April 20, 2011

THRIFTY EASTER BASKET!


Posted by Ethne~

So this Easter I thought I’d be super THRIFTY with the girls’ Easter baskets.  Then Shaun and I decided to get them bikes for Easter and the thrifty went out the window.  (Bikes x 2 = busted my basket budget.)  BUT, I did still manage to keep the baskets thrifty, since TECHNICALLY the bikes will sit beside the baskets.

Basket:  I wanted to get Longaberger Easter baskets for the girls back in the day for the girls’ first Easter.  Then I looked at the prices and that was out of the question (x 2).  I have some Longaberger, but I’m pretty sure they’re not on the docket for a while now.  So, I found darling baskets that have a Longaberger feel, at Super Target, for around $8, which is pretty much $70+ less than the Longaberger option.  They even came with cute liners.

I then bought wooden hearts for $1 apiece at JoAnn, spray painted them white, then wrote the girls’ names on them.  Affix with a ribbon tie-on – voila!


Lace
& Gems

Lori found Mur-Man’s Easter basket at a garage sale for $0.50.

Little for my little Mur-Man!
I LOVE that the chick is rock and roll!
Grass:  I wanted to have the paper grass so if sweet Baby T-Rex (my kitty Theodore) ate any, it wouldn’t clog up his intestines.  I bought one bag of green paper grass (grass has to be green, the pink version just isn’t right – if you ask me) for about $1.

I re-use the grass and basket every year, so this is a one-time expense.

Plastic Eggs:  I saw a 12-pack of multi-colored plastic eggs for $1 at JoAnn and the like – but considering Thrifty Nana found a 48-pack at Good Will for a $0.99(!!), we did way better for the money.  We fill the eggs with pennies, hide some around the house and put the real eggs we colored in their baskets (TN found egg coloring kits for $0.99 at Good Will too).  I’d say probably about $1 in pennies.


Large bag o' eggs

THRIFTY TIP:  Check out thrift stores after holidays.  Stores like Target donate all of their leftover holiday stock to thrift stores and you can get loads of great stuff, brand new, for dirt cheap!  Bonus!

Candy:  You don’t need me to tell you that the sky’s the limit when it comes to Easter candy.  Personally, I love pink and red Starburst jellybeans, and Shaun’s weakness is black jellybeans.  The girls pretty much like sugar.  If I really wanted to be cheap, I could just give them packets of sugar.  (Kidding…kinda)  Now it seems to me that the Easter baskets should have some sweets in them.  I bought 2-packs of Peeps for 2/$3 (they’re the chocolate-covered newbies), a chocolate bunny for $0.99 and some fruit snacks.  My smart co-worker KA suggested gummy vitamins which is a FAB-U-LOUS idea - 2-for there!  Fresh fruit would be sweet too.  Clementine oranges are in season now – dalish.


Chocolate Peeps - genius!
Baby Binky...who named these?
Fruit snacks

Activities:  I made the Crayon Roll-up – free since I had the goods in my stash already.  I bought the 24-pack of Twistables Crayons for $5.00 – big enough to split between both girls.


Color Me Badd

I found small Easter coloring books at Target for $1 apiece, and Easter stickers at Walgreens for 2/$1.


Oh yeah, stickers

Toys & Miscellaneous:  Last year we got the girls a few movies (Disney and the like) – I saw a huge selection at Target today for $5.  We got the girls those little Hex Bugs robot cockroach that travels around the kitchen floor for about $4 last year too – and really that was for Baby T-Rex.  We won’t have time for movies and cockroaches this year what with the new bikes to ride around!!

I found Silly Putty and Princess Tiana socks in the $1 spot at Super Target.  I found little expanding foam tablets for $0.80 at Rainbow on sale.


Easy Mac will approve - they're pink
$0.80!

My smart co-worker KA also suggested crashing the dollar store – snacks, kites, books, crayons, coloring, toys – all can be found there in enormous quantities.  I thought a kite was a BRILLIANT idea.  She said travel-size body lotions and toiletry items like toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash, etc. – practical!  She also scored a sweet electronic gift for her daughter – on clearance!

This year, I’m going to get little license plates with the girls’ names on them – KA says they’re at Walmart.  Not sure on the price yet.

Lori scored an Ironman 2 toy from Walmart for $4 – Lori thinks it was originally $12 (Steve says probably more like $20), it was on sale for $7, and she had a $3-off coupon!  She also had a coupon and got some M&M eggs for free!

ONLY $4.00!  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?
So Friends, the KEY to a THRIFTY Easter basket is to value shop, thrift store shop, use your coupons and give items that your kids will love that won’t break the bank and rot their teeth. 


Stuffed full

If you plan to splurge like we are with the bikes, consider that my savings from couponing has paid for the price of the bikes – just in the past month!  (For me, the point of couponing is to save money on necessities so we can spend money on what we really want – fun and things for the girls!)

SAFETY TIP:  Don’t forget helmets when your kids bike – I bought Dora the Explorer helmets, naturally.

Happy Easter everyone!  Wish me luck trying to get the girls off their new bikes so we can go to church!  Promises, bribes and candy may be required. 

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