NEW YORK — Giving thanks will be a little costlier this year, but it probably won’t empty your wallet. The price for putting Thanksgiving dinner on the table is expected to rise slightly to $49.41, or 37 cents more than in 2013.
Blame dairy products, coffee, and that marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole, according to an informal American Farm Bureau Federation survey. It said the price of dairy (milk for mashed potatoes and whipped cream for pies) jumped 25 cents.
Miscellaneous ingredients, such as coffee, sugar and eggs, account for another 28 cents, while 3 pounds of sweet potatoes jumped 20 cents.
But a drop in fuel prices won’t just make it cheaper to drive to Grandma’s house; it also helped keep down the cost of some ingredients. Flour-based foods, like stuffing mix and dinner rolls, will run 21 cents less than last year, probably due to energy cost savings by the processors.
The group estimates the cost of Thanksgiving dinner by averaging nonsale food prices around the country to feed 10 people turkey, bread stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, carrots and celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and coffee and milk.
And consider this: Though this year’s cost is up, it’s still 7 cents lower than 2012’s.