Thanksgiving on a Budget: How I Cook for a Crowd Without the Stress

We don't host Thanksgiving every year. When we do, it's my sister and maybe a couple of friends. That sounds small until you remember there are already eight of us before anyone knocks on the door.

I do all the cooking. The kids help. And I've learned that the stressful Thanksgiving and the expensive Thanksgiving are usually the same one: too many dishes, too many trips to the store, and everything happening on Thursday morning.

So here's how I do Thanksgiving on a budget for a big family, and how I keep it calm enough that I actually get to sit down and eat.

Keep the menu short

This is where most of the money goes, and most of the stress too. Every extra side is another set of ingredients, another pan, and another thing that has to be hot at the same time.

My rule: the dishes people would miss, and nothing else. For us that's turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, rolls, cranberry sauce straight from the can, and pie. Some years a green vegetable makes it on, some years it doesn't. Nobody has ever asked where the fancy cranberry relish went.

If you're not sure what makes the cut, ask everyone for their one must-have dish. You'll find a lot of the "traditional" ones are only on the table because they always have been.

Shop the list, not the store

Once the menu is short, the shopping list is short too. I write it by store before I leave the house, so I'm not wandering the aisles adding things.

Aldi for the basics. Potatoes, bread, pasta, canned pumpkin, broth, canned cranberry sauce. Their holiday staples are some of the cheapest around.

Costco for the big quantities. Butter, eggs, a big block of cheese for the mac and cheese, and anything I'll use again in December.

The turkey, on sale. Grocery stores mark turkeys way down in the weeks before Thanksgiving to get you in the door. Buy one early, keep it in the freezer, and give it plenty of days in the fridge to thaw.

Make ahead everything you can

Thursday morning should be about the turkey, not about peeling potatoes while the oven's already full.

Two days before: make the pie crust, and cube the bread for the stuffing so it can dry out.

The day before: bake the pie, make the mashed potatoes (they reheat well with extra butter), and put the mac and cheese together so it only has to bake.

Thursday: the turkey, the stuffing, baking the mac and cheese and warming the rolls. The cranberry sauce just needs a can opener.

Give every kid a real job

I do the cooking, but I don't do it alone. With six kids, there's a job for every age, and a kid with a job is a kid who isn't underfoot asking when we eat.

The little ones tear bread for the stuffing and put a napkin at every seat.

The middle kids peel potatoes, set the table and fill the water glasses.

The oldest help with the pie and keep the counters clear as I go, which matters more than any recipe.

It's the same idea behind how I get my kids to do chores without asking five times: one clear job each, and they know it's theirs.

Clean only what guests will see

Nobody is opening your closets. Before people come over, I put my time into three places: a deep clean of the kitchen, the bathroom and the floors. Then a nice air freshener, and the house feels ready.

The kids' rooms can wait until Friday.

It doesn't have to be a big production

A short menu, one shopping trip per store, most of it made the day before, and everybody with a job. That's the whole plan. It costs less, and I'm not standing at the stove while everyone else eats.

And once Thanksgiving is done, the shopping season starts. If you're planning for a house full of kids, here's how I do Christmas on a budget with six kids.