Happy October everybody! October is my favorite month of the whole year. I’m pretty sure I covered all the reasons why I love fall in this post and October is the pinnacle of fall! I’m super excited to start prepping for Halloween, so I thought I’d share a few tips and tricks to help save you money:
Creepy costumes on the cheap
1. Host a costume swap. Swap costumes with your friends and family. Chances are your children will be happy to dress as whatever their older cousins were in Halloweens past. Get your whole neighborhood in on the fun, to get a wide variety of sizes and styles.
2. Check Craigslist. If you don’t find anything your kiddos love at your costume swap, check out Craigslist or Ebay. You’ll be able to find some great lightly used costumes for practically pennies!
Devilish decorations done right
3. Make your own decorations. Decorations provide a great chance for you to save money and get creative by making your own. You can make your own decorations for Halloween easily – the point is for them to be a little slapdash and haphazard. DIY ideas range from the obvious jack-o’-lanterns to super creative spooky centerpieces or wreaths. Check out this post for inspiration. I’ll be posting more DIY decorations throughout the month, so stay tuned.
Scary secrets to sugary success
4. Buy in bulk. The best way to save money on candy is to buy it in bulk at a discount store. And don’t forget to see if you can find coupons. I know I don’t like coupons, but Halloween provides a perfect opportunity to start clipping (you have to buy the candy anyway, why not use a coupon?).
5. Buy generic. You can also save by buying generic candy instead of those pricier name brands. Kids probably won’t even notice (it is candy, after all) and will eat and enjoy it just the same as the pricier brands.
Frightfully fun and frugal festivities
6. Start early. The best time to shop for Halloween merchandise is right after Halloween is over this year. Stock up on decorations and costumes and profit with a whopping 75% off discount.
7. Pick a pumpkin, just not at the patch. I love taking the family to pick pumpkins at the local pumpkin patch. But these pumpkins can get pricy (they weigh them by the pound) so my advice is to stick to small pumpkins when pumpkin picking. You can get big pumpkins to carve into jack-o-lanterns at the grocery store for at least 50% less.
12 Responses to 7 Spooktacular ways to save money this Halloween
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Hello! Welcome to the home of practical parenting tips that save you money. I'm Rebecca, the creative mind behind this site.
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Good tips! Can you give me some tips on not eating my kid’s Halloween candy? That seems to be a problem =)
Lol! Hmm.. I seem to have the same problem too from time to time. It’s just too tempting.
I usually find the trick or treat candy on sale at the lowest price about 1 month in advance. It’s often a 3 or 4 (or even 1-day) day sale, indicating that it’s a good price. I think stores believe that you’ll buy the sale candy now, eat it all and have to buy more later. They don’t know my resolve when it comes to beating them at their game. I’ve got 4 bags of candy stashed away in a closet until Hallowe’en.
Also, I figure out ahead of time, how much I want to spend per treat. This year I decided on 10c per treat. And that’s about what I found fun-size candy bars for this past Friday. I didn’t get to be choosy about which varieties. There were just 2 kinds available which met my 10c criteria.
My kids are bigger now, and no longer trick or treat. But my two daughters do dress up for Hallowe’en for school. They are in charge of their own costumes. They enjoy the creating as much as the wearing. In past years we’ve done costumes on the cheap — such as my son borrowed a lab coat and went as a mad scientist(cost nothing), Another year, we used one roll of bath tissue, wrapped my son up and he went as a mummy (cost 50c for the bath tissue), my daughters went as princesses and ballerinas many years, wearing their own dress-up clothes and some of mommy’s make-up (cost nothing). We did make fairy wings out of posterboard one year, those plus a shortie dress over tights made for fairy costumes.
I don’t think we ever spent more than $2/year for Hallowe’en costumes. And some years it was nothing.
Great tips! I really like how you set a budget per treat. That way, you won’t spend too much when you’re at the store – you know you have to stay below a certain price.
Great tips. We try to avoid the “pumpkin patch”. The big one in our town costs $50 bucks and that’s just for admission. You end up spending another $50-$100 for stuff while there. And all for a pumpkin. So, we’ve not been there for a few years. We’ve found some local farms that allow you to come pick and it costs a fraction of the cost and the kids love it. On the candy, one thing to keep in mind is that many stores will deeply discount the candy the day after. We’ll often go and buy 8-10 bags for a few dollars total and freeze them to eat throughout the year.
Ouch $50 just for admission? That’s crazy! Luckily, the farms around here don’t charge for admission – just for things like hay rides, corn mazes and, of course, pumpkins. I agree about the candy. Decorations and costumes are also deeply discounted the next day, so it’s a good idea to stock up on these things for the following year. The discounts really add up.
You can also get pretty creative with your costumes rather than going out and buying one. My mom dressed me up in a purple jumpsuit one year with big purple ballons attached everywhere and a piece of ivy in my hair. It didn’t cost anything! And in school, I was nicknamed “Grape Girl”. Lol.
Btw, that candy corn looks so good right now – I need to pick up some before the season is over!
That grape costume is a really great idea! That must have been so adorable
P.S. I am obsessed with candy corn. It’s really bad and not healthy in any way haha.
I love fall too, and hope to post some cheap craft ideas although I’m not nearly as crafty and talented as you are. I can’t wait to see what you got in store for me!
Aww, thank you so much! That is really sweet. I should be posting some more ideas soon… I hope you like them!
I just recently bought a few pumpkins and got a great deal from a farm that was selling their pumpkins on a the side of a busy street in my town. My secret was I “kindly negotiated”, by asking what deal they would give me if I purchased X pumpkins. (They ended up throwing in one for free.)
Definitely, worth a try from time to time… Also, I would agree that the pumpkin patches are usually the most expensive – better to look elsewhere.
Congrats on negotiating a great price on those pumpkins. It definitely is worth a shot every now and then.