Who says a Thanksgiving turkey has to be a budget buster? Look at this 18-pound bad boy I got at the Rocky Mount Harris Teeter for only $5.27. I know the tag says Vic Price $17.97, but that was before the final discount. With an additional $40 grocery purchase, not hard to do when shopping for Thanksgiving dinner, the turkey was marked down to just 29 cents a pound.

I’m one of these rare souls who still subscribes to the newspaper, so when grocery ads came as the usual Wednesday insert last week, I studied them for the items I needed for the Thanksgiving dinner I’d be fixing for a dozen or so people. I immediately saw the ad for the Harris Teeter brand frozen turkey. It’s the type I thaw out and cook each year.

The missing left corner of the ad was a $10 off coupon I redeemed on my total purchase, another reason I did most of my Thanksgiving shopping at the Teeter.

Here’s my Thanksgiving menu, which I’m not allowed to vary. If you have holiday family traditions, you know what I mean. Adult children can turn on you when you try to mix things up. I’m still hearing about the year I decided we didn’t need deviled eggs. Big mistake. And with all the made-from-scratch stuff I serve, my grandchildren look for Sister Schubert’s yeast rolls first.

Based on this menu, I took inventory of what I already had in my pantry and what was missing. Fortunately, the Harris Teeter had many of the items I needed on sale. For example, my menu may say dressing, but I use Stove Top stuffing, which was $2.00 a box. Sweet potatoes were only 25 cents a pound, and Breyers vanilla ice cream was a buy one, get one free deal, which means if you buy only one, you get it at half price.

Heinz Homestyle turkey gravy, which I add to amend my not so great homemade, was $2.00 a jar, and the Ocean Spray whole berry cranberry sauce I wanted was on sale for $1.66 a can.

A day or two before Thanksgiving, I’ll drop by the Harris Teeter and pick up one of those already baked pumpkin pies for $5.99. Fortunately, a vendor sent my husband an early Christmas present this past week, a gourmet pecan pie, so I can check that item off my list.

Not everything I needed was on sale at Harris Teeter, though. Food Lion advertised Duke’s Mayonnaise for $3.49, and the red grapes for my cranberry salad were a better deal at $1.99 a pound.

I stopped by Aldi looking for cheaper egg prices, which I didn’t find. On the day I went, eggs were over $3.00 a dozen! What has happened to egg prices?

But I did pick up a 3-pound bag of Gala apples for $2.49. I’m set for my easy apple crisp recipe.

I haven’t finished shopping yet for my Thanksgiving meal. I’ll splurge at Smith’s in Dortches on a quart of already cooked collards. That’s also where I’ll buy the shoe peg corn my family likes.

But I’m pretty well set and don’t feel like it’s cost me a fortune. In fact, I saved almost as much as I spent, buying most of what I needed at Harris Teeter. My total bill was $83.00 (rounded up a few cents for the Food Bank, I think it was). My savings–get ready for this–$71.94. I felt like one of those women with the coupon notebooks, but the only coupon I used was the one for $10 off the entire bill.

And I have 428 fuel points, which if I understand the system correctly, means I can now save 40 cents a gallon at the Harris Teeter gas station.

The bill above isn’t totally Thanksgiving stuff. I bought toilet paper, paper towels, a half-gallon of milk, mouthwash, and a few other items. Also, in case you’re wondering why the receipt looks so bad, I wadded it up before thinking I’d need it for a blog post, and then I tried to iron it out. Don’t ever try to iron a grocery receipt. As you can see, it only makes matters worse.

I do have a daughter who’ll be bringing the butterbeans for Thanksgiving dinner. I have another daughter who’ll do well just to get to Rocky Mount from Charlotte with her husband, two hyperactive young boys, an even more hyperactive dog, and a foreign exchange student teacher. And I have a third daughter who’ll be visiting with her husband’s family but will get leftovers when I see her on Thanksgiving weekend.

I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones, and I hope you find some deals at the grocery store!