Halloween ideas that don’t cost the earth

As soon as the schools go back in September Halloween paraphernalia goes on full display in shops around the country. At the time, it can all seem a bit too much too soon, but before you know it, Halloween is here!

Whether you love Halloween or hate it, each year there seems to be growing pressure to celebrate it in some way. And if you have children there is probably no way you are going to be able to avoid doing that.

However, one of the first decisions to make is what kind of Halloween vibe works for you and your family. If you are a bit uncomfortable with the more ghoulish or horror-based aspects of Halloween, particularly if you have younger children, why not go for a more American fun family vibe instead. For example, costumes can be based on cartoon or Disney characters, angels, fairies or animals.

You can then organise whatever else you do at Halloween around the vibe you want to create. To help with this, in this article we take a look at a few options for family fun this Halloween and also include some crafty tips on ways to save money while you’re doing so.

The more the merrier

This Halloween, why not double the fun by getting together with other families to do something together. Rather than drag around the streets behind groups of Trick or Treaters, organise an evening of varied events that even the adults will enjoy.

By all means start with a bit of Trick or Treating for the younger children to enjoy. But limit it to a small number of homes, then gather back at one home to enjoy the rest of the evening together. Get each family to bring a few contributions, for example:

• Food;
• Drink;
• Family games;
• Prizes;
• Any spare Halloween decorations.

After some food, drink and perhaps a few games involving everyone, adults can take turns to supervise children in more games or other activities whilst the rest of you relax together. And as the evening draws on, a fun family film might be the ideal solution to calm the children down and start getting them into sleep mode.

Hopefully organising an evening like this could help you all to save money by pooling resources, and also means that adults have a warm and pleasant evening together instead of having to single-handedly cope with cold hyper kids.

Get crafty with your Halloween costumes

No matter how late you’ve left it to sort out costumes, there are usually creative ways to source Halloween costumes without spending a small fortune. Not only can this help you to save money on the cost of Halloween, but it avoids the waste of buying a costume that may end up only being worn once.

Two of the main sources for your perfect Halloween costumes are:

• Getting a second hand costume

Three ways to do this are:

• Rummage through your local charity shops;
• Look on online sites such as Facebook Marketplace or eBay;
• Arrange to swap existing costumes with friends.

• Making a costume from scratch

The trick here is to keep things simple. If you are going for traditional Halloween costumes such as ghosts, zombies, mummies, or skeletons these can be made quite easily from everyday household items such as bedding and towels, with design details hand-drawn by marker pens. 

If you want something a bit more ambitious – such as film, cartoon or Disney characters – a good place to start is by getting ideas online from sites such as Pinterest. But, as a rule, always try to keep the costume as straightforward as possible. For example, for a Disney Princess stick to the renowned colour of the dress rather than stress about copying the exact design. You can then embellish this with one or two key accessories to complete the look.

Delightful decorations

Decorations are another area where you really don’t need to spend a lot of money. Just go with your theme, and don’t worry if the finished result is a bit rough around the edges. 

A few ideas for very simple Halloween decorations to make are:

• Little ghosts from upside down plastic cups with faces drawn on;
• Spooky silhouettes cut out from sheets of black paper;
• Skeletons cut out from paper plates;
• Giant spiders made from from black balloons and pipe cleaners;
• Spiders’ webs made from shredded swing bin liners or cotton wool;
• A bubbling cauldron made by mixing dry ice and water in a large pot;
• Different sized pumpkins from rocks painted orange. 

If you do just a few of the above, and add pumpkin lanterns, candles and fairy lights your home will look delightfully decorative for your Halloween festivities.

Save money on visiting Trick or Treaters

Of course, another potential consideration – and expense – of Halloween is visiting Trick or Treaters. If there is some kind of celebration going on at your home you can’t really pretend you are not in, and will definitely be targeted by them

So be prepared. But don’t spend a small fortune on sweets for your visitors. Try to ignore any special Halloween buckets and bowls of sweets as they usually cost more than you need to be paying. Instead, you can usually save money by looking out in advance for supermarket offers on multipacks of sweets. Or if you or anyone you know has a wholesalers card such as Costco you could agree to buy in bulk between you. Also if you are hosting a Halloween celebration then ask the other adults to bring a contribution too.

All you then need is a bucket or large bowl which you can line with something suitable such as a brightly coloured tea towel and put the sweets in there. Try and ration your supplies to one item per Trick or Treater, otherwise you could run out very quickly and be scrabbling around for something else to give them. It’s far better to be left with a surplus at the end of the evening. You can then either divide the remaining sweets between the children already in the house or put them aside for another event.

We hope that the ideas in this article help you to find ways to save money on Halloween this year but still ensure that everyone has a wonderful time. 

For more ways to save money on everyday family living, check back here soon with us at Loans 2 Go.