For Thanksgiving meal, 'Everything is up'

For Thanksgiving meal, 'Everything is up' - Some belt-tightening may be in order at the supermarket before loosening a few notches after eating Thanksgiving dinner. Food prices continue to rise, and Thanksgiving shoppers aren't being spared. "The prices are significantly higher this year," Marvel Ross-Jones said while looking at the frozen turkeys in the Tops in North Buffalo.

"Everything is up. Your cream cheese is up. Your whipped cream, your eggnog, everything," said Theresa Baker of Kenmore, pushing a cart at Tops in the Town of Tonawanda.

A national survey confirms what many people's pocketbooks have already told them: The cost of buying a traditional Thanksgiving meal went up from 2010 at a greater one-year clip than any time since 1990.

A classic Thanksgiving meal for 10 people costs $49.20 this year, up from $43.47, according to a national survey taken by the American Farm Bureau Federation. Turkey prices showed the greatest gain, with the cost of a 16-pound bird rising by 22 percent, to $21.57, from $17.77.

The costs for fixins' have also taken flight. A 30-ounce can of pumpkin pie mix rose by 41 cents on average, to $3.03, from $2.62. A 16-ounce package of frozen green peas was 24 cents more at the cash register at $1.68, up from $1.44. A half-pint of cream jumped by 26 cents, to $1.96, from $1.70, while a 12-ounce package of brown-and-serve rolls increased by 18 cents, to $2.30, from $2.12.

A gallon of whole milk showed the steepest gain, costing 42 cents more on average this year than last, with a 2011 price of $3.66. A 14-ounce package of cubed bread stuffing cost 24 cents more, $2.88, and fresh cranberries rose by 7 cents to $2.48.

Robert Archie shopped at the Tops on Jefferson Avenue for a holiday celebration he'll be having with his two children and four grandchildren, boxes of corn bread mix and chocolate cake mix in his shopping cart. He was also scouting what it might cost to feed 100 people for a Thanksgiving meal at Refuge Temple on the East Side.

"We're finding it's very expensive, but we're trying to make sure they have everything -- we want them to have a turkey and all the fixins' that they need," Archie said.

The church will buy frozen turkeys at the low price of 48 cents a pound, he said.

Unlike the cost of buying flowers on Valentine's Day, waiting can pay off when buying a turkey close to Thanksgiving, said Cyndie Sirekis, a Farm Bureau spokeswoman. The survey on standard prices was done by 135 volunteers without the benefit of coupons or special deals, and it was done during late October and the first week of November.

"As it gets closer to Thanksgiving, turkeys are sometimes offered as a loss leader, and prices and sales get better and better," Sirekis said.

That's an option that Archie plans to take advantage of, since he said it would be harder to pay for a more-expensive brand-name turkey.

Ross-Jones said she saw potential savings in purchasing a Jennie-O turkey and ticked off some of the price differences she has noticed between 2010 and 2011.

"Typically, they would have the pie shells on sale for two packages for $3. They're actually $2.99 this week. The cranberry sauce is about typical. The cream cheese might have been on sale 10 for $10, it's two for $3 this year. Butter wasn't marked down, a lot of times it is marked down to, like, $2.49, but it's $3.19," Ross-Jones said.

Still, she said she'll have to make the best of it, with 24 people expected for the Thanksgiving meal Thursday.

"You know, family is family," Ross-Jones said. "You've got to have Thanksgiving dinner."

via: buffalonews