The Cheapskates' Halloween

I will admit it. I can be pretty cheap. I prefer frugal, but whatever you want to call it, I just like to get a good deal! There are some things I am willing to spend money on no questions asked, but for the most part I enjoy shopping around and planning ahead to save our hard-earned dinero. I also love holidays and know that my spending can get out of hand, so this Halloween I challenged myself. The challenge was to spend LESS but do MORE. Hmmmm. Could it be done? Oh yes! It turns out it was possible! Even on a budget, man oh man did the Duffy family have a great Halloween this year! So here's how we had the BEST Halloween yet without feeling the pinch:

The boys participated in a Halloween parade and Trunk or Treat at school (read: no additional money to spend other than the $4 I spent on fruit snacks for the parade! Yahoo!!!!). We visited the Pumpkin Patch and everything was free.....from the Hayride to the bounce houses. I was going to buy each of the boys a small pumpkin there, but James pointed out we already had a big one at home so we didn't need more (smart kid!). We carved our jack-o-lantern from a pumpkin I got for $4 BEFORE we went to the Pumpkin Patch. We decorated the yard with painted wooden candy corns I bought at a garage sale. I decorated the inside of the house with a collection of ceramic Halloween houses I have been collecting for several years and packages of "spider web" and mini-pumpkins that I got for $5. We got "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" on DVR and popped popcorn we already had. We made the brownie pumpkin (family tradition since I was a kid) for about $7 and had a visit from the Great Pumpkin too, thanks to Nana and Granddaddy. The boys got some cute books and new clothes and toys and snacks and were very thrilled to open their "Great Pumpkin" bags after trick-or-treating. I got the boys a few Halloween trinkets on sale at Kroger of all places. Their favorite thing? The plastic glasses with the nose and mustache attached! Brendan and James were super cute in their costumes. James was a pumpkin, which he picked out and Brendan was a spider. I was so excited with their costumes because they were precious and so affordable. I got their costumes (Pottery Barn Kids and Old Navy!) from JBF and I got them for about $20 total. We spent $20 on Halloween candy to give out to the trick-or-treaters. So all in all, I figure we spent about $65 on everything. That comes out to about $16 per person for our family of four and that ladies and gentlemen is how you do a fun-filled and memorable Halloween on a budget!