Forget the eggs.
It’s no surprise that the exorbitantly high cost of eggs has Americans considering their other options — for both breakfast consumption and decorating this Easter season.
According to a study by Clarify Capital, over 30% of Americans have stopped buying eggs due to their costs.
Considering that a popular Easter tradition consists of coloring eggs — due to this nationwide concern, people are putting their thinking caps on and getting creative with what they’re instead dyeing.
According to The New York Times, how-to videos of people coloring other unexpected grocery staples — such as marshmallows, potatoes and onions are making their rounds on social media.
One of these TikTok videos was posted by a content creator named Steph Gigliotti — which showed a plethora of beautifully colored marshmallows.
In the video she says: “Save yourself a bunch of money and color marshmallows instead.”
“You can use any size marshmallows — we do prefer the nice, big jumbo ones for dramatic effect,” she told CBS News.
Many parents praised Gigliotti for her creative money-saving hack in the comment section of her festive video.
“This is such a great idea! No one eats the colored eggs so these will actually be eaten!” one commenter wrote.
Another person shared: “Great idea!!! Especially since eggs are such a hot commodity these days!!”
Other online videos, like this one, show small yellow potatoes being dropped into individual bowls of dye, the same way eggs would be colored — yet it’s much cheaper.
It seems that even if people are adamant about keeping tradition and coloring eggs — despite them being expensive — the shortage of eggs is another hurdle to overcome.
A food blogger named Lexi Harrison — who lives in Michigan — told the Times, “More than half the time I’ve been to the store in the last month, there’s been no eggs.”
Because of this, some grocery stores — specifically Trader Joe’s in Manhattan are only allowing customers to buy one carton of eggs at a time.
And farms across the country — such as Young’s Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs, Ohio — are hesitant to continue other traditions such as Easter egg hunts because they “don’t want to wipe out local inventories.”
The farm typically spends about $3,000 on eggs for their hunt — but instead will donate to local food banks this year, according to the Times.
