Thanksgiving Dinner Will Cost Less This Year as Food Gets Cheaper

Home cooked meals are starting to become more affordable as the price of food keeps plummeting. According to two different sources, food is cheaper by 2.3 percentage points as opposed to last November, a trend that has been going on for over half of year.

The Consumer Price Index that was updated last month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics unveiled that supermarket food items dropped in the last six months at a constant rate. The total registered drop measures a difference of 2.3 percent from last November.

A report made by the American Farm Bureau Federation also shows that the price of a typical Thanksgiving meal for ten people has considerably dropped, especially since milk and turkey are now cheaper.

Since food became cheaper, gasoline got more expensive, the affordable food influencing a 7 percent leap in the total cost of fuel. The BLS reports that the CPI rose to 0.4 percent in October alone.

Over the last year, the CPI rose by only 1.6 percentage points, mainly because the constant drop in food costs aided in reducing the overall inflation.

According to the BLS, October was the 14^th consecutive month in which the price for meats, fish, poultry, and eggs continued to decline.

Chris Christopher, an economist at IHS Global Insight, declared that the constant drop in food item prices aides individuals from the lower and middle-income families handle the increase in energy costs.

The Farm Bureau calculated that the average Thanksgiving dinner for ten people would cost $49.87 in 2016, a few cents cheaper than 2015’s $50.11. The estimates are based on an informal study conducted by volunteer shoppers.

The participants scoured the markets for the usual Thanksgiving treats like the traditional turkey, pre-cooked stuffing, stuffing ingredients, bread, butter rolls, sweet potatoes, veggie assortments, milk, coffee, and pumpkin pie.

Volunteers searched for the lowest priced items while ignoring promotional offers and coupons, both being variables that would have tipped off the average price. However, the Bureau’s menu is rather “modest” as it itself declared. In reality, people choosing to add more dished to the holiday’s menu.

The most obvious price change is the 30-cent fall in the cost of an average 16-pound turkey. Moreover, the Farm Bureau declared that milk prices have not been so low since 2009.

How about your Thanksgiving dinner? How will it look like and how much are you willing to spend on it?

Image source: Flickr