10 Tips for an Economical Easter

Plastic grass.  Cadberry cream eggs.  Peeps.  Remind you of anything? Yep, dear readers, that's right.  Easter is right around the corner.  And you mommies know what that means---time to start thinking about easter baskets again so that you don't forget until the night before and end up going out and buying one of those overpriced, giant, cellophane wrapped monsters at Walgreens.
 

Being on a single income, I need to be creative.  Here are my list of hints to have an economical Easter:

1) This one seems obvious, but do not buy one of those overpriced, giant, cellophane wrapped monsters at Walgreens.   Case in point.


2) Re-use the Easter basket/eggs/grass from last year. Try and keep your laughing to a minimum, dear. I may be too late for many of you on this one, but you can save yourself a good amount of green over the 10 years or so that each of your children will need a basket (or more...my last Easter basket as a "kid" was hidden in my wedding dress that was sitting in my closet leading up to the big day).  Just make sure to put it away in a safe spot this year.  And buy something durable.

3)Use a smaller basket.

4) Think volume, not numbers.  In other words, when putting together your basket for your kids, find things that take up a lot of room, but don't cost alot.  One thing I got for the baskets this year was bags of Easter-themed marshmallows which were on sale for .89 a bag.   They take up a huge amount of space in there! This will save you money as opposed to buying gajillions  of itty bitty things and then buying more cause the basket looks "empty"

5)Give them things that you were needing to get them anyways. This applies to all holidays.  For example, if your kid needs more crayons, put them in the Easter basket.  Flip flops broke? What better spring gift than a new pair?  Running low on construction paper? Perfect.  That one will take up a lot of room.

6)Take the kiddos to community and church sponsored events that are free.  Re-use the little plastic eggs (etc) that you will inevitably accumulate.

7)Make Mexican confetti eggs.  Martha Stewart has a great tutorial.  In order for this to be saving money the eggs contents must be used :)

8)Instead of making an Easter basket, stage your own Easter egg hunt in your home.  Fill eggs with a few jelly beans each, and in some, put "tickets" to redeem with mom for inexpensive or handmade prizes. 

9)When dyeing eggs, you needn't purchase an egg dyeing kit.  All you need are some plastic cups, vinegar, water, and food color. (And eggs, of course)

10) And lastly, consider focusing less on the "stuff", and more on the Savior.