Thrifty Easter Goodies For My Girls

As I've shared with you several times one of my goals this year is to be really mindful with our spending.  Another goal I've shared is to use up what we have on hand rather than purchasing something else.  Easter is going to be a great way for me to work within these two goals.  My girls are at an age where they've let go of their Easter baskets and lowered their expectations.  Nonetheless, I still like to make the day special for them when they wake up in the morning.  I plan to make a nice brunch for all of us to enjoy and typically we have an early afternoon dinner.  We often have guests for Easter dinner.

Easter themed gift bags and pastel tissue paper I've saved to reuse

In my gift wrap bin I have Easter themed bags save from when their grandparents gave them goodie bags in years past.  I plan to reuse those this year and fill them up with goodies I've been collecting for them.  I set myself a $10 budget to spend on those items and I think I've done really well.

They always got a new toothbrush and tube of toothpaste in their Easter baskets and this year I planned to put that in their bags.  I picked up Colgate toothpaste on sale at Fred Meyer for 88¢ a tube and three packs of Colgate toothbrushes for $1 at Dollar Tree.  They'll be all set with toothbrushes and toothpaste now until Christmas.

The last remnants of my gift box fit in this bag

I've gone through my stash in my gift box and dwindled it down to nearly nothing, but that's okay.  Part of the goal.  In the past few years I've redeemed enough "Free Gift" coupons at Bath & Body Works to amass quite a collection of the small sized lotions and shower gels.  Some of those made it into the bags.  Fred Meyer Friday Freebies have also netted my quite a collection as well.  I've picked up several full sized candy bars as well as some I picked up on sale and used coupons with to make them super cheap.  I think the most I've paid so far for one is about 38¢.  I picked up two packs of sugarless gum on sale and used a coupon to make them 50¢ a piece.

At Dollar Tree I found cute little notepads cutout in each girl's initials and used a 50¢ OFF coupon I printed from Coupons.com to buy a tube of deodorant.  I picked up another one on sale for $1 at Walgreens.

I think the bags are darling and the girls will love all the goodies I've stuffed inside.  How did I do on my budget?  Total spent came in at $9.78!  I'd say I did just fine, I stuck to my budget and my goals.  Yes!  Now to figure out what to do for everybody else.