Scarily good ideas!
It’s almost time for the ‘love it or hate it’ holiday that is Halloween but having fun doesn’t have to break the bank when it comes to celebrating the scary festival. We’ve been in touch with some fantastic money saving and parenting bloggers to get their top tips for decorating and creating creepy costumes!
1. DIY Decorations
Faith Archer, money blogger at Much More With Less chats to us about decorating her house with her children for Halloween in sustainable ways.
“I love decorating the house for Halloween, so long as it doesn't cost the earth in either money or plastic! We stock up on coloured card, and cut out black bats to hang from cotton threads plus orange pumpkins and white ghosts to stick on the windows. I also shop around to find the best offers on pumpkins for lantern carving.”
Pumpkins can be composted and the cardboard bats and ghosts can all be recycled which saves the use of single use plastics and too much excess waste. Read Faith’s blog post all about being frugal at Halloween for more great ideas.
2. Spooky secondhand
Jodie from parenting and money blog Tightwad Mama says, “If you don’t fancy forking out full price for a Halloween costume, check out eBay and Facebook Marketplace for some great bargains. If you want to be really frugal you could even sell it on again afterwards!”
We think Jodie’s idea is great if kids don’t want to wear the same costume each year. For another idea, why not organise a costume swap at your local playgroup or school? This way you can swap your unwanted costumes with other parents and the kids get a costume that’s new to them!
3. Make a ‘Halloween box’
Pack away your Halloween decorations and costumes just like you’d pack away your Christmas decorations for the festive season. This means it’s really exciting when you take the treasure trove down from the loft. Faith from Much More With Less does this with her family.
“One year I came over all arty, cut out a gravestone shape from a cardboard box, and painted it spooky grey using the kids' poster paints. Now it lives in the 'Halloween box', stored next to the Christmas decorations. I retrieve the box each year to see if we can reuse any of the props, costumes or face paints from previous Octobers.”
4. Bake don’t buy
If you’re a popular destination on your street’s Trick or Treat trail then baking some sweet treats is a great way to reduce plastic packaging and use up some store cupboard essentials. Simple cookies or easy cupcakes are a surefire winner or, try a super easy no-bake recipe such as corn flake cakes.
5. Magical movie night
Reserve some of your home-baked treats and have a family movie night over Halloween. Raid the DVD cupboard or check out online TV and movie subscriptions that you may already pay for as a household like Now TV or Netflix. No extra spend, quality family time and no traipsing around on a rainy October evening.
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