You have one child begging you for a Halloween party, and another wanting to be the latest sports action hero for the holiday. Add in decorating the house and buying treats for both kids’ classrooms, and it’s time to look for ways to stretch your budget so your family can celebrate Halloween in fun style.
This is a great opportunity to use a little creativity so your family can enjoy Halloween this year with fantastic costumes, yummy treats and fabulous decorations. Here are some tips to pull it off:
Costumes:
Creativity is the name of the game when you make costumes for your children. You could always recycle dance costumes or sporting uniforms, or start from scratch with material, thread and scissors. Reusing clothing found in the back of closets can help you keep costs down, or you could try shopping at thrift stores. Another money-saving idea is to contact family friends, and see if they have previously-used costumes that might fit your children, and make a trade.
Yard decorations:
Take a do-it-yourself approach with your party decorations. Instead of buying gravestones, pumpkins or ghosts to decorate your front yard, make them yourself. Build gravestones out of cardboard boxes with gray paint, and put personalized messages on the stones. Or drape an old, white bed sheet over a balloon and tie it at the bottom with a string for your ghosts. If you want pumpkins, consider heading out to a pick-your-own farm instead of the grocery store, where prices may be higher.
Halloween treats:
If your children need you to supply them with great Halloween treats for school, or you’re holding a Halloween event at your house, consider making treats that are just a little scary, but really yummy. You won’t have to spend a lot of money, and everyone in your family can have a lot of fun making creative snacks.
For example, shape sugar cookie dough into fingers, press a tooth pick where the knuckle creases would be, use a slivered almond for a finger nail, red food coloring along the other edge, and you’ve got severed finger cookies. You can do the same thing with carrots, almond slivers and dip for a healthier version – notch out a finger nail place for the almond, fasten the almond with a dab of dip, and stick the fingers in the dip as if the hand is buried beneath.
And to further stretch your Halloween budget, dust off your coin jar, search your pockets, the bottom of your purse and sweep under the couch cushions for loose change. Take your spare change to a Coinstar Center, where you can have your coins counted for free if you turn them into a gift card or eCertificate from retailers like Amazon.com, Starbucks, iTunes, JCPenney and more. Visit www.coinstar.com for locations, and use your gift cards and certificates to celebrate Halloween in style.
