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The sky-high food prices are not keeping the Easter bunny away this year. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans are shelling out $4.29 more this year on their Easter meals as the average person is expected to spend $44.34! Below I share my Easter menu and how I’m trimming the cost.
For the main dish, I’m roasting a turkey breast. I know it’s not the traditional main course, but my family does not eat pork and the price of lamb was ridiculous. This is the most expensive part of our meal at $16.
To accompany my apricot glazed turkey breast, I’m sauteing asparagus. Remember I mentioned asparagus are inexpensive right now? Just two bucks for two bunches! Also on the menu is scalloped potato gratin. Yum! The cost is about $5. This includes lots of cheese and heavy creme – dairy products are crazy expensive!
I’m making my delicious split pea soup recipe again this year. It’s about $2 to make and it’s so filling. The salad is coming from my garden. We’re having mesclum – you know, the fancy salad that costs $3-$6 at the store – which I paid a buck for the seeds. The fresh herbs for the gratin and deviled eggs are also coming from my plot.
Ralphs had a sale on eggs this week. They were only $.88 and I made a mad dash to my local store for a carton. My sister and I are making these look like chicks. We love playing with our food!
No wine in our menu as we are not drinkers. We are sticking with water and warm tea as we’re still under the weather.
For dessert, I’m baking a carrot cake. Topped with creme cheese frosting and walnuts, this delectable dessert is only setting me back $4. The rest of my groceries which included apricot jam, dijon mustard, and more were $10.
Our meal will feed 5 people and I’m expecting leftovers. The total cost was $37.88 – that’s about $7.58 per person (less than going out to eat)!
The main way I reduced costs was by planning a meal around items I already have in my pantry and garden. I know not everyone has the time, space, or ability to garden but this will help a lot. To lessen the cost of your Easter meal, keep it simple. Forget about store loyalty and shop the sales instead.
Keeping it small also helps. If you’re having lots of family and friends over, consider a potluck or plan a menu and assign everyone a dish.
Hope you have a wonderful Easter or Passover. I’d love to hear what’s on your menu!
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Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
sounds delicious.
My family loves turkey so at Christmas I buy two turkeys when they are super inexpesive and freeze one for Easter.
I am also serving asparagus and scalloped potatoes that I bought at Costco and Crescent rolls that my grandkids can’t get enough of.
Now if someone can just cook dinner for me that would be perfect.
Happy Easter and Passover to all.
@shirley Ha! You are too funny. Thanks for the great turkey tip. Works well for those that have space in there freezer.
Traditional Easter dinner in my family is always baked ham (I use a Morehouse Jalapeno Mustard and honey mixture for the “glaze”), baked yams and asparagus. Dessert is usually a bundt cake, either a wine cake or a spice cake, both of which are in my limited baking repertoire. Fresh fruit in season (right now it’s strawberries from Tapia Bros.) go with the unfrosted cake. Simple to prepare, and usually quite economical. Many of the ingredients are in my pantry, and some came from the 99 Cent store.
We usually do a ham or turkey for dinner and thanks to ShopRite, it comes out free! Luckily our ShopRites and Acmes have it where if you spend $300 within a month or so you get a free ham or turkey or money off of a different special! Between my parents and siblings, we tend to get about 3 or 4 hams or turkeys! Whoever hits the $300 mark first gets one thing and then uses another person’s Supercard so that we get another one! My mom and one sister got hams and my other sister got a turkey! I just got my free almost 15lb turkey saving me about $20!! Now we have 4 different dinners where the big ticket item is already “bought and paid for!”
Oh yes, and other best part, due to the size of the turkeys or hams and everything else we make, we’re able to feed about 10 adults and 10 kids! For this year we are doing 2 turkies (both were free due to our spendings) about 4 boxes of stuffing, which was about 99 cents a box. Home made Cole slaw, 3 for $5 bags mixed with Mayo and other things that we normally already have, a few bags of veggies (was on sale at ShopRite 3 bags for $5), and some other stuff… I think the things that cost the most are the little potatoe rolls that we get which are about $4 for 24 miniture rolls and we get two bags of them! We always have a lot of leftovers too! I love the holidays!!!
I had baked chicken, stuffing, fresh spinach, baked sweet potatoes and hot tea.