Thanksgiving: Shopping List

One of the best tools in the frugal grocery shopper's arsenal is a list. A list keeps you from wandering the store aimlessly, picking up a bunch of things that sound good but ultimately don't make a meal.

Let's recap what I'm making and what I have on hand.

The menu is:

• Breakfast: cinnamon rolls and wassail
• Snacks: cheese, crackers, pickles, olives, carrot sticks
• Dinner: brined turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with apples, pecan and sausage stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin cheesecake
• Potluck dinner contribution: apple pie bites with brown sugar cinnamon ice cream

I have all the ingredients for breakfast on-hand. While I know a great cinnamon roll recipe, I got three rolls of cinnamon rolls free in a Catalina deal a few weeks ago. (Believe it or not, they freeze fine. Just make sure they're totally defrosted before cracking open the roll.) The wassail only has three ingredients: Good Earth tea (which I have), apple juice (bought on sale at Target for $.75 last month), and cranberry juice (bought this week on sale for $.99 at Target).


For snacks, I have everything but the olives on hand.


For dinner, I obviously need a turkey! For three people, I actually buy a 12 lb bird because we'll eat leftovers for days and then I'll make soup with the carcass. I already bought the brine last month. I make the gravy from scratch, so nothing to buy there. I have plenty of potatoes bought at $.99 a bag, plenty of apples, a small bag of pecan chips, crescent rolls bought during the same Catalina deal last month, and plenty of cream cheese I bought this week.


That makes my shopping list:

• turkey, at least 12 lb
• sage sausage
• bread cubes 
• cranberry sauce
• canned pumpkin
• puff pastry
• olives