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According to Celtic beliefs, spirits and the dead can cross over into the world of the living only on October 31st. To avoid that, people started to dress up as ghosts and spirits to fool the real ones. Nowadays, Halloween is essentially a celebration where people have fun hunting for candies, carving pumpkins and dressing up. Discover how you can celebrate it without emptying your wallet.
Shop for candies
You can find cheap but very delicious candies for half the price in dollar stores or in bulk stores such as Bulk Barnes. Don’t be fool by the big Halloween-marked packages. They are often more expensive than regular candy packages and they often trick you in buying way more candy than necessary. Instead, make small treat bags for every child that will knock on your door. You can thus control the quantity of candy you’ll have to buy and give away.
Don’t buy chocolate sweets
They cost, in average, 20% more than traditional hard candy and they are less easy to store once Halloween is over.
Swap costumes with your friends and family
Why not swap costume with your cousin, neighbor or sister this Halloween, each one of you wearing the other one’s last year costume? You just have to buy one costume and then enjoy another one the next Halloween for free!
The dollar store is your best friend
Like we said before, you can buy your candies at the dollar store but you can also find decor (fake spider webs, plastic pumpkins …) and costumes for a very small amount of money.
If you cannot sew, go to the thrift store
If you are not comfortable with needles and threads, you can make your own costume by going to a thrift store. You can mix and match clothes to become a pirate, a witch or an old person or you can deteriorate an old sheet to become a ghost. You can also find perfectly good costumes from previous years.
Make your pumpkin last longer
Once you’ve gutted your pumpkin, clean the insides with bleach and water and let dry completely before starting to carve. Once it is done, spread petroleum jelly on the carved part to be sure that your piece of art lasts through October.
Make your own decoration
Use cardboard and markers to create spooky tombstones, drape your furniture with white sheets to make it spookier, cut ribbons from trash bags to make indoor or outdoor curtains … There is a lot of tutorials online to help you create frightening decorations out of stuff you’ve already have at home.
Halloween can be an expensive holiday whether you have kids or not. By doing a lot of stuff yourself and be creative, you don’t have to break the bank to enjoy this special night.
