Do you have a less than a dozen Thanksgiving guests coming over, but zero culinary skills? Sure, you could go out to eat, or you could order a dinner from a caterer. But if you have under $100 to spend, pick up a pie, and have guests who you either don’t like or who have unsophisticated palates, Costco’s frozen dinner in a box is the holiday dinner option for you. Next year. Because this year, it’s apparently sold out.

That may be thanks to Katharine Shilcutt, who reviewed Costco’s cheapest dinner-in-a-box option for the Houston Press. Not that the review was very positive.

The other reason why you’ll need to wait until next year or possibly Christmas to serve this boxed feast is that the turkey will need to thaw for three days in the refrigerator. Everything in the box is fully cooked, but will need reheating to be edible. Edible-ish. It also doesn’t include dessert, so you’ll have to walk a few dozen yards and pick up a frozen pie as well.

The happiest of Shilcutt’s guests had a good reason to find the feast tolerable: “I’ve been eating nothing but salads for the past 20 days, so this was all great,” he said.

Since the $80 edition of the Complete Turkey Dinner is sold out, you could save thirty bucks, learn to cook, and get some balanced flavor in your meal, instead of saged-up turkey and sugared-up sweet potatoes.

A Very Costco Thanksgiving: Feeding 8 People for $80 (Plus the Cost of Pie) [Houston Press]

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