Thanksgiving - this might be pathetic

pawcall · November 2010

I'm seriously considering ordering up thanksgiving dinner from the grocery store for $40. It supposedly serves 6-8 people, so we'd have a ton of leftovers. It includes a 10-12lb turkey, 2lbs of stuffing, 3lbs of mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, a dozen dinner rolls, and a pumpkin pie. I feel like for $40, it's not worth my time and energy to buy all that food and cook it. I hate to cook, and DH will NEVER help.

The other option is to go somewhere like Boston Market and eat there. I just can't make myself want to cook this year, and we're certainly not going to his mother's (although I wish there were a way to tell him that i quite honestly wouldn't be upset if HE wanted to go without me - it would start drama, so I'm not going to.).

chicky1231 · November 2010

I say go for it....$40 is a great price to not have to worry about all the cooking and I know our grocery store makes a great Thanksgiving dinner.

emmacwn · November 2010

If it's just the two of you, I'd say go for it! For that matter even if you were having guests I'd say go for it. The $ and effort at this stage in pregnancy seems so impossible (for me at least). And $40 seems like a bargain for all of that and much cozier than eating at Boston Market.

If my parents who live 10 minutes away weren't cooking there would be no turkey this year. We'd probably be eating pizza and watching a movie.

atownpreggo · November 2010

Go for it!! I would if we weren't going to my parents'.

tfarabians · November 2010

I say go for it too! $40 is cheaper than it would cost you to cook all that!

futuremrscohick · November 2010

If my in-laws weren't coming down and cooking for me (since I can't lift more than 10lbs - which counts out a turkey), I'd be sitting on the couch with the pups eating mozzarella sticks and pizza dip. lol Incidently, those are my plans for Christmas if the baby isn't here

I say $40 is a steal. I was considering that even once my IL's said they were coming down - the local grocery store does the whole shebang like yours does.

nate2011 · November 2010

Do it! Save your feet from swelling.

IAM4UK · November 2010

We did that last year since we were traveling OOT.

The meal from the grocery store was all cooked items, that still had to be re-heated. The turkey still had to be warmed. Everything was cold or frozen.

We thought the meal would be warm when we picked it up - not the case at all.

It took us about 4 hours to get everything warm enough.

Just check because often times, you can find all those items throughout the grocery store for a heck of a lot cheaper. They are basically just charging a conveinence fee for them to collect everything and put it in a box for you.

wmramsel · November 2010

Completely worth it!!

jaejaevee · November 2010

I'd do it if we didn't have my parents to cook for us.

hjk5000 · November 2010

tfarabians:
I say go for it too! $40 is cheaper than it would cost you to cook all that!

ditto!

tigerali · November 2010

I would do that if it were just us and we were staying home. You will come out ahead financially, and even if you have to warm the dishes, it will be less exhausting than cooking it all from scratch.

pawcall · November 2010

IAM4UK:
We did that last year since we were traveling OOT.

The meal from the grocery store was all cooked items, that still had to be re-heated. The turkey still had to be warmed. Everything was cold or frozen.

We thought the meal would be warm when we picked it up - not the case at all.

It took us about 4 hours to get everything warm enough.

Just check because often times, you can find all those items throughout the grocery store for a heck of a lot cheaper. They are basically just charging a conveinence fee for them to collect everything and put it in a box for you.

Good point, I'll do a little recon when I'm there tomorrow to do my regular shopping for the week. I was anticipating needing time for heating up. so that's no biggie, but i'll definitely check on the price factor. My hunch is that I won't be doing any better than $40 for that amount of precooked food - but it's worth a look.

kmcrn08 · November 2010

I would go for it if your grocery store is a good one! I bought a HUGE cooked turkey last year from our local BBQ for $20 with our local groupon/deal of the day.

It was delicious, we just had to pick it up before 10A on Thanksgiving day! I am all for convenience!

allobosc · November 2010

I see you're in PA, do they have Bob Evans there? I think it is more than $40, but they do a nice meal. We did it the year DS was born and it doesn't take nearly the prep work that a store one does. Try a nice local home-cooking restaurant too, several of ours around here offer meals.

racheldaigle46 · November 2010

sounds like a great deal!!!

pawcall · November 2010

allobosc:
I see you're in PA, do they have Bob Evans there? I think it is more than $40, but they do a nice meal. We did it the year DS was born and it doesn't take nearly the prep work that a store one does. Try a nice local home-cooking restaurant too, several of ours around here offer meals.

Bob Evans looks delicious but they're closed on Thanksgiving Day

JD807 · November 2010

I'd say go for it if it's just you two. It leaves you with plenty of leftovers, and warming up can be less of a hassle in the end then cooking from scratch. DH is a huge fan of cooking...loves it and wants to open his own restaurant. Me? I

baking...so we always end up cooking even if we say we aren't going to =P

honey740 · November 2010

do you have a Whole Foods? it is more expensive than a grocery store but they might do a better job.

broccolitree · November 2010

IAM4UK:
We did that last year since we were traveling OOT.

The meal from the grocery store was all cooked items, that still had to be re-heated. The turkey still had to be warmed. Everything was cold or frozen.

We thought the meal would be warm when we picked it up - not the case at all.

It took us about 4 hours to get everything warm enough.

Yep, caveat emptor. We did this one year, and picked everything up that day. It ended up being mostly ingredients rather than finished dishes... the turkey was still frozen. I have no idea why they'd even sell it to us with that pickup time and a frozen bird.

They ended up getting like, 5 20-piece McNuggets as the 'turkey' because everything else was closed. I honestly don't even remember what I got as the resident vegetarian... I probably made up some pop & fresh rolls and had a pb&j when we got home, lol. It makes for a funny story but this year if someone was like whoops, no stuffing, I'll probably become a seething black hole of pregnant rage.

CAB'smommy · November 2010

I'd do the $40 meal. Sounds worth it to me!

layersofmeaning · November 2010

$40? For 6-8 people? That's a great deal! Do it!

sometimesalwayschaotic · November 2010

When Dh and I were planning on being alone for thanksgiving I was going to cook up a turkey make some mashed tators and get some grands biscuits. I was going to go super easy. I picked up a turkey last week for $10 and they're really easy to cook. You just have to put it in the oven and add some butter to it every once in a while. You could even go to the grocery deli and buy the mashed potatoes and gravy and heat up before eating. It would probably be a lot cheaper to do it this way but if you wind up paying $40 and get a frozen turkey it's going to do you no good. A turkey needs to thawed for around 5 days. If it's all cooked, go for it. Lot of restaurants here sell precooked meals for $50. I would totally go for precooked if it's available. I'm so glad my mom is coming down and bringing most of the food with her. I just couldn't handle all that cooking!

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