We had a roast chicken (already had it in the freezer) mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing (stale bread already in the freezer), asparagus, and spinach-grape salad. It was supposed to be spinach-strawberry salad but strawberries were $4 a pound over easter weekend, while red grapes were 99c a pound. Just as yummy! No dessert. The chocolate was enough sugar for today.
For the kids, we made little baskets out of egg carton cups with pipe cleaners for the handle, and put jellybeans in them to give to their neighbourhood friends. From the easter bunny, they got a workbook (clearance priced $1 each), a chocolate bunny ($1), a caramel egg (25 cents), a pack of gum (discontinued flavour - dollar store 4/$1), and a handful of jelly beans. Instead of buying baskets we used birthday goody bags we had left over. Everyone is happy.
Kerri
__________________
Mama to Cole (9), Naomi (8), Adam (7), and Noah (4)
All adopted - All breastfed
Wife to David for 12 years!
Breastfeeding Counsellor and Doula
Accepted into midwifery school for February 2009!
We are moving to New Zealand on January 29th
Yikes, there is TONS to do before then. Gulp.
We did! I reused a nice basket we've had for awhile. I put the kids stuff all in one basket. I did not use any kind of that plastic Easter grass. I just put a couple of paddle balls, old maid & go fish cards & jump ropes that I picked up for a buck a piece, a few pencils & a package of candy. I spent less than $10 for sure!
We weren't deliberately frugal, but we never do much for Easter, so it wasn't crazy, either. We just threw something together at the last minute since we're here with my sister's family with her new baby.
Location: firmly planted in the postmodern pastoral economy
Posts: 13,008
We did. I filled last year's plastic eggs with money, some candy that I got in a gift bag from work, and beans for some for shakers. That was our egg hunt. We hard boiled eggs and the plan was to dye them with strawberries, blueberries and onion skins, but we haven't gotten to that yet. I am working on a fairy pennant type thing for Katie and animal bean bags for Jake, just as a nice "welcome spring" gesture (sewn from stash). We redid the nature table. And I gave Katie a $5 quartz crystal (a huge one) - she loves it.
__________________ Be realistic: Plan for a miracle. ~Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
The statements contained herein have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
Any products mentioned are not intended to treat, cure, mitigate or prevent any disease.
I did the easter egg stuffer swap here.. saved about half of it for next year. We wanted to get each kid an outdoor toy - Leila's was bought in the 75% after Christmas clearance (an inchworm), the bigs got bikes - might not seem too frugal, but it'll be cheap entertainment this summer - there's a ton of neighborhood kids and they can play with them instead of doing summer camps. They each got a toy - Josh's I bought cheap here, Leila's I got on sale, and Lindsey's was through a coop. For me, that was pretty good.. and the purchases were spaced out over a couple months (after Christmas to now).
dinner was ham (I'd bought a whole ham on sale and had it sliced, then split it up for 5 meals.. we had one for Ostara, one tonight), fresh pineapple, salad and asparagus - which my kids actually ate with italian dressing. Leila had a rice-berry bar, fritos and applesauce since she's allergic to ham and won't eat either salad or pineapple. She did try the asparagus though.
We went to a neighborhood egg hunt yesterday and then the city one.. picked out some of the candy and gave most of it (along with some of the stuff from the easter swap) to a friend of mine.
It wasnt particularily frugal, but it was all stuff that I would have bought for spring anyway. A sandpail for each, sidewalk chalk to share, a gallon of bubbles for the no spill containers I got at the end of the summer last yr, a playground ball, oh and they each got a book and a playdough set that I found on clearance that had lots of dohickeys in it (I actually normally make the dough, but we didnt have a lot of the stuff to mold, cut, etc it with). Then they got a bit of candy--- choc bunnies that I had a B!G!F coupon for (Liam is totally uninterested). Dove choc that I got soo cheap. The grocery store had them B!G!F and then I had a B!G!F coupon as well, so I paid abt .90c a bag. I paid regular price for starburst and skittles (liam only like fruity candy). They enjoyed hunting for the eggs, and we let them pick 5 to eat. We had gone to an egg hunt the day before though, and Simon found an icky choc "flavored" cross from it (well Liam gave it to him actually lol , complete with opening it for him) and ate the whole dang thing, so I will be surprised if he eats much today LOL. I just used the sandpails as baskets. Pretty much everything other than the books and candy are things I would have gotten for spring anyway, so in that way it was frugal.
__________________
Heather , mama to Liam, born 12-19-01, and Simon, born 04-17-05 wife to Mark, married 09-23-97
Location: if this were the wrong decision you'd already know it
Posts: 40,927
In some ways - though not as frugal as many, but for us!
We were asked to host this year's family gathering, so that was more expensive than what we had planned. But, when I called to order a honeybaked ham they were SO expensive for the party size we needed, so I just got one and got a sliced ham from Sam's while we were there (saved about $40 by doing that). I did almost all fruit and veggies for sides - asparagus was on sale, I prepped my own whole pineapples, berries were on sale, and mango was on sale. I also did steamed baby carrots, which were really cheap.
I also made iced tea and most people drank bottled water. Dessert was just pound cake with orange glaze, so all in all, it was a really frugal party menu for us.
As for baskets, I did $2 sunglasses from TCP for our upcoming trip, sand pails and sand toys in the little 3's baskets, some things that were on clearance at Border's ($1.99 books and little hair braiding/bracelet kits) since I had some gift cards for there, a few pieces of lindt chocolate, and some disney store jammies I had sashed from over a year ago when they were $5 and I had a coupon on top of that! good find in the bin of presents
we did! No huge baskets, potluck dinner with the fam and cousins from out of town, kids had an egg hunt with a few $1 coins and $2 bills and other change stashed throughout. It was perfect really.
__________________
wife to one, the love of my life
mama to 4, all incredibly gorgeous, smoochable and bright - taking my breath away everyday.
"Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing." - Mother Theresa
We were frugal for us. The kids each got under $5 worth candy/chocolate, Becca got 3 little egg shaker "maracas", and the boys each got 1 month membership to clubpenguin. I've traditionally gone WAY overboard with the candy and toys. My oldest commented he didn't get anything good this year, but he was thrilled when he saw the clubpenguin. I've been telling them no forever, but it was worth it to see them having a blast with it online - definitely getting my money's worth. And except for Becca's shaker eggs, I didn't add any clutter!
breakfast was at church and my mom took care of all of Easter dinner. THANK YOU, MOM!
We are always modest imo w/ Easter. They got new basket this year, we usually just use baskets from around the house. They get a small hollow bunny, three plastic eggs w/ jelly beans/ cadbury mini eggs, this year they each got a marshmallow egg. They get an inexpensive treat each year. Last year it was pez dispensers which they loved. This year they got these ceramic type eggs you soak in water and in 24 hrs a creature "hatches". (1.99 from grocery store) They LOVED that!! We dyed eggs Saturday and did an indoor hunt, church, ham dinner in the dining room (gets used 2X a year so they think its special, lol) It was a really nice day. Oh and we shopped at home for dresses this year.
__________________
I respect your opinion as an educated and intelligent adult and I hope you will do the same for me.
"We" did in our house, but I think the grandparents went way overboard. On our way home, DH was asking me if all the grands realized that the kids just rcvd tons of gifts at Christmas too. It's crazy. Now there is a huge basket of funky dyes and garbage waiting to be snuck out into the trash. They havent asked for any of it since my SIL sent goodies from Korea. I just can't keep them away from the dried seaweed now.
__________________
Carey, Wife to Craig and Mom to Ross, Morgan and Abigail
Location: When I dare to be powerful -- to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
Posts: 9,502
The kids each got a watch on clearance, a $.50 cent bunny, and we filled their eggs with jelly beans and candy they got the day before from an easter egg hunt we went to. Cyan got bath salts and a pack of 2/$1 stickers. Alex got a nicer watch (although with how on sale they were it was still under $10) so his was pretty sparce.
They don't believe in the Easter bunny or anything. So we refill the same eggs and baskets every year. They have nice ones they each got as little kids... with fold down handles, and cloth interiors. They also have those large paper mache easter eggs that I put their "Easter Gift" in every year. Logan's is smaller, and Alex and Cyan have one that their watch could fit in (ours are much cuter, they have bunnies dying eggs and all three are different... but it is the best picture I could find).
They got the same amt of stuff and hype for Valentines day. LOL!
We made crepes for the family (our family +7 others)... that was crazy time intensive, but easy. Fresh strawberries and whipping cream, with scrambled eggs from our chickens, and lots of nitrate-free bacon, and real maple syrup.... it was great... and not spendy.
Then we filled easter eggs that we had (my mom 'left' me about 400... no joke. It was a three drawer dresser FULL of Easter eggs. I weeded out the ones that were broken and the ones I would never use and then I took 3/4 of them to goodwill, and the ones that were left, we filled with candy from the hunt the day before (arn't I horrible?) and some jelly beans left over from their baskets. lol! That was it. Our easter. But the kids enjoyed it.
Val
__________________
Val; Living the dream we have been working towards for over 5 years.
Mama to Alex, Cyan, and Logan. Wife to my very best friend.
good find in the bin of presents 
Linear Mode
