Easter Dinner Deal from Wal-Mart - frugal and fabulous

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2009 Easter Consumer and Action Survey, you will be heading out to a discount retailer sometime before the Easter holiday is over. And your average Easter bill of $135.03 for candy, gifts, food and decorations will be down to $116.59. If you run your household and budget like most of us, the researcher’s crystal ball predicts that your biggest expense will be in preparing a meal, with “the average person expected to spend $37.67 on food, down from $41.09 from last year.”

When I was deep in Mom Land, my biggest Easter expense was on church shoes and clothes for the family, and we skimped a bit on the meal. Other expenses included cards to far-flung family members and an Easter basket or two. This year I will probably spend the most money on gas dollars to travel to see friends and family during the long Easter week-end.

The survey found the majority of people (64.0%) will bargain shop at discounters this year, up from the 58.8 percent who shopped there last year. Still, about one-third (32.5%) will head to their favorite department store for Easter merchandise, one in four (22.5%) will visit a specialty store, 11.4 percent will shop online and 5.9 percent will buy Easter apparel from a specialty clothing store.

Since most of us will be spending the money on food, let's look at a frugal yet fabulous $28.42 Easter dinner with Wal-Mart pricing, based on april 5-april 11th retail flyer, Louisiana

$4.00 – Angel Food Cake
$1.50 – Fresh Strawberries – 16 ounces
$2.50 – dinner rolls, 24 count
$6.32 for 4 pound half ham, spiral-sliced
$3.00 – whipped cream
$1.50 – asparagus, one pound for steaming
$2.26 – sweet potatoes (2 pounds X $1.13/lb)
$1.50 – pound of butter
$3.50 – soft drinks 12 cans
x .09 tax

Save your dollars for the shoes, is my motto! Pair the money you save on Easter dinner with the Shoe Carnival $5 off coupon, and you've got pretty Easter shoes to wear to church, or the beach, or on that road trip you may be planning.