I need a Thanksgiving grocery list. Grocers love this time of year because a lot of consumers make careless, random selections. Just the other day I was in Mariano’s, my favorite grocery store, tempted to begin my shopping early. The choices were many and varied and everything just looked so nice and fresh! There were things I knew I didn’t need, but they were displayed so prominently around the door, on newly constructed stands, and pushed way out front on the shelves. I wanted them all, but did I need them? I wasn’t sure. I needed a Thanksgiving grocery list.

Thanksgiving meals will be as different as our families, and you’ll want to know the purpose of your meal before you go Thanksgiving grocery shopping. Will it be a feast for fifty or an intimate dinner for two or four?

For example, my extended family is having brunch at a restaurant in the afternoon, but my daughters have already told me they will be returning home with their dad and me for favorites that they think only I can make.

The girls could possibly make these things for themselves as they have helped me cook all of their lives, hanging around the kitchen table, offering to stir the sweet potato mixture so they could lick the spoon before putting it back in the bowl to stir again (I saw them out of the corner of my eye.) (No, I didn’t let them do that when company was coming!)

A lot of families eat out now-a-days because after years of feeding their extended family and not getting reciprocity, it is easier and cheaper to eat out. When I was cooking for my army of a family, my Thanksgiving groceries cost me or my sister-in-law a fortune since we were foolish enough to have kept the tradition going. Now that we’re wiser and older, we’ve decided to preserve our backs and legs (turkeys are heavy).

I could still overspend this Thanksgiving if I’m not careful. So this week I’m opening the pantry door and scouring the cabinets in order to make my Thanksgiving grocery list more efficient. In today’s economy I can’t buy too much of stuff I only eat on holidays. Like cranberry sauce. Who eats that with regular meals?

Also, I do my best Thanksgiving shopping alone. If I take my husband, he’s going to spy some awesome thing like ‘buy three packs of Hawaiian dinner rolls/get three free’, or Brazil nuts that the kids will bite on and cry over because they can’t break them open. However these will be exactly what my husband has always wanted. “You just can’t find these anymore, Linda!”

The times have modernized me and I now use the Notes App on my iPhone to write my Thanksgiving grocery list. The only problem is that I sometimes repeat an item if I don’t delete it from my notes once it’s in the basket.

By the way, the Thanksgiving grocery list you see at the top of this post is not the one I use because I’m not that organized and that’s not the way my store is organized. I have learned, however, to shop the perimeter of the store and do the aisles only as needed, Thanksgiving grocery list in hand. If it’s not on the list, I can’t have it.

Happy Thanksgiving shopping everyone! Share your experiences with me and tell me how you plan to shop, cook, or eat for Thanksgiving!