This year’s Easter celebration may have gone, but personal finance experts chronicle how to always celebrate Easter when budget is low. Here is excerpts
Set a budget
Probably the most obvious step to celebrating Easter on a budget is to first, create a budget. For us, our goal was to spend less than $10 on M’s Easter basket and less than $10 on our Easter brunch. Obviously you can be more or less frugal with your budget depending on your circumstances. But for us, the goal is to stay under $20 for the whole day. We’ll accomplish this by doing brunch instead of dinner. Brunch will consist of scrambled eggs and french toast plus yummy toppings. M is getting exactly one book, some animal crackers (we’ll hide in his eggs. He rarely gets animal crackers so that is a treat to him!) and a few art supplies from the Dollar Store. Not bad. We’ll also likely splurge on some Cadbury Mini Egg.Did you know Americans actually spend more money on candy during Easter than Halloween? Don’t be a sucker. Set a goal to spend less on your Easter goodies this year.
Shop sales
A good way to celebrate Easter on a budget is to make sure you are shopping sales. You can find most Easter goods on sale a couple of weeks before Easter, including fresh (aka not candy) eggs! We’re lucky to live by an Aldi where we score cheap eggs, but I’ve also had good luck finding cheap eggs around Easter at Walgreens. Eggs are a score at Easter,obviously, because you can dye them and then hide them for an Easter egg hunt, so keep your eyes peeled for discounts in the coming weeks. In addition, almost all Easter candy goes on sale a couple of weeks before Easter, even at mass stores like Walmart and Target, so be on the look out!
Take advantage of coupons
There are always tons of coupons on Easter candy, so make sure you check before you hit the store. Plus, combine those coupons with store sales and you’ll save even more. But wait! Use Ibotta (or any cash back app) to score even more savings. I’m never going to leave you alone about Ibotta because it is amazing! We’ve gotten about $115 back from Ibotta this year alone. Plus, if you sign up with our link, you’ll get an automatic $10 for signing up. That is a free $10!
Re-use everything
It is a lot easier to celebrate Easter on a budget if you commit to reusing everything you can. Short of your boiled eggs that will no doubt become rancid by next Easter, reuse everything! For example, you can save old plastic eggs, save that fake grass, Easter baskets, and anything else that is non perishable! In addition, you don’t need to buy Easter outfits for yourself and or kids every year. Instead, consider reusing past Easter clothes and or purchasing cheap accessories to already existing outfits.
Don’t get sucked into the hype
Even though I love holidays, my favorite ones are the low maintenance holidays– like, Easter, Independence Day, New Years Eve, etc. because they are tons of fun with very little preparation and effort. My advice? Don’t set yours (or your kids’) expectations so high. Pinterest and social media are great, but they can cause us all to go a little nuts on over celebrating and focusing too much on little details that don’t really matter. You can have a wonderful Easter without blowing up your budget by simply choosing not to get sucked into the hype. Just because Susie on social media has an elaborate gift or craft every day for the week leading up to Easter, doesn’t mean that you need to do that. Make Easter more about your heart and less about things.
Consider celebrating one week late
If you want to score big savings, consider celebrating Easter late. I love this idea in theory because think of all those clearance sales! Most Easter candy/swag/etc goes on sale for up to 75 per cent off the day after Easter. This would be a fun idea to make Easter Sunday more about celebrating the true meaning of Easter and then you could have an Easter Monday that is all about fun – the Easter bunny and goodies.