Footing the entire bill for a Thanksgiving can be expensive but it doesn’t have to be. If your goal is to have a magazine perfect Thanksgiving meal, with a little planning you can easily do it on a budget.

1. Fly on Thanksgiving Day. If you need to fly to your destination, consider flying when the rates are at their lowest on Thanksgiving Day. I fly early in the morning and always make my destination in time for Thanksgiving dinner!

2. Borrow serving dishes, extra plates, silverware, etc. Someone always asks what he or she can bring for Thanksgiving dinners why not ask him or her to bring plates? It’s much cheaper than buying or renting new dishes to use only once or twice a year and prettier than using paper plates.
3. Eat your Halloween pumpkin as a side dish or dessert. Pumpkin is a squash after all and makes a tasty side dish as well as a dessert. I usually have enough fresh pumpkin puree leftover from preparing my side dishes for baking a dessert.
4. Use natural centerpieces from items found in your yard. Instead of buying a big flower arrangement that will only sit on the table for a few hours, I arrange colorful leaves from my yard around a candle on a decorative tray and use that as a centerpiece until the star of the show is ready to take it’s place – the turkey!
5. Skip the dinner and volunteer. Last year instead of doing a big Thanksgiving dinner my family chose to serve Thanksgiving dinner to those who were less fortunate. It is a good reminder about being grateful for what you have no matter how much or how little.