1 in 4 americans are skipping thanksgiving in 2022 to save money

[Hydrogen]

Are you planning on celebrating Thanksgiving with a traditional turkey dinner this year? If you’re like 25% of Americans who responded to a recent survey, your answer is no. With inflation impacting the cost of everything, including the main piece of any Thanksgiving meal, you may be ditching the turkey this year and opting for…pizza?

As many Americans plan their Thanksgiving meals, many are choosing to celebrate the season of gratitude without spending money. According to a recent survey from Personal Capital, one in four Americans will be skipping the traditional meal all together. But that’s not all, 88% of respondents will be cutting at least one dish to save money. That’s a lot of green bean casseroles that aren’t making it to your dinner table this year.

With the economy affecting many people’s bank accounts, 45% of people feel financially stressed by their Thanksgiving dinners. But it’s not just inflation that’s causing the strain. More than half of the respondents (53%) lost their jobs in the past year. Of course those who experienced job insecurity are also less likely to splurge on a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Guests May Have To Foot The Bill

How are Americans reducing Turkey Day costs this year? Some are celebrating their Friendsgiving meals with pizza instead of turkey. Others are keeping their Thanksgiving dinner small, while some Americans are getting more creative. For many people, Thanksgiving dinner looks like a potluck. Friends and family are typically asked to bring a side dish, dessert, or drinks. But this year, hosts are going one step further.

Going to a Thanksgiving dinner? You may be asked to pay for your meal! That’s right. The survey found that 42% of people are asking their guests to pitch in with some green, and we’re not talking salad or green beans here.

This year, 33% of Americans are also reducing the cost of their Thanksgiving budget from last year’s expenses. When you look at the generational breakdown, Gen X is being the most frugal. According to the survey, 40% of Gen Xers plan on spending less than $100 for their turkey day meal.

Cost-Saving Strategies To Keep In Mind

With tight budgets and the rising cost of everything from sweet potatoes to turkey, how are Americans saving on Thanksgiving dinners? There are a few strategies that people plan to use that could work. Paying attention to deals topped the survey at 38%. Other strategies include using coupons, comparing prices, shopping the pantry first, not traveling, and buying a smaller turkey. While these are strategies most of us know, they can be helpful to keep in mind during the holiday season.

Regardless of how you’re celebrating Thanksgiving this year, just be sure to keep the turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes. Those are the top three dishes that people would never cut from their Turkey Day feast, even when on a budget, and we understand why the classics have survived.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/1-in-4-americans-surveyed-say-they-plan-to-skip-thanksgiving-due-to-costs/ar-AA14bOW1

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Poll breakdown

• 88% are cutting at least 1 thanksgiving dish to save money
• 45% feel financially stressed by their thanksgiving dinners
• 53% lost their jobs in 2022
• 42% are asking guests to donate thanksgiving dinner funds

The statistic claiming 53% of poll responders lost their jobs in 2022 is the one that stands out most to me.

This could be the worst thanksgiving and holiday season for many americans in close to 50 years.

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[Fatunad]

This could be the worst thanksgiving and holiday season for many americans in close to 50 years.

Understandable considering that we had that pandemic situation which did last for 2 years where lots had lost up their jobs which do make living more worst.
Plus having that main problem about inflation  and recession then it is really that understandable for people to become that practive.Even we do say that this kind of
holiday or season do happens once a year but it isnt really that bad on cutting up something just to lessen up the expenses.We cant just afford to lose
or waste more money into something which isnt really that necessary.

[Oceat]

That's a lot of people losing their job but how about when covid started in 2019 due to lockdown?
I remember in my country most people lost their job because of it and they can't do anything about it no matter what voices they do.
I think 2022 isn't the worst year yet so far and cutting some dish(s) during Thanksgiving day is a good initiative way to save at least.
But I don't know about the donating funds for the thanksgiving day it seems a bit or something.

[dothebeats]

They just know that it's better to skip it than to force themselves to spend on an occasion that can still be celebrated even without lots of food on the table. Well, they can still buy some normal food and be thankful for everything anyway and keep their spending at the minimum while still being able to celebrate thanksgiving. Everything costs too much right now that it's understandable if a lot of people won't follow traditions. It's not required or anything after all.

[jossiel]

This could be the worst thanksgiving and holiday season for many americans in close to 50 years.

This is sad and this isn't just happening to them but also in other countries where layoffs have been done massively. But anyway, it's not all about being extravagant to celebrate thanks giving.

I don't know about it if there's a required dish or budget for it. But my take on it is that, there are too many ways to celebrate it without sacrificing things that you know will deal hard on your budget.

[ultrloa]

This could be the worst thanksgiving and holiday season for many americans in close to 50 years.

This is sad and this isn't just happening to them but also in other countries where layoffs have been done massively. But anyway, it's not all about being extravagant to celebrate thanks giving.

I don't know about it if there's a required dish or budget for it. But my take on it is that, there are too many ways to celebrate it without sacrificing things that you know will deal hard on your budget.

We don't really need to have extravagant celebration just to make in on the festivity its enough that our family is complete and we are healthy even if there's ongoing pandemic happening. And its understandable situation that some skip since crisis is seriously happening in the world right now so I guess this kind of activity if we called it like this might happen normally on some american citizens.

[Gyfts]

1 in 4 seems awfully high, but in any event, this shouldn't come as a surprise when inflation has outpaced wage growth. People think they might be getting a pay increase when the reality is that employers are paying them less relative to the value of what the employee would have been worth in the past due to inflation.

If the economic projections are correct and GDP growth will be negative for Q4 2022 or Q1 2023, then people will be in a really bad spot of high inflation, low wage growth, and economic recession.

[Yatsan]

1 in 4 seems awfully high, but in any event, this shouldn't come as a surprise when inflation has outpaced wage growth. People think they might be getting a pay increase when the reality is that employers are paying them less relative to the value of what the employee would have been worth in the past due to inflation.

If the economic projections are correct and GDP growth will be negative for Q4 2022 or Q1 2023, then people will be in a really bad spot of high inflation, low wage growth, and economic recession.

This is just sad. Thanksgiving is for everyone and given that there are people who are skipping the celebration is just something that cuts deep. Simply shows how hard it is to live nowadays especially if you are an average employee. In our country, some groups are pushing increase with the minimum wage in order to cope up with high inflation rate of market goods. But the question is; will it be sustainable for the economy? But one thing is for sure, changes as such are needed at time of this. The amount before being spent on a daily basis is almost half of what you can actually buy on the market at the present. For sure there'll be months to follow having or being on the same situation but atleast let us hope things would be solved by governments on each countries.

[romero121]

Measures to keep up the economy is being tried in all possible ways. Economy all around the world is at its worst. At this time the job firing from the top corporate networks too a reason for the issue. Even Jeff Bezos have given suggestion to avoid unwanted shopping for the next two years mentioning the ongoing market.

At some point we'll have much reduced price on products, and we won't be having the money flow for buying. This could worsen the situation than what we're experiencing right now. From the covid-19 things changed and it hasn't recovered as consecutive market downturn continues. Being self reliant for some time period is a must.

[LogitechMouse]

The wages of a regular employee at this moment can't keep the pace on how the inflation and prices are increasing.
It happens to the point where one source of income around a family isn't enough anymore and you need at least 2 to survive at least.

2018 for me is what I call "Year of Hell" because of what happened to cryptocurrency at that time. 2022 now is what I call "Year of Survival" because of what's happening globally. Every person is doing everything just to survive right now. People are becoming frugal nowadays. People are spending less compared to what they are spending years ago. Prices of commodities increasing to the point where people can't buy the things that they can buy a few years ago.

There is no thanksgiving in our country, but we are celebrating Christmas season and our birthdays next month. In the last 2 years, we choose to celebrate our birthdays and have some foods for us to eat because we can still afford at that time. I'm not saying that we can't afford it this year, but we choose not to celebrate anymore and just go to church so that we can save money because we know that the worst is yet to come. We expect more difficulties coming into next year. I expect more negative things happening globally and even though inflation might go down slightly, things will not change.

Right now, saving money and keeping our job is our main priority. It's just sad but understandable at the same time for the Americans not to celebrate a thanksgiving just for a year. I mean they can still just celebrate it next year if things will be better, right? It would be useless if you will celebrate thanksgiving but after that, you don't have money anymore.

[rokok lokal]

These statistics highlight the stress that economic hardship can put on all aspects of life, and the sacrifices people may have to make to save money. One friend may have to skip a vacation to save on plane tickets, while another family may be forced to hold off on buying gifts until they reach their next financial goal.

[pooya87]

Sadly this is just the beginning, they haven't stopped printing money while a lot of dollars are coming back to America as countries abandon it slowly. Worse than that is FED increasing interest rate that is worsening recession day by day with decreasing effects on the inflation. They are about to do it again too!

On top of all that, US is being hit with the biggest wave of debts in history. The national debt is at an all time high of $31.3 trillion with an increasing budget deficit. As they increase interest rate the citizens debt increases and they won't be able to afford paying it so they have to cut back on things like food!

I'm afraid that it is a strong possibility that soon we are going to see repetition of a much worse situation than what happened in 2008.
The sooner we decouple our economies from US (and generally Western) economy the less the effects are going to be on the rest of us. Now we see the importance of organizations like BRICS and SCO that are basically creating a parallel economy without US.

[aoluain]

They just know that it's better to skip it than to force themselves to spend on an occasion that can still be celebrated even without lots of food on the table. Well, they can still buy some normal food and be thankful for everything anyway and keep their spending at the minimum while still being able to celebrate thanksgiving. Everything costs too much right now that it's understandable if a lot of people won't follow traditions. It's not required or anything after all.

I guess Thanksgiving like Christmas here it can be both an expensive and pressurising time.
The pressure of keeping up a tradition and the expense of buying into that tradition. These
celebrations have become highly commercialised and they can be kept as simple as you
want .... or as complicated as you make them.

[passwordnow]

I guess Thanksgiving like Christmas here it can be both an expensive and pressurising time.
The pressure of keeping up a tradition and the expense of buying into that tradition. These
celebrations have become highly commercialised and they can be kept as simple as you
want .... or as complicated as you make them.

It's pressuring when we're in the holidays. People that know you think and expect a gift from you. But to be brutally honest, I tell them that they shouldn't expect something from me. We've come from a pandemic and everyone is trying to recover so I am. If ever I have something for them then it means that I'm able to get up and they should be grateful for anything that I give to them but the sad thing on why I'm discouraged to even have that time to buy gifts even if I'm trying to budget things is that those that I've given before were ungrateful.

[Die_empty]

I guess Thanksgiving like Christmas here it can be both an expensive and pressurising time.
The pressure of keeping up a tradition and the expense of buying into that tradition. These
celebrations have become highly commercialised and they can be kept as simple as you
want .... or as complicated as you make them.

Sometimes people place so much importance on things that might be set aside. There is always high rate of crime in my location during festive periods because people are forced to observe a particular tradition or celebration. The drive to join others by all means breeds the motivation to commit crimes. Parents are always under pressure to new clothing and gift items for their children so that they would be happy during these festive periods. But the recent economic problems is forcing people to do away with some expenses that are not basic. Therefore, this statistics is not surprising because people are desperate to cut cost.   

[Mauser]

The statistic claiming 53% of poll responders lost their jobs in 2022 is the one that stands out most to me.

This could be the worst thanksgiving and holiday season for many americans in close to 50 years.

That is really sad, it's been such a hard year for all of us and it looks like the end will not be any better. In my country we don't really celebrate Thanksgiving, we mainly focus on Christmas. It's the biggest holiday of the year and everybody is usually gifting something to each other. Also for the companies December is the most important period to make a profit and save the rest of the year. But this year looks really terrible so far. I read that 1 out of 5 families will not buy any presents at all and save the money instead. Last year people spend on average 309 Euros, while this year it will only be 235 Euro for presents. With such a bad end of the year, 2023 will probably not going to be any better. We are living in such uncertain times that the best thing we can do is to save money and avoid unnecessary expenses.

[OgNasty]

I don’t know if I’d blame this purely on economics. Americans are pretty friendly when it comes to Thanksgiving and I’m sure people could find an affordable option if they wanted. Maybe not everybody, but a large chunk of this %. Skipping Thanksgiving due to animal cruelty beliefs, vegetarianism, and out of respect for Native Americans is the more common reasoning I see, but maybe that’s because I’m privileged and out of touch these days.

[o48o]

I guess Thanksgiving like Christmas here it can be both an expensive and pressurising time.
The pressure of keeping up a tradition and the expense of buying into that tradition. These
celebrations have become highly commercialised and they can be kept as simple as you
want .... or as complicated as you make them.

I've heard that from my friend who lives in US and compares it to Finnish Christmas. As during christmas we are pretty much forced to meet relatives and talk with them, visiting graves to remember past loved ones and relatives there. And eating weird finnish food that's eaten only during christmas.

And as same as in US, we don't really like the fact that we are forced to talk with relatives especially when things are so polarized. And i am guessing that 1 in 4 americans also skipped the mandatory conversation about FTX and how the whole crypto is a scam.

[darkangel11]

I don’t know if I’d blame this purely on economics. Americans are pretty friendly when it comes to Thanksgiving and I’m sure people could find an affordable option if they wanted. Maybe not everybody, but a large chunk of this %. Skipping Thanksgiving due to animal cruelty beliefs, vegetarianism, and out of respect for Native Americans is the more common reasoning I see, but maybe that’s because I’m privileged and out of touch these days.

You can have thanksgiving without a turkey. I don't think it's about the things you eat on that day but about having a meal with your family. If people are skipping that it means they don't have money to do it the way they used to with all the expensive dishes and drinks, so they choose not to do it at all and I think it's a bad choice. Having a family meetup is always nice even if you'll have to eat fast food.