Suppose you have ten people over for Thanksgiving.  They will expect to be fed.  This year’s meal wil could be cheaper than last year’s Thanksgiving feed—if it’s considered an average Thanksgiving meal. 

Promotions director Diane Olson has been calculating the prices of Thanksgiving dinners for the Missouri Farm Bureau since 1986.  The ingredients haven’t changed–a 16-pound turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, a pumpkin pie with whipped cream, a relish tray—and you can’t forget cranberries and coffee, milk, and tea. 

That dinner is $3.26 cheaper this year than last year, most of it because that turkey will be $2.88 cheaper. She says frozen turkeys are in plentiful supply.  But she says it’s important not to wait very long to buy one of those birds.

Olson calculates the dinner would cost $48.61 this year, less than five dollars per person for that ten-person feast.  That’s not counting leftovers.  Depending on how many days you can stand turkey hash, turkey stew, turkey sandwiches….well, you get the idea….the per-meal price could be even cheaper.

AUDIO: Olson interview 6:58