Budget friendly Halloween hacks
Spooky season is here and it’s time to plan a fantastic, budgetfriendly celebration for your family, neighbours and friends.
Today, I’m sharing my favourite simple hacks for food, décor and activities that will save you time and money.
Festive décor is the best way to set the stage for any Halloween celebration. Start by deciding on the type of décor you want to use. Do you want spooky and scary, or cute and classy? You’ll also want to pick a cohesive colour scheme. You can opt for traditional orange and black, or you can focus on black and white with a few pops of colour. This year, I decided to focus my attention on Diying and purchasing mostly black and white décor. Then, I added a few colourful items, and I’m loving how it all came together.
The dollar store has aisles full of wonderful black and white items, but it’s smart to DIY a few pieces to elevate the look. Consider making custom ghost
pillows from inexpensive dollar store car cleaning cloths. Cut a ghost shape from one of the cloths and use it as a template to cut an identical shape from another cloth. Then use hot glue to attach the two pieces together (leaving a small opening for adding stuffing). Turn the pillow cover inside out, fill with pillow stuffing and use hot glue to attach felt eyes and a felt mouth. With one six package of dollar store cloths, I was able to make three adorable, fuzzy Halloween pillows.
Crafting wreaths is another way to get a high-end look on a budget. Wrap yarn around an inexpensive wreath form and embellish it with whatever you like. This year, I covered a dollar
store wooden cat with black and white fabric I had in my craft cupboards and I added it to a yarn covered wreath form. It turned out gorgeous!
To save money on food, consider baking homemade treats to share and shopping for discounts on goodies for trick or treaters. Don’t forget to shop flyers, consider ordering online, and check out the dollar store.
Also, when you carve your pumpkin, save the seeds for roasting. Pumpkin seeds are an annual savory treat and they don’t cost anything. Clean and pat them dry, spread them on a cookie sheet, drizzle with melted butter, sprinkle with salt and bake at 300 for approximately 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Planning a special supper on Oct. 31 is a wonderful idea too. I love making a pumpkin pizza. Start with a cheese pizza, create a jack-o-lantern face from pizza toppings and add a green pepper stem. Easy peasy!
Of course, holiday celebrations are really about time spent together, so make sure to plan a fun Halloween activity or two. Some options include visiting a pumpkin patch, watching a spooky family movie, trick or treating, having a handmade costume contest, carving a pumpkin and decorating Halloween cookies and cupcakes.
Halloween provides the perfect opportunity to plan a memorable and stress-free holiday celebration, and with a few simple hacks, you can have a great time on a small budget. Happy Halloween!