet is bare: whole bags, whole boxes, whole jars. “In the dishes” counts only the share of each package the recipes use.
• Spices are not counted. Salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, sage seasoning, vanilla, soy sauce and vinegar are assumed to be in your cabinet. Butter, flour, sugar, eggs, milk, oil and fresh herbs are counted.
• Published recipes only. Every dish is an Allrecipes recipe with its rating and rating count. We changed a recipe only to match a real package size, and each change is named in its section.

Four menus for eight, side by side

The seven sides are the same in the first three menus: stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, rolls and pumpkin pie. Together they cost $54.65 in the dishes, or $6.83 a person. Everything above that is the main.

Turkey, ham or chicken thighs: the main is most of the difference

The turkey costs $21.76 more than the thighs in the dish. It also makes twice as much food. The recipe says it serves 16, so eight people get a second turkey dinner, or a week of sandwiches, out of it. The thighs and the ham are sized for one meal. If your crowd wants leftovers, the bird is a better buy than its price looks.

The ham lands in the middle. It is fully cooked, so its hour in the oven is reheating and glazing, against about 3 1/2 hours for the turkey. With one oven and seven dishes, that hour matters.

The full shopping list for the turkey dinner

Every package, the count, and the regular price. This is the $124.09 register total.

For the ham dinner, take the turkey, carrots, sage, rosemary, one bunch of celery and one pound of onions off the list and add 5 pounds of spiral ham, a 20-ounce can of pineapple chunks in juice, a 12-ounce honey bear and two navel oranges. That list rings up at $110.77. For the chicken thigh dinner, swap the turkey line for 5 pounds of thighs and drop the same vegetables and herbs: $97.41.

The two biggest lines after the meat are the pecans and the sausage, $6.99 each. Both go into one dish apiece.

Chef John’s Roast Turkey and Gravy: $36.71

Chef John’s Roast Turkey and Gravy has a 4.9-star average from 391 ratings on Allrecipes. It is a plain roast bird with butter under the skin, and the gravy is made from a stock of the neck and giblets plus the pan juices, so there is no jar of gravy to buy. We made no changes. The turkey itself is $29.88 of the $36.71.

• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
• 1 (12 pound) whole turkey, neck and giblets reserved
• 2 onions, coarsely chopped
• 3 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
• 2 carrots, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 bunch fresh sage
• 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 8 tablespoons butter, softened
• 6 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
• salt and ground black pepper to taste

1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Mix the kosher salt, pepper and poultry seasoning in a small bowl. Tuck the wings under the bird and season the cavity with about 1 tablespoon of the mix. Save the rest.
3. Toss the onions, celery and carrots together. Stuff about 1/2 cup of the vegetables into the cavity with the sage and rosemary sprigs, and tie the legs together. Loosen the skin over the breast, spread about 2 tablespoons of butter under it, and spread the other 6 tablespoons over the outside of the skin. Sprinkle the bird with the rest of the seasoning mix.
4. Spread the rest of the vegetables in a large roasting pan and set the turkey on top. Add about 1/2 inch of water to the pan and shape a sheet of foil over the breast.
5. Roast until the turkey is no longer pink near the bone and the juices run clear, about 3 1/2 hours. A thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh, near the bone, should read 165 degrees F. Take the foil off for the last hour and baste with the pan juices.
6. While it roasts, make the stock: simmer the neck and giblets with the 6 cups of water and the bay leaf over medium heat for 2 hours. Strain it and throw out the neck and giblets. You should have at least 4 cups.
7. Take the turkey out and pour off the pan juices, about 3 cups, into a shallow bowl. Skim off the fat, saving about 2 tablespoons. Cover the turkey with a double sheet of foil and let it rest in a warm spot for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing.
8. For the gravy, heat the 2 tablespoons of turkey fat and the 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion from the roasting pan and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook about 5 minutes more. Whisk in 4 cups of the stock and the pan juices until smooth and skim off any foam. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and simmer, whisking, until thick, about 10 minutes. Stir in the chopped sage and season with salt and pepper.

The turkey on this list is frozen. The USDA’s safe thawing guide allows about 24 hours in the refrigerator for every 4 to 5 pounds, so a 12-pound bird needs about three days. For a Thursday dinner, it goes from the freezer to the fridge by Sunday night.

Ham with Honey and Brown Sugar Glaze: $27.11

Ham with Honey and Brown Sugar Glaze (4.7 stars, 227 ratings) is a fully cooked sliced ham with a stovetop glaze poured over it, baked for an hour. We priced a 5-pound Smithfield spiral sliced ham at $3.99 a pound, which is $19.95 of the total.

Two notes on the price. The recipe studs the ham with 1/4 cup of whole cloves; that is decoration more than ingredient, and we did not count it, so buy a jar if you do not have one. And the store’s price list showed no bottled pineapple juice, so we priced the juice from one 20-ounce can of pineapple chunks in juice. The pineapple is a bonus.

• 1 (5 pound) fully cooked sliced ham
• 1/4 cup whole cloves (not counted in the price)
• 1 cup pineapple juice (we priced the juice from a 20 ounce can of pineapple chunks in juice)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 oranges, juiced

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Set the ham in a roasting pan and dot it with the cloves.
3. In a saucepan, stir together the pineapple juice, brown sugar, honey and orange juice. Simmer over medium-low heat until it thickens, about 10 minutes.
4. Pour the glaze over the ham.
5. Bake uncovered for 1 hour.

The recipe gives no temperature. The USDA’s ham guidance says a cooked ham packaged in a USDA-inspected plant should be reheated to 140 degrees F, and leftover spiral ham reheated later should reach 165 degrees F.

Easy Baked Chicken Thighs, made four times: $14.95

Easy Baked Chicken Thighs (4.6 stars, 214 ratings) is the simplest main here: thighs, garlic powder, dried onion and salt, baked. The recipe is for 4 thighs. For eight people we made it four times, 16 thighs, two a guest. We figured about 5 ounces a bone-in thigh, so 5 pounds at $2.99 a pound. Packs vary, so weigh yours; every extra pound is $2.99.

• 4 chicken thighs
• 4 teaspoons garlic powder
• 4 teaspoons onion flakes
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Set the thighs in a baking dish and season both sides with the garlic powder, dried onion and salt.
3. Bake until no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear, about 45 minutes. A thermometer in the thickest part, near the bone, should read 165 degrees F.

Basic Yankee Bread Stuffing: $15.91

Basic Yankee Bread Stuffing (4.6 stars, 145 ratings) is baked in a pan, not in the bird, and it is built on a pound of breakfast sausage and two pounds of torn white bread. It makes 12 servings, so eight people have some left. The sausage roll is $6.99 of the $15.91.

One change for package size: the recipe calls for two 1-pound loaves. The store-brand loaf is 20 ounces, so we priced two loaves and the dish uses about 1 1/2 of them. Toast the leftover slices for breakfast.

• 1 pound ground pork sausage
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 6 stalks chopped celery
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 (1 pound) loaves day-old white bread, torn into small pieces (we bought two 20 ounce loaves and used 2 pounds)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sage seasoning mixture
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup chicken broth

1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees F and lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
2. Brown the sausage evenly in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Drain it and set it aside.
3. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook the celery and onions slowly, stirring, until tender.
4. In a large bowl, mix the sausage, celery, onions, bread, sage, salt and pepper. Add the eggs and enough broth to make it moist but not mushy.
5. Press it into the baking dish and bake for 1 hour, until the top is brown and crisp.

The recipe gives no internal temperature. The USDA’s safe temperature chart puts stuffing and casseroles at 165 degrees F, so check the center of the pan.

Best Mashed Potatoes, doubled: $6.48

Best Mashed Potatoes (4.7 stars, 648 ratings) serves four, so we doubled it: 4 pounds of russets, 2 cups of milk, 4 tablespoons of butter and 6 cloves of garlic. The list below is the recipe as written; make it twice. Potatoes are $5.16 of the $6.48.

• 2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled, or to taste
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• salt and ground black pepper to taste

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the potatoes and garlic, turn the heat to medium, and simmer until a fork goes in easily, about 15 minutes.
2. When the potatoes are nearly done, warm the milk and butter in a small saucepan over low heat until the butter melts.
3. Drain the potatoes and garlic well and put them back in the hot pot for 1 to 2 minutes to dry out. Mash, adding the warm milk a little at a time, only as much as you need.
4. Season with salt and pepper and top with extra butter if you like.

Campbell’s Green Bean Casserole: $10.98

Campbell’s Green Bean Casserole (4.7 stars, 801 ratings) is the version on the soup can, in the 12-serving size Allrecipes lists. Two changes, both for package size. The recipe calls for 10 3/4-ounce cans of soup, and the cans on the shelf now hold 10.5 ounces, so we used two of those. And it calls for 8 cups of cooked cut green beans, which we priced as four 14.5-ounce cans, drained.

• 2 2/3 cups French’s French Fried Onions (we used a 6 ounce can of store-brand fried onions)
• 8 cups cooked cut green beans (we used four 14.5 ounce cans, drained)
• 2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup or Campbell’s Condensed 98% Fat Free Cream of Mushroom Soup (we used two 10.5 ounce cans of store-brand cream of mushroom)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a 3-quart casserole dish, stir together 1 1/3 cups of the fried onions with the green beans, soup, milk, soy sauce and pepper until evenly mixed.
3. Bake uncovered until hot and bubbling, about 25 minutes.
4. Stir, top with the other 1 1/3 cups of onions, and bake until the topping is crisp, about 5 minutes more. Let it stand a few minutes before serving.

Cranberry Sauce: $4.17

Cranberry Sauce has 3,165 ratings and a 4.8-star average, the most of anything on this menu. It is three ingredients and about 15 minutes. We made no changes.

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup orange juice
• 12 ounces cranberries

1. Stir the sugar and orange juice together in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and it starts to simmer.
2. Add the cranberries and cook uncovered, stirring now and then, until most of the berries pop and the sauce starts to thicken, 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Take it off the heat, pour it into a bowl and let it cool. It keeps thickening as it cools. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

This one can be made two or three days ahead, which takes one pot off the stove on Thursday. That is our suggestion, not the recipe’s.

Sweet Potato Casserole: $9.12

Sweet Potato Casserole (4.8 stars, 590 ratings) starts from a 40-ounce can of cut sweet potatoes in syrup and gets a pecan and brown sugar topping. The pecans are the expensive part: 1 cup is $2.80 of the $9.12, from a $6.99 bag. One change: the recipe calls for unsalted butter. We priced the store’s salted butter, because one box of it covers every dish on this menu.

• 1 (40 ounce) can cut sweet potatoes, undrained
• 3/4 cup white sugar, or more to taste
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces (we priced salted butter)
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, or more to taste
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted (we priced salted butter)

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F and butter a 2-quart baking dish.
2. Put the sweet potatoes and their liquid in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
3. Take them off the heat and drain them.
4. Move them to a bowl and mash with a fork or potato masher until mostly smooth.
5. Add the white sugar, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla and mix well.
6. Spread the filling evenly in the baking dish.
7. In another bowl, mix the pecans, brown sugar, flour and melted butter until crumbly.
8. Sprinkle the topping over the filling.
9. Bake until the topping is browned and the filling is hot through, about 35 minutes.

Double Quick Dinner Rolls: $1.67

Double Quick Dinner Rolls (4.5 stars, 211 ratings) is a batter-style yeast roll baked in a muffin tin, with no kneading. Twelve rolls cost $1.67 in the dish. At the register the yeast, flour and oil cost more than that, but they are shared with the rest of the menu and you keep most of each package.

One change: the recipe calls for dry potato flakes. Plain flakes were not in our price pull, so we priced a 4-ounce pouch of Idahoan buttery instant mashed potatoes, a butter-flavored version of the same dried potato.

• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1/4 cup dry potato flakes (we priced Idahoan buttery instant mashed potatoes)
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add the potato flakes, sugar, salt, egg, oil, onion powder and 1 cup of the flour, and beat until smooth. Stir in the rest of the flour and keep stirring until smooth, scraping down the bowl.
2. Cover and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, 20 to 30 minutes.
3. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F and lightly grease 12 muffin cups.
4. Stir the dough down and spoon it into the muffin cups, filling each halfway. Let it rise until it reaches the tops of the cups, about 20 minutes.
5. Bake for 15 minutes and serve right away.

Libby’s Famous Pumpkin Pie: $6.32

Libby’s Famous Pumpkin Pie (4.8 stars, 1,431 ratings) is the recipe from the back of the can. We priced the store-brand pumpkin and evaporated milk, and a 2-count box of deep dish crusts, so there is a second crust left over.

• 1 (9 inch) unbaked deep-dish pie crust
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 large eggs
• 1 (15 ounce) can LIBBY’S 100% Pure Pumpkin (we used store-brand 100% pure pumpkin)
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can NESTLE CARNATION Evaporated Milk (we used store-brand evaporated milk)

1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Mix the sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in a small bowl.
3. Beat the eggs lightly in a large bowl.
4. Stir in the pumpkin and the sugar and spice mix.
5. Slowly stir in the evaporated milk and pour it into the crust.
6. Bake for 15 minutes. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees F and bake until a knife near the center comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes more. Cool it on a wire rack to room temperature.
7. Serve it cooled, or refrigerate until serving. The recipe says not to freeze it, because the crust separates from the filling.

The recipe has you cool the pie and serve it cold or at room temperature, so it can be baked on Wednesday and stay out of Thursday’s oven.

How to cut the bill without dropping a dish

These are ours, worked out from the same price pull:

1. Swap the main. Chicken thighs instead of turkey takes the register total from $124.09 to $97.41, $26.68 less, with every side still on the table.
2. Watch for the turkey sale. At the $1.49 sale price we saw, the same 12-pound bird is $12.00 less. We left it out of the totals because it was a one-week price.
3. Buy the store brand. The four brands the recipes name (French’s onions, Campbell’s soup, Libby’s pumpkin, Carnation milk) were $3.70 more on the same shelf than the store-brand cans we priced.
4. Shop the menu as one cart. Flour, butter, sugar, eggs and milk are shared across six dishes. Priced one recipe at a time, with whole packages for each, the eight turkey-dinner recipes add up to $159.76. Bought together, the same food is $124.09.

If the budget has to go lower, the cut-down menu drops the stuffing and the sweet potato casserole and keeps chicken thighs, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls and pie. That is $64.70 at the register for eight, $32.71 less than the full chicken thigh dinner.

What the Farm Bureau survey says, and why it is a different dinner

The American Farm Bureau Federation prices a Thanksgiving dinner every November. Its 40th annual survey, released November 19, 2025, put its classic dinner for 10 at $55.18, about $5.52 a person, and 5% less than in 2024. Its 16-pound frozen turkey averaged $21.50, or $1.34 a pound. The 2026 survey had not been released when we priced this menu.

It is a good national yardstick. It is not the same dinner as ours. The Farm Bureau menu is for 10 people and is smaller: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Its volunteer shoppers checked prices in stores and online the first week of November and looked for the best prices available, without coupons or buy-one-get-one deals. We used regular price at one store in October. Our turkey was $2.49 a pound; their average was $1.34.

A timeline for one oven

• Sunday: Move the turkey from the freezer to the refrigerator.
• Tuesday or Wednesday: Make the cranberry sauce. Tear the bread for the stuffing and let it dry out.
• Wednesday: Bake the pumpkin pie.
• Thursday morning: The turkey goes in at 325 degrees F for about 3 1/2 hours. Start the giblet stock on the stove.
• The turkey’s last hour: The stuffing bakes at 325 degrees F for an hour, the same as the bird, so it can share the oven if there is room on the rack.
• Once the turkey is out: Raise the oven to 350 degrees F for the sweet potato casserole (about 35 minutes) and green bean casserole (about 30), then to 400 degrees F for the rolls (15). Mash the potatoes and make the gravy on the stove in the meantime.

That order is ours, built from the temperatures and times in each recipe.

Keep going

If you are hosting and also traveling this year, our cheap Thanksgiving getaways in the South prices five drives from the Upstate for the holiday week. For the side dish that stretches any meal on the other 364 days, see the $5 side dish. And what 45 years did to the grocery cart puts this list in longer context.

Which dish on this table would your family notice first if it went missing?

Recipes: Allrecipes, linked in each section, followed as written except the changes we name. We priced every recipe; we did not test-cook this menu. Prices: regular shelf prices at Harris Teeter Hudson Corners, 2145 Old Spartanburg Rd, Greer, SC 29650, pulled October 22, 2026 through the Kroger Products API. Sale prices left out. Salt, pepper, dried spices, vanilla, soy sauce and vinegar are not counted. Your store and week will vary.

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