Frugal Tips for Easter

Whether you celebrate the miracle of Easter or just the miracle of chocolate in your family, Easter does often come surprisingly close on the heels of Christmas, making many people balk at the idea of more gifts, more food and more family functions. So if you are looking for ways to throw a delicious, fun and affordable Easter celebration this year you can save on every part of your planning, without losing any of the spirit of your family’s traditions.

Frugal Easter Activities

The excitement of Easter can be more important in many families than the excitement of eating loads of chocolate. You can create an Easter atmosphere without spending a lot of money. For example, try these affordable, fun and unique Easter activity ideas at your house this year:

• Bunny prints. Just as your kids want to see the milk and cookies gone on Christmas morning, they will also be excited by evidence of the Easter bunny, which you can create with some talcum powder. Dip your fingers in the powder and draw out the prints on the floor where your kids will see, and the remaining powder will vacuum out later.
• Chocolate trail. Create a trail of small foil wrapped Easter eggs from your child’s room, outside or through the house, ending at a bursting Easter basket full of goodies. When your kids see the basket at the end of the trail they will likely forget about the little eggs and you can then put them in the freezer and use them next year as chocolate freezes extremely well.
• Night time Easter egg hunt. To make the Easter egg hunt a little more challenging and a lot more fun, hide your Easter treats in the garden at night, and have your kids use a flashlight to find their treats.
• Healthy Easter treats. While Easter chocolates do dominate the stores at this time of year, try and supplement all of the sugar with something a little healthier like pudding cups, fruit cups or crackers. You can also steer further away from the food theme by giving gifts like toys or books at Easter instead.
• Message in a rabbit. If you can carefully create a hole in a hollow chocolate egg or bunny, you can slip a note inside which says something like ‘Happy Easter Johnny, from the Easter Bunny’ with your child’s name inserted, for a real surprise.
• Decorate Easter eggs. Rather than buying dyes to decorate the eggs at Easter time, why not just use items you already have at home such as markers, stickers and glitter for example. This will be a lot less messy in the long run than letting your kids play with dye, and you can let them loose on their own. You will have to make sure the eggs are completely dry for the markers to work, so hard boil them a few days before.

Frugal Easter Treats

If giving gifts to celebrate Easter is a tradition you can’t get away from then think about some affordable alternatives to a basket filled with shiny foil eggs. You could hunt for the following treats, or fill an exciting Easter basket with:

• Plastic reusable eggs. If you use a plastic egg which can be filled with treats, you can use them year after year and adjust the fillings to your child, for example jelly beans, stickers or army men.
• Homemade treats. If you have the time and put in the planning you can make chocolates and treats to fill Easter baskets much more affordably than you can buy them.
• Easter cookies. It doesn’t all have to be about the chocolate. You can make cookies in Easter shapes such as eggs or bunnies and then decorate them with icing and cake decorations.
• Egg shaped treats. You can make rice crispy treats or popcorn balls into the shape of Easter eggs.
• Toy treats. The toys you fill your Easter baskets with will depend on the age of your children, but you can consider things like stamps, sidewalk chalk, play dough which you can make yourself, crayons, bubble blowers where you can make the bubbles from dishwashing liquid, skipping rope, stickers or books.

Frugal Celebrations

When your family gets together for Easter there can be a lot of people, a lot of food and a lot of expense. To save on the family gathering portion of Easter, start by dividing up the dishes between everyone who is coming, so you don’t have to cook everything. This saves you time and money and everyone will feel involved in the meal.

You can also have your children make the decorations to set the mood. And rather than expensive store bought flowers for the centrepiece, why not consider a glass bowl filled with water and floating candles. If your family gives out Easter cards, save at the newsagent by making your own. You can use your computer to print out personalized Easter cards, or use crayons, markers and colored paper to start from scratch.

Also look for other times you can celebrate Easter. For example, an afternoon tea can mean less food is involved than at a lunch or dinner and so you can save time and money. Or if you plan an Easter breakfast you may be able to save on the wine and serve just tea and coffee.

Tagged as: Frugal Holiday Ideas