Canadians are expected to spend approximately $60 per person on Halloween expenses this year, from costumes to candy to frightful festivities.
For our family of five, that adds up to a whopping $300 – the same amount we budget for birthday gifts for friends all year long, and our total Christmas gift spend.
As a frugal family, we won’t be shelling out anywhere near that kind of cash to party it up on Halloween. Here’s how I’m saving money on October 31:
The kids get to choose costumes from their costume box (stocked with pieces usually found at garage sales for $2 - $5 each), from a list of homemade costumes I can make inexpensively (Check out wisebread.com’s round up of 85 frugal Halloween costumes, or from swapping costumes with a friend.
I’ll scour the grocery store flyers to compare pricing on candy, buying at the best price and being careful not to overbuy. We’ll be on the lookout for fun family activities we can do (visiting a pumpkin patch, touring neighbourhoods with fantastic decorated houses) that don’t cost a thing. We’re hosting a small Halloween party, using paper decorations the kids made themselves, colouring sheets printed at home, simple games we can make ourselves, and inexpensive snacks (find gross Halloween recipes here.)
If the kids get more candy than we’ll reasonably eat, we’ll take the candy in to our local consignment store, which offers a candy buy back program, earning us coupons to use on things we really need.
Your Halloween bill doesn’t have to scare you to death (even if the scale a few days later does).
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