AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)- With thanksgiving around the corner, folks are checking their menu list twice.
Shoppers are getting ready for this holiday season and the first thing on their list is food. But some say preparing the meals themselves is the better option while others are ordering in.
“Definitely homemade food is the way to go,” Allison Hudson said.
The USDA’s 2023 Food Price Outlook summary predicts food-at-home– or grocery store– prices increased by 5.1%. And food-away-from home, including restaurants, increased by 7.1%.
But local grocery stores are finding ways to make grocery shopping this holiday season more affordable.
“We shopped at Food Lion today. Their turkeys are on sale, if you spend over 35 dollars you can basically get it for five dollars a 10-to-16-pound turkey. There’s also people buying blocks of cheese in bulk as opposed to the prepackaged cheese,” Hudson said.
So, Alison Hudson and her family plan on cooking at home.
“Mac and cheese is always popular with the kids and we’ll have our sweet potato souffle, mashed potatoes, some green bean casserole…”
But local soul food restaurants say their take out orders for thanksgiving have increased greatly.
“This year we got more take out, and I think it’s because the price of groceries are so expensive,” Big Mamas’ Kimberly Taylor said.
Staff at Big Mama’s Soul Food restaurant say they’re seeing order numbers larger than before.
“We do the thanksgiving orders, and we have a cutoff date, but I’ve noticed we still– as of today, we have more orders today than when we had the cutoff date last year,” Taylor said.
Grocery shopping for your thanksgiving meal and ordering in both come at a cost, it just depends on what’s best for you.
“When you look at the cost of getting someone else to prepare it, and you taking your own time to prepare it and the cost is pretty much the same, I mean I would choose to let someone else to prepare it,” Taylor said.
Folks say either way, they’re looking forward to a great holiday spent with their loved ones.
