College Student’s Guide To A Great Thanksgiving Dinner

by Broke Grad on November 24, 2008

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, college campuses around the country turn into ghost towns. Most students head home for some rest and relaxation before returning to cram for finals. However, some students can’t afford to go home for Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t mean you should miss out on a great Thanksgiving dinner. During my four years of undergrad, I never went home for Thanksgiving, yet I never missed a Thanksgiving feast. How did I do it?

Go home with a friend.

Assuming you don’t lock yourself in your dorm room all day, you’ll probably have at least a couple of friends who live within driving distance and will invite you to go home with them over Thanksgiving break. Not only will you get to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner, you’ll also get to find out whether the rest of your crazy friend’s family is crazy too.

Visit one of your relatives.

Even though going all the way home may be too expensive, chances are you have some relatives that live a little closer. Instead of blowing $400 on a plane ticket home, go to your nearest relative’s house, where you’ll still get to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with family. If you don’t get along with the nearest relative, then try the second nearest relative and so on and so on.

Order food or eat out.

If you really are stuck on campus for the break, then you’ll have to take care of preparing Thanksgiving dinner for yourself. The key is to minimize the probability of a culinary disaster, like my former suitemate who poured vodka into a can of cranberry sauce for his Thanksgiving dinner. The easiest solution is to just order food or eat out. You should be able to find at least a few restaurants open on Thanksgiving day, or if you plan ahead, you could even order a Greenberg Smoked Turkey and have it delivered to your door.

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College Finance 101 » Blog Archive » Recommended Reading From College Money Network
November 24, 2008 at 7:08 am

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1 Blake November 24, 2008 at 7:50 am

I’m glad I live close enough to make it to Thanksgiving on both sides of my family.

I got a kick out of reading about your suitemate’s Thanksgiving. That’s pretty original. lol

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