The frost is on the pumpkin, so they say and Halloween is nearly upon us. Pumpkins like the shelves of grocery stores and eerie Halloween decor hang from every street corner in our town.
Celebrating Halloween and all its gloriousness is a fantastic way to start off the season. However, if your budget is meager, hosting a 
15 Tips for a Cheaper Halloween
Here are a number of tips to save on your Halloween budget, but still throw a great party.
Plan Ahead
To adequately prepare for Halloween, the easiest way, of course, is to plan. If you attempt to throw together a party last minute, it will cost significantly more money than if you pre-plan it.
1 Each year immediately following Halloween we visit a few of our favorite stores and scoop up the decorations that are on sale, we also include a few select costume accessories- fake nails, wigs, anything that might add to the eerie effects for next year’s celebration.
Plan or Attend a Costume Swap
2 Dig out your old costumes and props, choose a few you can stand to part with and post on your local Facebook Swap/Sale page. (Every town has one!). Ideally, this helps you obtain a new costume very inexpensively and also gives someone else a great costume to wear!
Guest List
3 Keep it cozy; a few friends is all you need to have a great evening of fun, without going severely over budget. If you have kids, let them each pick a couple of close friends.
DIY Treats & Decor
4 Special effects can make Halloween more fun, but you don’t have to spend a fortune on them! Simple items in your pantry such as gelatin, tea, flour and a bit of food coloring can create amazing effects for next to nothing financially.
5 Spider webs are horrifying to most people, drape them from doorways, ceilings, and entryways. Add red or orange tissue paper to light globes to add eerie lighting.
6 Create delectable treats, some eerie, some fun to meet the needs of all ages of guests at your party. Some of our favorites are:
- Candy or Caramel Apple Bites
- Frankenstein Treats
- 20 Hauntingly Delicious Eerie Edibles
- Smoky Mini-Mummies
7 If you intend to have a bigger party, with 15-30 people, hold a potluck and ask that everyone bring a side dish, dessert or munchie item.
8 Prepare the main dish, perhaps a pot of chili, feet-loaf, or stew; choose a recipe that is easy to eat, inexpensive and feeds a hungry crowd.
Halloween Spirits
9 If this is a party for adults, the host should, of course, have at least one festive Halloween Spirit on hand, we highly suggest Fireball Pumpkin Pie Shots or Apple Cider Shots.
10 However, it’s not uncommon to hold a BYOB (Bring your own Beverage) if the host will be sporting the initial expense of the party.
Dollar Store Deals
11 Dollar store decor can be surprisingly eerie and unusual if you’re willing to make a few simple transformations. Add burlap to dollar store skulls to create spooky scarecrows.
12 Pick up small party favors, black or orange paper plates, inexpensive plasticware, streamers, foam gravestones, etc.
Spooky Entertainment
13 For many ages, playing spooky Halloween music is a must-have to add eerie ambiance to any party. If you’re a member of Amazon Prime, you can create a Halloween music playlist for free!
14 Grab a Halloween movie from Redbox, or schedule one on Netflix or Hulu for inexpensive movie options. There are always a few favorites that people are more than willing to watch every year!
15 Pick 1 or 2 great Halloween games to play. One of our favorites is “Have you learned anything from Horror Movies?”
There are a variety of ways to enjoy Halloween inexpensively; one must put a little effort in to be creative! Take a few moments to think about what supplies you already have and be extremely choosy while you shop for what you think you need.
As always, we’d love to see your creative Halloween costume, food, decor and party ideas in the comments below!
