Grocery shopping can be a challenge—especially on holidays like Thanksgiving when you’re trying to stretch your dollar to get ingredients for a large meal. Thankfully, Rebecca (@dollartreedinners), a budget-conscious content creator, is using her platform to show viewers how to make a hearty dinner exclusively using ingredients from Dollar Tree.
As part of her viral series, which shows her making meals using only ingredients from Dollar General and Dollar Tree, Rebecca took viewers with her to shop for a $20 Thanksgiving dinner.
At the beginning of her clip, which had over 2.2 million views as of Sunday afternoon, Rebecca explained how she searched the store to find the ingredients she needed.
@dollartreedinners Shop with me to make a $20 Dollar Tree Thanksgiving Dinner #dollartreefood #dollartreegroceryhaul #dollartreethanksgiving #thanksgivingdinner #nontraditionalthanksgiving #budgetholidaymeals #gettingcreative #shopwithme #shopwithmeatdollartree #dollartreedinners #dollartreeholiday ♬ original sound – Dollar Tree Dinners
“This store was wiped out of a lot of Thanksgiving essentials,” she said. Luckily, she added, she found some instant mashed potatoes, crispy onions, cream of mushroom soup, and canned green beans to make green bean casserole.
The Dollar Tree she visited, she said, was also out of boxed stuffing. Instead, she bought a box of macaroni and milk.
“Since I had milk,” Rebecca said. “I was thinking of making one of my pudding pies.”
Unfortunately, the Dollar Tree was also out of deli ham—Rebecca’s first protein choice. “It would’ve been the best bang for my buck,” she said. As an alternative, she picked up frozen country ham slices.
“These aren’t ideal,” she explained, namely because of the steep price tag. Originally, Rebecca said she was planning to buy seasoned croutons, margarine, and chicken broth to make stuffing from scratch. She ended up putting the croutons and chicken broth back, though, so she wouldn’t exceed her $20 budget.
“That is my $20 Dollar Tree Thanksgiving haul,” Rebecca said, ending the video. “Be sure to check back for the video where I cook it all up.” She then shared a follow-up showing how she was able to make four hearty dishes out of the haul.
@dollartreedinners Shop with me to make a $20 Dollar Tree Thanksgiving Dinner #dollartreefood #dollartreegroceryhaul #dollartreethanksgiving #thanksgivingdinner #nontraditionalthanksgiving #budgetholidaymeals #gettingcreative #shopwithme #shopwithmeatdollartree #dollartreedinners #dollartreeholiday ♬ original sound – Dollar Tree Dinners
The Daily Dot has reached out to Rebecca via TikTok comment. In the comments, however, many viewers applauded her for making her dollar stretch so much.
“You are the perfect example of making the best of what you got,” one viewer said.
“Thank you for doing this, I really hope this helps some families this year,” another added.
“I have been waiting for this,” a third person wrote.
