Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Halloween On A Budget - Top Tips For Parents



Halloween is often the best time of year for children. They get absorbed in the whole day; hankering after fancy dress costumes, decorations for the house and themed treats to enjoy. This all sounds great, but the price of everything can soon start to mount up - so how can you keep the cost down but still make sure everyone has a great Halloween?

Costumes

Buying an entire Halloween fancy dress costume can be very expensive, particularly when you think that there is quite a good chance they will have outgrown it by the following year. If you want to keep the cost down and also get something that can be reused, you may find you're better off investing your money in accessories.

A pair of fairy wings or devil horns can be used at any age and will last for year after year, making them worth the investment. You can then create a lot of the outfits from clothes you already have in the cupboards at home. For example, you can dress your child up as a minion with just some dungarees, a yellow t-shirt and some swimming goggles.


Treats


Every child is going to want treats when they go trick-or-treating and is likely to want them to come to after school as well. You can often bulk buy some treats from the supermarket, which can work out cheaper than buying lots of individual items. Some places stock huge tubs of sweets that will last you long after Halloween has passed so you might save some money this way.

Alternatively, you could make some yourself and buy all of the ingredients. If you don't have the time for this, you can buy some plain biscuits and cakes and some icing or other decorations like gummy sweets. You can then get your children involved in decorating biscuits to make them look spooky. All of these methods may save you a bit of cash in the long run.

House Decorations

Think logically about this because it is easy to get carried away and spend a lot more money than you need
to. While it might seem like a great idea to decorate the bedrooms and bathrooms, it will only be your immediate family that are likely to actually go in these rooms. If you want to decorate the house in preparation for trick-or-treaters, think about the things that they will see. Cobwebbing is cheap to pick up in the supermarket and looks effective draped around door frames. You can even spread some across the cars and on door handles.

A pumpkin placed in the window or on the doorstep with a tealight in is very effective but you will have to throw it out when it starts to go off. You may find the investment in a plastic pumpkin is actually worth it in the long run because you will be able to reuse it every year. While it can be fun, try to avoid purchasing silly string. It stains walls and it can be a nightmare to clean off of things, even damaging the paintwork on cars.


Lauren Sutton is a brand journalist and regular writer for online kids’ fancy dress supplier A2Z Kids, based in the UK. This Halloween Lauren looks forward to dressing as her all-time favourite – a glamorously wicked witch!

1 comment:

  1. We use old-fashioned philosophy for our costumes. If you can't make it yourself, you can't wear it! :-)

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