Our Easter Traditions and Frugal Ideas

Easter is coming up next week, and I am very excited.  Since we observe Lent, we've had forty days of giving up some of the good extras in our lives, so I am ready for a time of celebration. :-)

On Easter, we'll probably start off with a simple Easter egg hunt for the girls in our living room, organized by my husband.  This was a tradition in his family, and it certainly will be in ours, considering that my husband proposed to me with an Easter egg hunt!  (That's a story of its own. :-)  I keep a large bag of the plastic eggs from year to year, so all I need each year is the candy.

There are many deals and coupons for Easter candy in the weeks before Easter.  This week, I took advantage of the CVS ECB deal that has been running for a few weeks.  I ended up getting Hershey's and Wonka candy for about $1/bag.

The girls will also each get an Easter basket of goodies.  I've decided not to make this too big a deal in our family; but, in addition to candy, they will each get a couple of books or little toys.  I'm barely spending anything on their baskets this year, besides again the candy. 

Last year I purchased quality baskets from our Pottery Barn outlet when they were significantly marked down right before Easter, so that we could reuse them every year.  I have to double-check my stock, but I believe I have enough little presents to fill the baskets already saved.  These would be from my usual sources of after-holiday clearance, yard and consignment sales, and other random great deals I find throughout the year.

Due to the overwhelming crowds at our church on holidays, we'll be attending church in the early afternoon, so we'll follow the Easter baskets with a big brunch.  A cherished tradition in my family was to make a Polish Easter basket of traditional foods, and I am continuing that tradition.  Each food has a religious meaning; you can read the explanations here.  Our church also has the lovely tradition of blessing all the Easter food on the day before Easter, which further makes the meal meaningful.

 

The meal that we make is pretty frugal in itself, and I try to watch for sales in the weeks before Easter on some of the items.  We'll get together with family members in the evening for a traditional ham dinner as well.

What Easter traditions are you looking forward to this year?  How do you keep holiday costs in check?

This post is linked to Frugal Fridays and Kingdom First Mom's Frugal Easter Eggstravaganza.