The Ultimate Guide to a Fun and Frugal Easter

Did you know Easter is right around the corner? It’s coming early this year, with Easter Monday being April 1st (and I’m sure some folks out there will have a blast combining their Easter celebrations with April Fools Day). While I love the holiday and the fact that it’s a time to gather with loved ones, like any holiday, it can get expensive. Aside from attending the religious service of your choice, how can you enjoy this holiday without breaking the bank?

We’ve got you covered. In this article, I’ve got tips and tricks to have a fun and frugal Easter.

Decorating eggs for a frugal Easter

While there are endless possibilities for egg decorating kits at stores and online, in most cases, I don’t think the $10 to $20 spent on most kits is worth it. Here are some alternatives I recommend:

• Try boiling ingredients you already have with your eggs to create a natural dye (e.g., beets, onion skin, tumeric, and more). Sara has a great article explaining how to do this and getting a wide range of colors.
• Use some water, a splash of vinegar, and the food coloring of your choice to color your eggs. The more food dye you use, the more intense of a color you’ll get.
• Use crayons to draw patterns or designs on your eggs before dipping them into dye. The wax from the crayons will actually repel the dye in that specific area, and you’ll wind up with a beautiful and simple design.
• Get a nice set of wooden eggs. They can be kept as keepsakes (maybe everyone decorates one a year), or, you can just repaint over them the following year. While it would be an upfront investment that is a bit more expensive than the other options, once you buy them, you probably won’t have to again if you keep them. While Amazon has a few great options, I’d also recommend doing a little research in your community to see if any local carpenters or wood carvers offer something similar because if you can support a local business, all the better!
• If you have little ones, stickers are a great and easy way to decorate the eggs with easy cleanup and lots of fun. After all, who doesn’t love stickers?

The Big Meal

When it comes to holiday meals and family get-togethers, I have always been a big fan of potlucks. I find they might need a little organizing, but only so much as you make sure there are some sides, some main dishes, and desserts. This way, everyone is helping, and no one person has to bear the burden of feeding a large group (because it adds up quick!)

• Check out some of the other Easter Meal alternatives I’ve written about here.
• Here’s a frugal holiday meal idea from Daisy.

If your local store has a special on hams, you may be able to get one really inexpensively. Sometimes, this requires you to spend a certain amount of money at the store, but as long as you shop carefully, you can win big with this loss leader.

Easter egg hunts

This is a traditional Easter activity that is always a blast! There are many ways to do an Easter egg hunt, and they may also differ depending on how old your kiddos are. Here are a few ideas, to make the most out of it on a budget.

• Check out your community. Many communities have a variety of public Easter egg hunts, many of them free or affordable to join. I recommend checking out local church groups, community services, and groups like the Lion’s Club. Heck, even a quick Google search of “Easter Egg Hunt in my area” will probably bring up some good options.
• A scavenger hunt. While this might not work for really young kids, it is super fun for older kids. Instead of it being a free-for-all for candy, leave clues (with maybe just a piece of chocolate or two). What it leads to is up to you, but some fun options could include chocolate, their Easter basket, a note or surprise, or, really, anything you want. If you’re setting this up for more than one person, you can also color code the clues so everyone can easily tell if it’s a clue for them or someone else.
• Reusable plastic eggs. You can often find the simple, plastic, reusable eggs that you can fill fairly cheap at places like the dollar store. My mom found hers years ago at a thrift store and probably still has them. While you can go crazy with what you put in them, you can also do it in an affordable way. Here are some things you can try putting in:
  • Small change like a quarter, some dimes, or nickels.  (I went to an egg hunt like this as a kid, and it was so much fun!)
  • Fruit snacks like those little gummies your kiddos might get in their lunch or as a special treat. While it’s still sweet and tasty, there’s also a little less sugar.
  • Non-food items such as hair clips, erasers, bouncy balls, or small toys from the dollar store, like the ones you’d get for birthday loot bags.
• Puzzle egg hunt. This is a cool idea I’ve seen floating around lately. Try getting a new puzzle, putting a few pieces in each egg, and as they’re found you can work on building the puzzle. This will also help you know if you’ve found all the Easter Eggs, because you can’t finish the puzzle until you have all the pieces!

Frugal Easter baskets

With the costs of everything being so high lately, it’s very easy to spend more than you meant to on an Easter basket. An easy way to balance this out a little is to buy things you already need for the season, such as new warm-weather clothes or toys for the spring and summer, like jump ropes and chalk.

For a full list of ideas, check out this article on how to Build the Ultimate Frugal Easter Basket.

How do you have a frugal Easter?

While the cost of the Easter holiday can add up, I hope that these tips and tricks that have saved me money over the years will also help to make your Easter a little more affordable. Are there any tricks that you intend to try for the first time this year? What ways do you save on Easter that I haven’t gotten into?

Let’s discuss this in the comments!

About Chloe Morgan

Chloe Morgan grew up living with a tight budget. In her late teens and early 20’s, all the lessons she’d learned started to slip, like it does for many college-age students on their own for the first time with their first credit card. As she’s gotten older, she’s started to deal with the repercussions and has taken on a frugal way of living, keeping her costs low, as she pays off debt and saves for her future. Chloe lives in Northern Ontario, Canada, with her dog, Rhea. 

Check out her work on TheOrganicPrepper.com and TheFrugalite.com where she writes about food, frugality, finances, and self-reliance, or her work on Medium, where she writes about lifestyle, mental health, and writing.