Everyone loves a good Halloween party, one with spooky decorations, festive food and creative costumes. However, like with most parties, hosting a Halloween bash can be a daunting task, from planning the guest list, menu, decorations, location, and of course planning for the cost. Lisa Reynolds, Mom Saver-in-Chief of RedPlum, a coupon haven, is here to alleviate those Halloween party stresses. She offers cheap ways to ensure that your party is the talk of the town this Halloween.
Party Ideas
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Invitations: Reynolds challenges you to put some thought and creativity into your invitations, like typing it up in a spooky font! Halloween is the perfect time to channel your cleverness and build some anticipation about your party. Let all the guests know that costumes are a must and promise prizes for the best ones.
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Plan party food around savings: Check out RedPlum for coupons on items, even if they are not usually on your party list. Planning your party snacks at the same time as reviewing coupon offers and store circulars lets you take advantage of some really great deals, while branching out and trying new recipes.
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Decorations: Reynolds has many creative ideas for making your house a spooky Halloween destination. She suggests replacing many of your regular light bulbs with black ones and line your walkways and hallways with miniature jack-o-lanterns. Cover helium-filled balloons with pieces of white cloth for the illusion of floating ghosts. Feel free to draw on eyes with black marker. In order to create the look of an abandoned old house, Reynolds says to cover the sofas, chairs, dining room table and all other large furniture items with old white sheets. If you want to create fog, place dry ice in a container of warm water and set it next to the wall. To add some “punch” to your bunch bowl, use clear plastic food handler’s gloves to make “ice hands”. This will also keep the punch cold for a long time while making it look creepy.
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Making the Party Fun: Ask each of your guests to bring a carved pumpkin to the party and set up a table with a Halloween tablecloth to display the Jack Lanterns for all to see. This will also enhance your décor. Give a prize for the best one!
Costumes
Take these easy and cheap ideas to make the most out of your Halloween party. Plus, all of these items can be packed away and reused for next year, or if you want to help a fellow frugal friend you can lend them for round two!
Need a costume to wear to you're halloween party? Casey Slide, from Money Crashers, offers several ways to avoid spending a fortune on an unforgettable costume.
1. Be Flexible: If you are flexible on your options, it will be much easier to find an inexpensive costume. If you are really flexible, or even without an idea, go to a costume store, such as iParty, Spirit Halloween, Target or Walmart and find the cheapest one there!
2. Go to a Consignment Shop: You can use consignment shops to find previously used costumes, or even some fun, cheap items to make up your own costume.
3. Trade with a friend: Do you remember liking one of your friends' costumes one year? If so, ask them to borrow it! You can lend one of yours as well to make an even trade, no money involved.
4. Do it yourself: Not all costumes require the full costume to be purchased as a set at a single store. Shop around at different stores and even your house to find things that could be put together to make a costume. You probably have more things that could come in handy in the back of your closet than you think. Just think of all of the halloween costumes you have from past years that you could use pieces from.
5. Shop last minute: If you want to buy a costume from a store you can most likely find great deals when you wait to buy until the day before halloween, or the day of. By that time, most people already have their costumes, so stores are trying to get rid of what remains. Keep in mind, you may not have a lot of options, so if you're flexible, like mentioned above, this could work in your favor.
6. Buy one great option: Sometimes there is no way of getting around making a costume without buying a specific item. So, buy that signature item, but then search your closet or cheap stores to find the less important pieces.
It's important to make sure that you have an exceptional costume for your own party. Follow these tips, as well as the party suggestions above, to make sure you have fun, budget friendly halloween festivities.
