A TikTok video demonstrating how to prepare a Thanksgiving feast for just $20 using items from Dollar Tree has gone viral. The creator, Rebecca Chobat, runs the popular TikTok account Dollar Tree Dinners, where she shares simple and affordable recipes aimed at helping those in need.
In her recent video, Chobat showcases how to create a three-course Thanksgiving meal on a $20 budget, using ingredients priced at $1.25 each from Dollar Tree. She says in the video, “Not only have I already made the Dollar Tree Thanksgiving dinner, I do think it was my best Thanksgiving dinner I have ever made.”
The menu includes fried mac and cheese croquettes with ranch dipping sauce as an appetizer, a “Best of Thanksgiving” casserole featuring layers of mashed potatoes, green beans, canned turkey, gravy, and stuffing mix for the main course, and caramel apple pie sugar cookie bars for dessert. The ingredients include items like instant mashed potatoes, green beans, two cans of turkey, gravy mix, stuffing mix, dried cranberries, milk, margarine, and chicken broth—all priced at $1.25 each.
The video has garnered over 25 million views and thousands of comments, with many thanking Chobat and sharing their experiences. One TikTok user commented, “You just saved my Thanksgiving. It’s just me and my fiancé because we can’t afford to travel to any of our family and money is tight. We weren’t going to do anything until I saw this.”
Another viewer wrote, “I just wanna say, as a woman who used to be so ashamed that my childhood Thanksgivings came from the dollar store or food drives, this is beautiful to see you helping others!” Many commenters have expressed gratitude for Chobat’s work.
Fellow TikTok creator Caleb Demeny, posting under the name CalebCooks, shared a story about meeting a single mother with three young children at a Dollar Tree who was gathering ingredients for Chobat’s Thanksgiving meal. In his video, Demeny said, “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.”
He recounted that the mother had planned to make frozen dinners for Thanksgiving but was inspired by Chobat’s videos to prepare “a real Thanksgiving dinner” for her kids instead. The mother expressed gratitude for the videos, saying they enabled her to provide a proper meal for her children.
Chobat responded to Demeny’s video, expressing her gratitude. “I don’t have the words to describe how I’m feeling today. I think the closest I can come to is that I’m humbled, and I am honored although I don’t really think that fully encapsulates it.” Since posting the video, Chobat’s Dollar Tree Dinners account has gained about 300,000 new followers.
Jorge Barraza, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Southern California, commented on the impact of Chobat’s videos. “We were told by economists that this is actually a prosperous time, but not everybody is benefiting from that,” he said, as cited by The Washington Post. He noted that her videos demonstrate empathy at a time of economic uncertainty and provide alternative holiday feast options.
Chobat’s initiative comes at a time when many Americans are feeling the financial burden of holiday meals. According to the Food Research and Action Center, about one in seven households (13.5%) experienced food insecurity or lacked access to affordable nutritious diets in 2023, reported We Got This Covered. The average cost of a Thanksgiving dinner is reportedly down 5 percent since last year, yet the price of a 16-pound turkey remains at $25.67.
In her video, Chobat offers a solution by using affordable ingredients from Dollar Tree. The main course, the “Best of Thanksgiving” casserole, layers mashed potatoes, green beans, canned turkey, gravy, and stuffing mix. For dessert, she prepares caramel apple cookie bars using sugar cookie mix and canned apple pie filling.
Many of Chobat’s followers have expressed how her recipes have helped them during difficult times. One user wrote, “It’s just me and my son, I’m about to have surgery so finances are incredibly tight. Thank you SO MUCH for this!!!” Another commenter added, “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.”
Chobat’s efforts have been praised for providing dignity and options to those facing food insecurity or looking to reduce their grocery bills. First For Women highlighted that she has nearly two million followers on TikTok, where she continues to share affordable recipes.
Barraza highlighted the significance of her work, saying, “Her videos dispel the ideas, propagated by food influencers on social media, that cooking needs to be a laborious process or that dishes need to be ornately decorated,” as per The Washington Post. He added, “I don’t need to have a fancy kitchen. I don’t need to have fancy ingredients, and I can make something that’s going to be good and it’s going to be comforting and it’s going to be nostalgic.”
