Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Easter means so many good things- it offers so much hope. It occurs during Spring when flowers are blooming and everything and everyone is coming back to life. And one of my favorite things about it is that it can be a very low maintenance holiday that is still very meaningful. Maybe you are deeply in debt like us. Or maybe you simply want to keep the focus of Easter on its true meaning. Maybe you are looking for ways to live your life more intentionally. No matter what your goal is, you can celebrate Easter on a budget. Here’s how.

HOW TO CELEBRATE EASTER ON A BUDGET:

Eat Easter brunch instead of Easter dinner.

Breakfast is exactly one million times cheaper than dinner. For example, one loaf of french bread costs $0.98 at our local market. I recently purchased a dozen eggs for $0.99. Add a few toppings like syrup and powdered sugar, and you have delicious french toast for brunch for less than $5. Contrast that with a roast beef dinner where you would likely spend well above $10 on the roast beef alone!

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 as listed above. 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 Eggs… because they’re Cadbury eggs. I’m salivating. P.S. Fun fact, 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 and rebates to celebrate Easter on a budget. 

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!

Reuse 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 when you celebrate Easter on a budget. 

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% 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.

Choose experiences instead of thing to celebrate Easter on a budget. 

A great way to celebrate Easter on a budget is to choose Easter experiences over Easter things. What experiences can you have for Easter? You could have an Easter egg hunt (ones you put on yourself or if you are lucky you can find a free Easter egg hunt in your community) bunny hop races, the egg on the spoon race, watch an Easter movie. If you celebrate Easter for religious reasons, read bible stories about Easter. Read Easter books, or spend time outside in the spring weather, write thank you letters to the Easter bunny, etc etc. You can shift the focus from stuff to experiences– that’s how the best memories are made anyway.

Don’t overfill Easter eggs.

Another very simple way to celebrate Easter on a budget is to not overfill your Easter eggs, if you choose to do Easter eggs. To get M excited for Easter, Danny decorated our house with our old Easter decorations including plastic eggs. He put one chocolate chip in one egg. I wish I had a video of how excited the kid got over one chocolate chip. ONE! Granted, he never gets candy so it is likely a bigger deal to him, but I’m just saying you don’t have to stuff those eggs silly for your kids to be excited over them. Also– healthy tip, consider putting something besides candy, like a coin or small cheap toy instead of candy in each egg.

Hit the Dollar Store and second hand sales first. 

If you haven’t saved past Easter decor, check out the Dollar Store and second hand sales before you shop anywhere else to celebrate Easter on a budget. For Easter baskets and other decor, consider checking out garage sales and thrift stores before you go nuts down the Easter aisle at Target. If that is not your style or you are unsuccessful, check out the Dollar Store and load up on those $1 goodies. If you do this and stick to shopping sales, sticking to your budget should be easy peasy this Easter.

Easter can be a wonderful, intentional, minimal, impactful holiday. All it takes is a little intentionality and self discipline and you can celebrate Easter on a tight budget.

How do you celebrate Easter? What cheap ways to celebrate have you come up with? I’d love to hear from you. 

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