My Frugal Life: Easter Eggs

I got to thinking the other day that the old maxim about 'life was better in the good old days' was partly true. The thing that got me to thinking that was Easter eggs. Yes, Easter eggs! What did you do at Easter time, with the whole egg and Bunny thing? Well, some of my 'funnest' memories are of just that. We didn't have a regular income, Dad was a builder and didn't get a regular wage.

We had feasts and famines all my growing years, so Mum had the devils' own job sometimes (many times!) making ends meet until the money was in. When Easter and Christmas came around though, no one would have ever known the scratching together that my Mum did to get all five of us kids presents that we loved.

Easter was such fun! We would go to bed on Easter Saturday, bursting with anticipation with what Easter Bunny was going to do this year. This year, you say? Well at our house, the Bunny was a complete original. One year, we had different coloured wool tied to the ends of our beds, and we had to follow the trail, twisting and winding around rooms, furniture, the garden and even out onto the street, and pick up little eggs on the way.

Another year we had to follow the 'footprints, yes, cut out footprints taped EVERY where! On the floor, over furniture, on the ceiling and up the walls. It was fabulous fun! Sometimes it was to work out a riddle to find the 'stash'. Clues (level of difficulty was dependent on each of our ages) were popped into an appropriately decorated envelope for us when we awoke. Lots of giggles and puzzling would ensue, until all the eggs were found.

Looking back on those wonderful days, what stands out mostly for me today is that we really didn't get much in the way of chocolate eggs, but we all, including the folks, had squillions of tons of pure, unadulterated fun.

Since having my own family I have used this same idea for my own kids, and the outcome is always the same. Lots of great fun and wonderful memories. So to cut a long story short, I suppose the moral of the story is that spending time, using imagination and love on giving can be far, far better than spending lots of money to impress. Cheers to all!

By Vicki Keong from Queensland

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