Halloween is just a few days away. Whether you’re a parent with children who plan on trick-or-treating or anticipate a number of costumed children coming to your door with big smiles on their faces, Halloween can be an expense that sneaks up on you.
Here are six simple strategies to handle last-minute Halloween costs.
Make your own simple costume. My daughter is going to be a witch this year. The only piece of the costume that’s “new” and not something we could just find around the house and assemble in a few minutes is her hat. Her black and purple nail polish and a touch of black mascara? Pilfered from her mother’s collection. The apple she’ll offer to people? Taken from the fruit bowl. Her dark purple dress? Pulled straight out of her closet.
What about my oldest son? He’s a ninja. This basically just requires a few of his toys, a black sweatsuit and a black face mask. We could pull this together in 10 minutes on Halloween night.
What about me? I’m wearing a long scarf, a brown coat and a floppy hat, making me look like The Doctor from “Doctor Who.” I don’t need any additional props.
Look around your house. It may contain everything you need for a last-minute, do-it-yourself costume.
Swap costume pieces with friends. If you have an idea for a simple costume and don’t have the pieces at home, don’t head to the store. Call a friend instead. Your friend might have black makeup or the perfect prop to finish off a costume. Even if your friend doesn’t have the item, he or she might have a brilliant idea for a substitute or might have another friend who would have just the item you need. Trust your social network.
Save extra candy for next year. If you choose to go the candy route and find yourself with a bunch of leftovers, save that candy for next year. Don’t leave it out where you can mindlessly gobble it down. Instead, stick it in a dark space, like a drawer or a cabinet somewhere, in a well-enclosed package so that it doesn’t get stale. (This works best with nonperishable candy like suckers.) Since I tend to forget about things like this, I’ll add a reminder to my personal calendar that last year’s candy is stowed away in the tall cabinet in the garage and set that reminder on next Oct. 25 or so.
Hand out something besides candy. You don’t have to drop $10 or $20 on overpriced bags of candy (of which half will probably wind up in your cupboard as leftovers). Instead, go get a big roll of stickers or a giant bag of plastic monster teeth, and hand those items out to the trick-or-treaters instead. Those kids are going to get lots of candy already. Offering something a little different will not only save you a few dollars, but it will also add some variety to the children’s bags and make your treat accessible to children with food allergies.
Use an alternative trick-or-treat bag. There’s no need to rush to the store and spend money on a plastic or cloth bucket. Just use a pillow covering. It will hold all the candy the children will receive, is easy to carry at the side or over the shoulder, and can go back to be used for covering pillows when the children get home.
Buy pumpkins from the grocery store. If you want to put a pumpkin or two on the front step for decoration, choose one from the grocery store instead of heading out to a pumpkin patch. The prices are almost universally lower on the pumpkins, especially if you include the discount grocers in your area. Plus, it’s a lot easier to snag one at a grocery store the day before Halloween than it is to find a pumpkin patch with reasonable prices.
Be creative with pumpkin illumination. You don’t have to buy a candle or some sort of wiring to illuminate your pumpkin when you have other options. Do you have an old glow stick around your house that you’ll probably never use? Snap it open, and toss it in the pumpkin for some unusual color (tip: wrap a paper towel loosely around it to diffuse the light and make a better “glowing” effect, though your mileage may vary depending on the pumpkin and your glow stick). Better yet, just grab a short string of white LED Christmas lights out of the garage, and wind them up inside the pumpkin.
These tips can save you the expense of a last-minute run to a high-priced store on Halloween and can also set you up for savings in the future. Trick or treat!
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6 Last-Minute Tactics for a Cheap Halloween originally appeared on usnews.com
