Frugal Halloween ideas

If you have been to any store or even just driven through your town, you have probably noticed that all the fall and Halloween decorations have come out of hiding. Yards are filled with orange pumpkin leaf bags, scarecrows, and of course the flying witch who ran into the tree.

Churches and schools are asking for candy donations for their Fall festival trick-or-treat alternatives and in just a few weeks little gouhls and goblins, princesses and knights will knock on your door carrying their plastic jack-o-lanterns and singing “Trick-or-treat.”

Perhaps your own little hero or princess has been asking begging for the latest in must-have Disney dress up apparel.  You look at the price tag, which is just under $30 if you are lucky, and consider canceling all holidays, celebrations, and fun between now and New Year’s.

Before you bring Scrooge out a few holidays early, consider a few frugal alternatives for Halloween.

Free Costumes

The cheapest way to dress up is to conjure up something for free.  This can be done by digging through the toy chest–most kids have a supply of dress ups.  If your kid won’t be satisfied with the “same old dress-ups”, chances are you also know at least one other family with kids around the same age as your own.  Don’t be afraid to ask about a Halloween costume swap.  Go shopping in your daughter’s best friend’s dress up box (with the friend’s mom’s permission of course).

For an older kid, perhaps you can dig through your old clothes (in the bag that you’ve been meaning to sort through) and find some “I can’t believe anybody actually ever wore this, MOM!” clothes.  For boys, think uniforms and girls pretty much always love sequins and sparkles.

My favorite dress ups came from my grandma’s dress up box.  Most of her dress ups were from her old WWII dance costumes.  She had sequins, sparkles, and beads galore!  With her, no game of dress up was complete without her showing us a few dance steps from the routine that went with that particular outfit!

Frugal Costumes

If you’ve exhausted your resources and you still can’t find a free costume, consider the local thrift store.  Many Goodwill stores save up an inventory of costumes and bring them out for sale in October.  With a quick survey, I was able to find used costumes for princesses, pirates, pumpkins, and a variety of other characters.  The used costumes generally cost less than $5 (for both children and adult sizes).

Thrift stores are also a great source for gaudy clothes.  On my last trip, I could have picked up a pair of plaid-printed Courderoy bell-bottoms for $3.  Those would have been perfect if I wanted to dress up as a character from “That 70′s Show.”

Frugal Decorations and Accessories

Of course, I wouldn’t expect you to do the Halloween thing without a few decorations and accessories.  The plastic jack-o-lantern that every child must have to carry candy in–49c at the thrift store.  Pumpkin candle holders 49c-$1.  Giant-Sized fake pumpkins $2.

If you are into an even more frugal decorating scheme, consider getting pumpkins and squash to decorate.  Draw or paint faces for Halloween.  When the festivities are over, you can still cook up the pumpkin and make pie!

Trick-Or-Treat Candy

For candy hand outs, watch the grocery sale papers.  Personally I only buy candy that nobody in our house likes.  If I buy the good stuff, and I buy it ahead of time, I will have to make a last-minute trip to the store to pick up more candy to give to the trick-or-treaters.  If I buy candy that we don’t like, well we just don’t eat it up the way we would devour a bag of fun-sized snickers.

A great alternative to candy would be to give out stickers.  Shopping at the dollar store you should be able to pick up a lot of stickers (seasonal or not) for pretty cheap.  You can also feel good about not contributing to the problem of childhood obesity.

Halloween Alternatives

As I mentioned above, many churches and schools host Fall carnivals on Halloween.  If you are looking for a way to have fun with your kids but don’t want to deal with the ghosts and goblins side of Halloween, ask around about one of these family-friendly celebrations.

Consider scheduling a nature walk and collecting acorns, pine cones, and colored leaves.

Schedule a family movie night complete with caramel corn and other sweet treats.  Have your kids invite their friends over.

Spend the evening at the library, coffee shop, or a book store.  B and I spent last year at the library reading magazines.  This also saves on buying candy (If you can resist buying a book at the book store).

Put some apple cider on the stove, turn on your favorite music, light a few fall-scented candles, and spend the evening decorating your house for Thanksgiving.  Bake some pumpkin bread while you are at it!

Celebrating Halloween doesn’t have to be overwhelmingly expensive.  The main trick is to think outside the box.  If you can do that, you’re in for a real treat!