With every holiday celebration, we face irregular expenses. Don’t get caught off guard or thrown off track. When planning a meal for a holiday like Easter, smart shopping saves a bundle. Allow these strategies to guide your planning and purchasing. Keep the focus of your celebration at the center of Easter rather than falling into spending traps.
Begin With the Basics
Building an awesome holiday experience begins in your own kitchen, not the aisles of the grocery store. Take stock in what items you already have to prepare your feast. Consider not only what you have on hand but what ingredients you could use to make the items you’ll be tempted to purchase at the store.
Plan the Meal
A little meal planning goes a long way when it comes to saving money. While many of us plan our weekly meals, we fail to plan special celebrations like Easter. Decide what you’ll be serving before you hit the grocery store. Don’t know where to begin? Basic meals should include a protein source, a veggie, and a fruit. You may also choose to include a carb item like bread, rice, pasta, or potatoes.
Bigger holiday meals may include family favorites or special desserts. However, it’s easy to fall into the side dish trap. With so many favorites to choose from, we add more and more until our plates and bellies are stuffed while our wallets are empty. Specifically list what you’ll be serving before you build a shopping list or go to the store.
Share the Table
If family or friends will attend your celebration, consider asking them to contribute a dish or dessert to share. Spreading out the responsibilities keeps you from feeling overwhelmed while also reducing your costs.
Limit Seasonal Decor
Keep the main thing, the main thing. The cute decorations long to jump in your cart, but keep in mind they’ll be packed away (or worse thrown away) within 24 hours of your celebration. Choose to purchase reusable decor that can be brought out year after year. When possible snag these items on clearance after the holiday is over. Don’t burn your budget on items you can’t eat.
Watch the Sales
Every grocery store will want you to shop there the week before Easter. Because of this, promotions called “loss leaders” run rampant. Loss leaders are such great deals that grocery stores lose money on the steep discounts. You as the consumer have the opportunity to maximize those low prices, though.
Keep your eyes peeled for circular ads that feature those very best deals. Many stores offer a second special Easter ad, too. Items most frequently priced at their lowest at Easter include ham, eggs, strawberries, potatoes, Hawaiian bread, pineapple, and brunch foods. Even if you don’t plan on hosting an Easter dinner, take advantage of these yearly low prices and freeze foods for the future.
Keep Candy to a Minimum
I probably won’t win any new friends with this tip, but you don’t need bags upon bags upon bags of candy at Easter (or any time of the year). Limit yourself to one or two favorites and leave most of the sugary goodness behind.
When we were paying off debt, we didn’t have much money to buy special candies for our girls at Easter time. So my husband Brian went to the individual candy bins and bought a few items with our spare change. He made a trail of candy through our home for the girls leading to their Easter basket. This tradition born of limited resources has become a treasured experience for our girls.
Look For Free Community Experiences
From special worship celebrations to Easter Egg hunts and more, your community is likely holding a number of free experiences to enhance your Easter this year. Scan the websites of local churches for service times. Look at city websites for Easter Egg hunts. Last year, we attended an awesome egg hunt at our local Culver’s. For those that live in the Indy area, Indy with Kids always has a great round up of events. Keep your eyes peeled and do online research.
In the end, Easter shouldn’t be about spending money at all. It’s a celebration of new life. For people of faith, it’s a remembrance of Jesus’ resurrection and an acknowledgment of amazing grace. Don’t allow impulse to guide your heart or wallet this Easter.
My book is now available: Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After. You can also check out The Debt Free Devotional
This post contains an affiliate link. That means when you get a great deal, learn about a way to save, or maybe even something for free, I may end up making a small commission.
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