Want to know the true cost of turkey day for the average American? Find out here with these Thanksgiving spending statistics for 2022.
Key Findings
There's plenty to love about the Thanksgiving holiday.
As it's a chance to get together and spend quality time with your family, enjoying each other's company, sharing delicious food, watching sports and movies, and having a good rest.
And as there are no gift giving traditions surrounding Thanksgiving, there's far less financial and social pressure surrounding it than the Christmas holiday period.
However, that's not to say it won't cost you anything.
As there are still plenty of things you'll need to splash out on such as food and drink, hosting friends and family, or traveling across the country.
Not to mention the money you'll spend on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales over the Thanksgiving weekend.
So we thought it'd be interesting to look at the latest Thanksgiving 2022 spending statistics to see just how much turkey day is actually costing us.
And to do this we analysed surveys from the following retail companies as well as other reports and studies to get an idea of the general Thanksgiving trends in 2022.
You can also click here to check out our Thanksgiving gift ideas.
How Much Are The Thanksgiving Turkeys Costing Us In 2022?
As we all know, Thanksgiving isn't a great time to be a turkey.
And 2022 was no different with 88% of Americans expected to be partaking in a turkey dinner over Thanksgiving (Finder).
Which tallied up to a whopping 46 million Thanksgiving turkeys at a total estimated cost of $1.1 billion.
This was an increase of 11.7% from the 2021 total of $985 million and the reason for this could be due to prices rising for turkeys.
As the average cost of a 16lb turkey a week before Thanksgiving in 2022 was $24.69 compared to just $21.41 in 2021.
And this price has been rising consistently for the past 5 years, with a staggering increase of 83.4% from the 2018 price of $13.46 per turkey.
The Costs Of Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner In 2022
Hosting Thanksgiving dinner for your family and friends is a lovely thing to do but it can also hit you hard in the wallet.
With the Lending Tree survey estimating that Thanksgiving hosts were planning to spend on average $396 on looking after their loved ones.
This broke down as $267 on food and drink and $129 on new housewares for the day.
And this overall figure depended on how much the families were earning, with those making less than $75k per year spending $310 on average, while those earning over $75k spent $505.
For those on a budget the American Farm Bureau found that a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people could be had for a cost of $64.05 in 2022 if they shopped around.
But when you added more recent popular Thanksgiving food items like ham, russet potatoes, and green beans to the table raised the price to $81.30.
How Many People Shopped During The Thanksgiving Weekend Of 2022?
Thanksgiving is the start of a 5-day weekend of shopping sales and promotions that include Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
And taking advantage of these crazy discounts has become a tradition among many families during this time.
In fact, the National Retail Federation survey found that 196.7 million people in the United States did some shopping over the 2022 Thanksgiving weekend, which was up 9.5% from the previous years total.
And many were using this time to begin their Christmas shopping, with 64% planning to buy holiday gifts on Black Friday and 56% on Cyber Monday (Deloitte).
With the average spend on holiday items during this time being $325.44 per person, with 70% of that spend going specifically on gifts ($229.21) (National Retail Federation).
Black Friday was the most popular Thanksgiving shopping day in 2022 both for instore (72.9 million) and online shoppers (87.2 million).
While shopping online and in department stores were tied as the most popular way to shop, with 42% of consumers planning to shop these ways over Thanksgiving.
Where Did People Spend Their Thanksgiving In 2022?
Thanksgiving is traditionally a time to spend with your family and friends and this bore out in the numbers.
As when asked what the meaning of Thanksgiving was for them, 64% responded by saying it was all about spending time with their family (Statista).
So it's no surprise that 55% of people said they'd be spending Thanksgiving at home with their families (Statista).
While 32% of people said they'd be spending it at their relatives home, and 13% were planning to go to their friends.
And being at home comes with certain Thanksgiving traditions on top of the turkey too, with 18% of people equating Thanksgiving with watching football at home.
However, there were a few hardy souls who wanted to go out to celebrate Thanksgiving, with 6% visiting a restaurant, 3% going to a Thanksgiving parade and 3% of good folk who planned to help out at a homeless shelter.
How Much Was Spent On Thanksgiving Travel In 2022?
While most people plan to spend Thanksgiving at home in 2022, there are still some families that use the time as an opportunity to travel.
In fact, the Deloitte survey found that 15% of Americans were planning to travel over the 2022 Thanksgiving weekend.
These trips were mostly short ones, with 79% saying they would be travelling for one week or less.
With the main reason people giving for Thanksgiving travel being to visit friends and relatives, which was the case for 49% of those travelling.
And while the cost of travel over Thanksgiving in 2022 hasn't been published, in 2021 44% of those surveyed planned to spend $500 or less on Thanksgiving travel (Statista).
While 10% said they'd spend between $500-1000 and 5% of high rollers were spending in excess of $1000.
This included things like gas, flights, hotels and tickets.
How Did Inflation Affect Thanksgiving In 2022?
The price of everything seems to have been on the rise for the past year and this was having a big impact on our Thanksgiving plans for 2022.
As 26% of people complained that Thanksgiving was going to put a strain on their finances this year, while 56% said that their Thanksgiving budget had been affected by inflation (Lending Tree).
Feeding their family was a worry too, with 86% expecting rising food prices to affect their Thanksgiving dinner (Finance Buzz).
And this fear was borne out by the American Farm Bureau, who found that the average cost of a Thanksgiving dinner for ten people in 2022 had risen by a whopping 20% from the previous year.
While the Lending Tree survey showed that a typical Thanksgiving grocery list was up by 17.5% from 2021 prices.
To counter this Thanksgiving hosts said they would look for sales at the grocery store (57%) and use coupons (31%), while 20% said they'd cut back on the food they bought (Finance Buzz).
There were even 15% of hosts who were considering reducing the amount of guests they were hosting to cut the costs.
And using credit options to cover Thanksgiving costs was up considerably from 2021, with 57% borrowing money to pay for it compared to just 47% in 2021 (Deloitte).
With credit cards being used by 48% of people and 37% taking advantage of buy now, pay later offers.
Rounding Up
Thanksgiving is a great time of the year where we come together with our friends, family, and loved ones to really appreciate everything in our life we are thankful for.
And while it isn't the most expensive of the holidays, there are still extra costs associated with things like special food and drink for the Thanksgiving dinner, hosting, and traveling to the family home.
Not to mention the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales which make a dent in many of our wallets.
So I hope these Thanksgiving spending statistics have given you some idea of what your fellow Americans are spending and what you can expect to spend yourself.
Sources:
https://www.finder.com/american-thanksgiving-turkey-spend
https://nrf.com/research-insights/holiday-data-and-trends/winter-holidays
https://www.statista.com/statistics/495278/united-states-favorite-location-to-spend-thanksgiving/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/637971/meaning-of-thanksgiving-according-to-us-consumers/
https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-cards/study/thanksgiving-hosting-inflation
https://www.fb.org/news-release/farm-bureau-survey-shows-thanksgiving-dinner-cost-up-20
https://financebuzz.com/thanksgiving-survey
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1274722/thanksgiving-travel-spending-us/
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