Financial guru Suze Orman says don’t buy all that Halloween stuff!
She was recently on the Today Show and she told a story about running into a woman at a department store. The woman was very excited to see her and proceeded to explain to her son who she was. Suzie looked into the woman’s cart and saw all kinds of Halloween stuff and candies.
Suze looked at the woman’s son and asked, “Can your mother afford all of these things?” The son answered “no”. All of the items went back on the shelf.
I had an argument with my 12-year-old daughter on the same subject recently.
We were buying groceries and she began to put Halloween candy in my shopping cart. I started putting it back. I told her that if I had extra money for Halloween candy then I would buy some at that time. Until then, it was the last thing on my mind.
In her argument, she implied that it was my duty to supply Halloween candy to the neighborhood kids and she implied that I should go as far as to try to give out the best candy. I doubt that will happen.
Frugal Halloween Tips
Halloween is probably the most popular holiday on the planet (in one form or another).
People love dressing up in costumes, going to parties, and getting and giving away candies.
People also spend a great deal of money on Halloween — even if it means going into debt to purchase all of those fun things. This is not smart.
You can still enjoy Halloween while staying within your budget.
Here’s how…
The Dollar Stretcher has lots of fun ideas for finding low-cost Halloween costumes and discounts on Halloween candy.
For example, in an article entitled “Tricks that Treat your Wallet Right,” the author says:
My aunt won 4 best-dressed awards one year for a homemade spider costume. She used 3-foot lengths of black tubing for the legs and stiffened them with thin wooden dowels, all scrounged from her shed.
In addition, she recommends buying plain wrapped candy to “spook it up” yourself. Generic candy is much cheaper than Halloween candy and chocolates that are marked up for the occasion.
Bankrate suggests that you give out favors and a little chocolate instead of a handful of treats.
Check out their list of 10 Healthy, Frugal Halloween Treats.
While some of the ideas might get your home toilet-papered, some of them are actually quite good!
The Frugal Living Tips website offers suggestions for Some Thrifty Fun At A Frugal Halloween. They also have some fun ideas for making your own costumes such as a mummy, an octopus, and my personal childhood favorite, the tramp (hobo or homeless person).
Personally, I will stick to my old tried and true Halloween tips:
1. Have kids re-use costumes from school plays or from the old dress up trunk for Halloween.
2. Pick up costume stuff during after-Halloween sales, or when costume stores go out of business or have clearance sales.
3. Wait until the day before Halloween to purchase candies from the drug store, because they drop the prices on Halloween candy at the ast minute. (And use coupons whenever possible.)
4. Purchase bags of mints to mix with the little bit of Halloween candy that I do purchase.
I have been a certified tightwad striving for financial freedom since I became pregnant with my first child — and I decided to find a way to stay home with him full-time. I enjoy sharing my personal experiences in my journey back to financial health and planning for a future — which will include sending 2 kids to college and early retirement.
