Ask:
With Easter under 1 month away now, what are you ladies doing to save money on your Easter dinner, Easter baskets and Easter Activites?
Here is what I am doing: we go to our families house for Easter dinner (yes we have 2 different Easter dinners- yippee no kitchen time for me!), the girls and I color and decorate Easter eggs, we go to a local free easter egg hunt (which is really nice!) and for my girls baskets ( I usually will try to do it for under $20-both of them together of course!)- I make them chocolate (white for oldest regular milk chocolate for the youngest)- they get a cross and a nice size chocolate bunny- a few little chocolate eggs and a few choclate lollipops. For the most part I make all their candy- except for a few things (jellybeans, reese's eggs and cadbury mini eggs- which I always get on sale!). They will also get a few extra things (i- tunes Gift card for the oldest a doll from my toy stockpile for the youngest)- they need to get a little stuffed bunny, an easter book for the youngest and paint with water book- the oldest will get a magazine. For the most part I am ready minus the fact I need to make the chocolates still!
Answer:
I've got all the molds to make the chocolates, is it really cheaper to make your own?
Answer:
If my inlaws are in town, we go to their house for a big Easter lunch with all of Dh's family. This year, not only are my inlaws going to be in town, but my sister is also having us over for a meal as well...so we'll have to figure that all out! Usually though, everyone brings something, so for my inlaws, I'll be 'assigned' something to bring...it works out really well and one person isn't saddled with not only all the cooking, but the expense too. When my sister and I get together, we'll split the expensive things like Honey Baked Ham.
My kids don't really eat much candy, so I don't bother getting them any aside from a chocolate Lindt bunny. I collect things for their baskets like so far right now I have gameboy games, paperback books, jump ropes, balsa wood airplanes, small lego sets, mini etch a sketch etc
I always make up baskets for my neices and nephews (4 neices and 1 nephew). Last year I was on the ball and got tons of stuff at Target when it was 75% and 90% off including the really cute felt baskets they had last year for girls with flowers on them. So they're getting stuff I got on sale like stuffed peeps, fairytopia stuff, egg shaped deck of cards etc I found little post it note pads in the shape of letters at Joann Etc for $1 each, so I got them each one of those. I just bought them all egg shaped sidewalk chalk at Target ($1) to finish off their baskets but otherwise I'm done with them!
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I havent even begun to get anything for my two kids baskets! Although, dh and I have been doing some talking and since both sets of grandparents are in town holiday where presents are involved tend to get overwhelming so we have decided to scale back a bit w/ what we do. Both my parents and my inlaws buy several items for each childs basket so by the time we put our stuff in the basket as well its overflowing and then the kids are overwhelmed. Then its just not as much fun so we are going to get less this year to compensate for what the grandparents are getting.
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My in-laws are coming to visit this Easter so we are doing alittle more than usual.. so I am in progress of planning meals. As for the kids' baskets, I have been goign to Walgreens every other week (when I go to town for groceries) and getting their 39 cent specials. for about the past 2 wks they have had all their little Easter candies for 39 cents so I am slowly stocking up on these things, I will finish up the week before Easter with fillers for Dollar Tree.
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We eat at my mom's house (well, me and the kids do - dh stays home and fends for himself) and I spend money to bring something, usually a platter of different fruit and a couple bottles of soda.
For my kids, I have kept the same easter basket since they were babies. I keep the plastic grass from year to year too, stored in a ziploc bag. I fill it with candy I buy on sale, chocolate stuff for my little boy and sour gummies, air heads, hot tamales, etc for my older son.
I usually stick in a small item in the basket that they can use or consume,like bubbles, last year they each got a towel and washcloth set with characters on them, which I got from Big Lots for $2 for each kid. I try to avoid out-and-out "toys" b/c they have so much stuff already.
One thing I always do is dye eggs with my kids. I think it is a lot of fun for them. At my mom's house we have a plastic egg hunt. We use eggs that we've had forever. We don't fill them, just keep hiding them over and over again, and whoever gets the most each time "wins." The prize is being able to gloat over everyone else that you won My sister and I and our cousin also "compete" against each other, and we go all out, hiding them in cars, in trees that you have to climb...the little kids love to watch us go against one another. Then we all go swimming in mom's pool.
In total, I spend about $5 per child and another $10 bringing food to mom's. This is why I like Easter and not Christmas.
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For easter we will be staying home for the first time ever because it will be my first day home after the c-section. i am expecting both sets of grandparents to stop by with things for the kids and plates of food. (yum!)
as far as money spent for us, I am skipping out on the baskets since my kids are so little and they will just get thrown aside. I am hoping to keep their baskets to $35. I also have to make up easter treats for dd's preschool, thats another $15. Staying at $50 will be good for me... next year I hope to be more prepared though.
Answer:
For every other holiday, we always go to the same relatives for the meal. Each family hosts a different holiday. Easter is the one holiday that no one on either side of the family seems to plan in advance. So far, we have no plans for EAster this year.
Back when I was single and had a high-paying job, I started an egg hunt for my neices and nephews. I use the same eggs every year and fill them with either a few pieces of small candy like Hershey kisses or jelly beans or maybe a coin or two. When the kids were younger, four pennies was a much bigger prize than a quarter! In some of the eggs I put a ticket for a prize. Prizes came from the dollar store or some clearance sale somewhere. Prizes are always wrapped, though, so the kids don't know what they're getting. I try to steer the kids away from prizes I know they wouldn't like. For example, I tell my 10-year-old nephew that he probably wouldn't like the cleverly wrapped hair barrettes.
My son was only 6 months old last EAster, so his egg hunt prize was more for me and my camera. Probably the same this year too.