How to Buy a Cheap Thanksgiving Turkey

How do you buy a cheap Thanksgiving turkey? Thanksgiving turkeys are in the grocery stores now and the signs say that they are already on sale. But are they really?

I have noticed I startling marketing trend over the past 10 years. The closer you get to Thanksgiving, the cheaper turkeys become. The deals will start next week, and get progressively cheaper until the ad breaks for the week just prior to Thanksgiving, sometime around the 23rd or 24th of the month. Prices go up again to more than full price the day after Thanksgiving.

Coincidentally,or not, the best grocery ads of the year run the same week. What does this mean for the frugal grocery shopper?

Now is the time to start collecting tons of grocery coupons, as many high face value multiple coupons as you can. Why? You know the great ads are coming, just as they do every year, and you can reap some serious savings. Finding as many coupons as you can right now will help you to get lots of free items within the next few weeks.

Which items will be at rock bottom prices? Anything you would use to make a full Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, cranberry sauce, produce, baking goods, dairy item, wine, soft drinks...you name it. All the fixings will be on sale,and with tons of coupons you can get a lot of freebies for your efforts. Belive me, this is the easiest week of the year for great bargains and he or she with the most coupons win.

It is not unusual for me to shop more than once this week in the year. I go once to get the fixings for our Thanksgiving dinner and then make another trip through the checkout on the same day just for bargains. If you ever wanted to reap the benefits of free stuff for an extra hour or two of your time, this is the week.

This is how I shop Thanksgiving week deals. I collect as many grocery coupons as I can find in the weeks leading up to the Thanksgiving ad, sort them and get really organized for the week. When I get the grocery ads for the week, I plan my trip, buying all the items for my main dinner and the week on the first trip through the store. I take my purchases to the car and load everything up. Then I make one more run through the store very quickly, just for freebies and the items that are deeply discounted. Then I head home to put everything away.

If there are additional free items to be had at another grocery chain or chains, I go there next and make two trips through the store just for these items. You really can save a lot of money this week with all the thanksgiving food sales and specials with just a little extra time and organization.

Another thing I like to do is to prepare a list of items I will need for either holiday entertaining, baking Christmas cookies, and our Christmas dinner. Thanksgivinig prices are really the lowest of the year, so plan ahead for the rest of the holidays and watch your savings grow. A lot of what you can buy during the Thanksgiving food sales is nonperishable and will keep through the rest of the holidays.

So, do yourself a favor and start collecting free grocery coupons now and you will have options for all kinds of free stuff within a few weeks!

Where do you get free grocery coupons? Coupons.com had 167 of them available for printing the this morning when I checked. They were one of the first and are still the best place to look for high face value grocery coupons. I always start here when starting a printable coupon search.