Hello

Easter and Holidays can get expensive if you let them, but I have some money saving tips and tricks to reduce expenses, so you can cut costs without sacrificing the fun.  You can have an elegant budget friendly celebration without breaking the bank! 

We usually host most holidays and it usually includes about 20-30 people, so not too crazy, but it does cost quite a bit of money and takes time to prepare all the food for that amount of people.  If we aren’t careful we could easily overspend and can have a ridiculous amount of food that could go to waste, so you really need to think about the main portion of the meal first. 

Make sure and ask for help.  Many times each family will bring a dish to share, so that is another way to help with the cost to save money and also give you less to prepare, so that you have more time. You want to enjoy your time with family, so the less you have to do, the better!

Plan ahead!  Start planning early and create a budget for expenses.  This will help you avoid overspending and impulse purchases.  Ideally, you would put this in the budget at the beginning of the year, but if this was missed, try to look at future holidays and put them in the budget now, so it doesn’t sneak up on you. If you have the items for your meal, you can watch for sales on those items and try to do your shopping at least a few weeks prior to the holiday because many times as you get closer to it, more people are shopping and sometimes they run out of items and also, you can watch for sales.

Next, reduce decorations or DIY decor because most people won't even notice and you could spend alot of time and money on something that really isn’t necessary.  If you feel that you need to decorate, try to find something after the holiday to get on clearance that you can use year after year.  I used to decorate as a young mom because I thought I had to, but now I realize what a waste of money and time it is and I would rather put my money towards something more meaningful.  Now if you enjoy decorating, then plan your budget accordingly….it just isn’t something I value.  I think of how many kids could be fed with that amount or what I could do for those in need with that money, but we all have different values and that is ok!

Reduce gift giving.  Think about what this celebration is about.  It is not about gifts or the Easter Bunny-it is all about Jesus, so keep the focus there.  Some simple gift ideas would be some Christian books about Easter or something they may need. 

With the seasons changing here, I do like to get an outfit for each kid as many times they grow out of their summer clothes from the season before, but I tend to stay away from too much candy.  We do a small easter basket each year, but we have reused the same Easter baskets since they were young. 

We do a large Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids, grandkids and cousins.  I have small eggs that I fill for the younger kids and larger eggs for the older kids and that seems to work really well here and then we just reuse the eggs year to year.  Also, you don’t have to get expensive candy.  The kids just have so much fun finding the eggs!  Our focus is more on our relationships with family than material items, so think about that this holiday season as well.

Most of all- keep it simple! Holidays are to enjoy time with people you love and not about perfection, so simplicity is key to reducing overwhelm.

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Monica