A woman has been applauded for sharing how she built her Thanksgiving dinner with ingredients from Dollar Tree on only a $20 budget.
In a now-viral video posted to TikTok, Rebecca Chobat — also known by the username “Dollar Tree Dinner” — shared her guide to purchasing ingredients for the holidays. She also noted that she had not only already made her “Dollar Tree Thanksgiving Dinner,” but this meal was also “the best Thanksgiving dinner [she’d] ever made.”
“I attribute this largely to the fact that Dollar Tree got a good amount of Thanksgiving food items in stock this year, including canned turkey,” she said in the video, as she documented herself walking through the aisles of the store.
She then listed the items — each starting at $1.25 — that she got, including a can of chicken broth, a bottle of ranch dressing, and breadcrumbs. Her shopping list also included things like turkey stuffing mix, mac and cheese, a packet of mashed potatoes, a can of green beans, a packet of sugar cookie mix, canned apple pie filling, and milk.
After sharing all the ingredients, she revealed what her menu for the holiday was, with fried mac and cheese bites for an appetizer, a casserole with all the beloved Thanksgiving foods as the main course, and caramel apple pie sugar cookie bars for dessert.
The video has quickly gone viral on TikTok, with more than 7.2 million views. One TikToker even created his own video to respond to Chobat and praise her for creating such a budget-friendly menu for Thanksgiving.
“There’s this lady on here that shows people how they can make Dollar Tree meals, to help people who are financially struggling. And I want her to know that her videos are helping people,” the TikTok user, with the username calebcooks94 said in his clip.
@dollartreedinners $20 Dollar Tree Thanksgiving Dinner! The ingredients: Swanson Chicken broth $1.25 (Optional ingredient, can be omitted) Kraft Ranch $1.25 Italian seasoned breadcrumbs $1.25 Kraft Mac & Cheese $1.25 Turkey Stuffing Mix $1.25 Idahoan Original Mashed Potatoes (the unflavored big bag) $1.25 Pioneer Roasted turkey Gravy mix $1.25 Dried cranberries $1.25 French style Green Beans (Could also swap for frozen) $1.25 2 cans of turkey $2.50 Milk $1.25 Margarine $1.25 Sugar cookie mix $1.25 Werther's Chewy Caramel candies $1.25 Apple Pie filling $1.25 Total cost $20 Optional extras to add on if desired: Large casserole dish $1.25 (for making the casserole and easy clean up) A Block of Cheddar cheese (for the mac & cheese balls) $1.25 Extra packet of sugar cookie mix (for the caramel apple cookie bars) $1.25 The menu: Appetizer: Mac & Cheese Croquettes with Ranch for dipping Dinner: "Best of Thanksgiving" Casserole Dessert: Caramel Apple Cookie Bars #dollartreefood #dollartreegroceryhaul #dollartreethanksgiving #thanksgivingonabudget #budgetholidaymeals #howtoeatforcheap #feedafamily
♬ original sound - Dollar Tree Dinners - Dollar Tree Dinners
He said he was at a Dollar Tree recently when he saw a mother and her three children buying their Thanksgiving dinner inspired by Chobat.
“She has all the ingredients that the Dollar Tree lady has to make a Thanksgiving dinner,” he recalled. “So I asked her about it, and she seemed kind of shocked that I knew what she was doing. So to not make her feel bad, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m going to make it too. I’m struggling.’”
He said he and the fellow customer had “a really good conversation” where he learned that she’d initially planned on just making “frozen meals” for Thanksgiving.
@calebcooks94 You are helping a lot of people @Dollar Tree Dinners #fyp #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp #foryou #foru #forupage #foryourpage #fypシ #fypage #dollartree #dollartreefinds #dollartreedinners #thanksgiving #thanksgivingdinner
♬ original sound - CalebCooks
“But she said because of those videos [from Chobat], she’s actually gonna give her kids a real Thanksgiving dinner, and her kids are excited for it,” he continued. “The Dollar Tree meal lady is a wholesome creator, and I wanted her to know that her videos do help people, cause I saw a real life example of it.
In the comments of Chobat’s Thanksgiving meal video, other people went on to thank her for sharing the menu for people who can’t spend a lot of money on the holidays.
“It’s just me and my son, I’m about to have surgery so finances are incredibly tight. Thank you SO MUCH for this!!!” one wrote.
“Truly makes me teary-eyed. We are financially able to make Thanksgiving dinner how we’d like, but the fact that you make this possible for SO many…you’re a treasure on this app,” another commented.
A third agreed: “This made me CRY. There was a time in my life where this information would have been such an enormous blessing. Thank you for doing this.”
