How to Decorate Easter Eggs While Avoiding High Egg Prices

Shopping for dyeable Easter eggs in the middle of an egg shortage is no fun for anyone. Finding eggs can be difficult enough, but affording them is a whole other story. Even if you do find a dozen eggs at the grocery store, is the messy holiday tradition worth the cost? 

Don’t let the price or availability of eggs deter you from family traditions. Read on for fun egg decorating options, including dyeable Easter eggs that won’t break the bank, and save those rare eggs for breakfast or baking. And remember, whether buying real eggs or alternatives, snap that receipt in the Fetch app to earn points and reward yourself for your smart shopping.

Why are eggs so expensive right now?

If your family doesn’t bake often or doesn’t eat eggs for breakfast every day, you might have some real sticker shock when shopping for traditional dyeable Easter eggs. You’re not imagining it: the cost of a dozen eggs has risen from about $1.50 in 2020 to nearly $6.00 in 2025, and eggs are so expensive right now for a few reasons:

• Supply chain issues: Supply chain issues were a hallmark struggle of the early pandemic, but they haven’t really gone away.
• Economic inflation: Increases in the price of consumer goods mean the value of a dollar is worth about 20% less now than it was just five years ago.
• Bird flu: About 20 million egg-laying chickens died as a result of bird flu just last quarter, and the presence of bird flu can impact egg production for surviving birds as well.

Finding affordable eggs is hard enough right now, but loading up your grocery cart with eggs you’re not planning to eat can feel absurd. This Easter season, give artificial dyeable Easter eggs a try.

What are dyeable Easter eggs?

When we mentioned shopping for “dyeable Easter eggs” earlier, you probably had a vision of a normal carton of eggs, because what Easter eggs can’t be dyed? Decorative dyeable Easter eggs are different:

• Much like the eggs you would use for an Easter egg hunt, dyeable Easter eggs are plastic. Better yet, a dozen often costs less than real eggs (just $2-3, including dye).
• These white plastic eggs often come in a pack of 12 along with dye and dye bags, giving you everything you need in one place.
• While these dyeable Easter eggs come with their own dye, they’re a blank canvas for your Easter crafts (like decoupage Easter eggs, detailed below).
• You can save dyeable Easter eggs you’ve already decorated for next year and either dye new colors or do new crafts with them.

The bottom line: buying a dozen dyeable Easter eggs from Target or Walmart is a cost-effective and eco-friendly way to revamp a classic holiday tradition. 

How to decorate dyeable Easter eggs

Supplies you’ll need

If you’re just looking to dye some Easter eggs, most of the time you can grab a dozen of them with everything you need for your dyeing plans. Just head over to Fetch Shop and buy a dozen or two from a retailer like Walmart, Target or Jewel. In each kit, you’ll find:

• 12 white plastic Easter eggs
• Multiple colors of dye (4 is a good number for some variety)
• Cups or bags for dyeing

Step up your Easter decorating game with decoupage Easter eggs. This craft might be better for kids a bit older or with a bit more patience, and you’ll want to have these supplies on-hand:

• Plastic Easter eggs (ideally white)
• Mod Podge (a jar from Michaels will last forever)
• Stiff foam or bristle brush
• Thin paper materials do decoupage with 
• Paints or paint pens
• Glitter

You can decoupage Easter eggs with pretty much any paper material, like decorative napkins, comic strips, tissue paper or even just newspaper.

Prepping your workspace

Whether dyeing or decoupaging, you need a clean workspace. Here’s how to minimize damage and make clean-up a breeze:

• Clean off a large flat surface, like a kitchen table or island.
• Lay down a disposable table cloth of some kind (newspaper is also fine).
• Fill your dye containers only as full as they need to be to prevent spills.
• Keep a few dedicated brushes if decoupaging to swap them out for cleaning.
• Make a designated drying space so the kids won’t accidentally ruin their designs.

Dyeing and painting techniques

The hardest part of dyeing Easter eggs will be keeping the kids entertained while the eggs dry, so it’s smart to have different techniques they can try for their second (or third, or fourth) egg:

1. Submerging the entire egg in the color of your choice should give you a pretty uniform hue and is a great starting point to introduce kids to dyeable Easter eggs.
2. Dye half of your egg one color and the other half another color (this is easiest if you let the first half dry first).
3. Layer stripes down your egg, either by dunking or brushing dye on.
4. Keep a few extra disposable bags or cups if kids want to mix dyes for new colors.

Some will be happy with a pastel-dyed egg, but the decorating doesn’t need to stop there:

• Break out a set of paint pens for kids to make designs on their (dry) dyed eggs.
• Encourage little ones unhappy with their egg once the dye has dried to get creative by drawing something onto their egg. You can even give them a fresh white egg to start on.
• Black and white paints will be necessary, but you should also have colors that complement or contrast your dyes (like a yellow egg with purple paint pen).

Decoupage Easter eggs

Making decoupage Easter eggs is a step up when it comes to DIY Easter crafts. While there’s nothing wrong with using a plain white plastic egg, you can also decoupage dyed Easter eggs to give another layer of depth to the design. 

Decoupaging Easter eggs will take a bit more patience and a more delicate hand than just dyeing them, but it shouldn’t be too hard:

1. Wipe down the surface of your egg, and if using a dyed egg, ensure the dye is dry.
2. Choose the material you want to decoupage with (magazine, newspaper, comic book, etc.).
3. Using a brush, spread a thin layer of Mod Podge on half of your egg so you will always have a dry part to handle.
4. Apply your decoupage material to the side of the egg with Mod Podge on it.
5. Starting from the center of your design, lightly press the material down until it’s clearly sticking to the egg.
6. Adjust the edges of your decoupaged material by cutting or carefully tearing and removing as many wrinkles as possible.
7. Let the egg dry, then repeat with the other half. 
8. Mod Podge should seal everything together, but if it remains tacky, consider a matte acrylic spray finish when you’re done.

What makes for a good decoupage Easter egg design? It’s tough to go wrong with florals or pastel themes, and if your kid has a favorite movie or character, some party napkins might be all it takes to bring Spider-Man or Belle to Easter.

Adding final touches

Glitter, stickers, and other small personal touches can ensure everyone has unique eggs, even if they didn’t want to draw or decoupage over their dye. This is also an excellent time to add the year so you can remember Easters past when you go to dye or decorate new eggs next year and the year after. Just remember to seal them with a spray sealant or another layer of Mod Podge.

Why dyeable Easter eggs are a budget-friendly and rewarding choice

Even if the egg shortage ends and this grocery staple returns to more affordable pricing, you should stick with dyeable Easter eggs because they are:

• More affordable
• More practical
• Less fragile
• Long-lasting
• Reusable

Adding dyeable Easter eggs and decoupage materials to your shopping list is easy when you use Fetch Shop: just tap the shopping cart icon and find a craft retailer like Michael’s or a general retail store like Target. You’ll find everything you need for affordable, sustainable, budget-friendly Easter decorations in one place, and you’ll earn Fetch Points on the dollar, which you can then redeem for free gift cards in the app.

Shop smarter with Fetch and see how easy it is to reward yourself.

Decorate Easter eggs without breaking the bank using Fetch

Dyeing and decoupaging plastic Easter eggs are two of the easiest ways to keep the tradition alive without breaking your grocery budget. At just a few dollars for a kit of a dozen eggs, you should absolutely give these egg decorating alternatives a try. 

Whether buying egg dyeing materials or shopping for your groceries, remember to snap your receipts in the Fetch app to earn rewards and save money this Easter season. So download Fetch and start earning your points!