Easter Basket on a Budget
Easter is coming up really soon here, and with my husband still out of work, obviously we’re going to be pretty reluctant to spend a lot of money on fun stuff for the kids’ Easter baskets. Which will no doubt disappoint my daughter, as she already is talking about what she wants in it.
Candy, candy, candy, of course. Some things are just obvious.
I haven’t done my buying for them yet, but I have been out looking at prices and figuring out what we can do for cheap.
To start out with, save the baskets from year to year, somewhere that the kids can’t get them out and play with them. My kids’ Easter baskets are pretty sturdy, so they should keep going for a long time.
If you use the plastic grass, try to keep that from year to year too. I’m thinking that shredded paper could be an alternative to buying if you don’t have it – not as pretty, but if you have a shredder and lots of junk mail, well, that junk mail could finally come in handy.
One nice thing about little kids – they don’t care about the quality of the candy you buy for them. I can’t stand the taste of cheap chocolate, and to be Easter-specific, I loathe Palmer’s chocolates, but kids really don’t care. Jelly beans go over well, and you can get them pretty cheaply.
More ideas:
Use Plastic Eggs
Those plastic eggs you can get this time of year can be a pain, but if you want the basket to look like it has more than it does, put the candy and other small items in the eggs, and reuse them from year to year. I can tell you from experience that the eggs can be hard to reclaim after the holiday, but do your best. Better to reuse them than to have them end up broken in the trash after just one use.
Fresh Fruits
I buy fresh fruit for the kids anyhow, and switching some of the candy out for fruit means the basket is healthier and really contains things I would have bought holiday or no holiday. Just pay attention to each child’s favorite fruits, and this could be a hit.
Compare Prices
For some people, those preassembled Easter baskets can be a good deal. For others, they cost too much for what you’d get.
Take a calculator and figure out the total cost to buy everything you’d put in an Easter basket on your own. Then compare it to the preassembled ones and decide which way it makes the most sense to go. The preassembled ones can be in the $15 and up range in a lot of cases, which really adds up when you are buying for more than one child!
Toys That Will Actually Be Used
A couple toys can be nice, even on a budget, provided they aren’t the kind of thing that your child will be ignoring the next day.
Cheap toys can include sand toys for the kids still young enough to play with them, crayons, toy cars and so forth. Dollar stores can have some great finds if you get shopping early enough, but I always try to stick with the principle of “will it really be played with? Tomorrow? After that?”
You can also make play dough, slime and other fun things for the kids and put them in the Easter basket. Little kids of course love bubbles, and if you have old bubble wands around the house it’s pretty easy to make your own bubble mix from water and liquid dish soap.
Encourage Their Hobbies
Think about cheap art supplies, seeds and pots for a garden, and so forth. I love it when I can give my kids things that encourage them to follow their own interests.
Books
Always a good idea to encourage kids to read. It’s pretty easy to find books in the dollar range for younger children, but this does get more challenging as the kids get older.
