Halloween and Your Budget
Get Creative with Halloween Clearance Sales
Take advantage of sales after Halloween to save money on food and decorating items you can use year-round. Boost your budget with Halloween clearance sales!
Chocolate After Halloween
Are you going to be baking cookies or other recipes that call for chocolate bars? Halloween candy at clearance prices can help you save money and stick to your budget. Hershey's kisses are used in some Christmas cookies like Peanut Blossoms, and solid chocolate can be chopped up for use in chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate-covered toffee candy bars such as Heath bars are tasty in Giant Chocolate-Toffee Cookies.
Halloween Candy
Clear, colored hard candy such as Jolly Ranchers stay good for some time and can often be purchased inexpensively after Halloween. If you are not setting wrapped candy out but will be enjoying it yourself, the Halloween wrapping will not matter. You can even have a little fun using Halloween candy in Christmas stockings, and an assortment of brightly colored hard candies are required to make beautiful Stained Glass Cookies.
Opaque hard candies like Smartees and Sweet Tarts keep for a very long time, so if this type of candy is your favorite, right after Halloween is the time to stock up.
Decorate with Pumpkins
Using pumpkins in fall decorating is very inexpensive if you buy pumpkins on sale after Halloween. Your budget harvest time decorating can start with two different-sized pumpkins combined with seasonal squash and gourds which can be purchased at budget prices from October through December. Add leaves from your yard and some inexpensive ribbon for a seasonal display. If you have an unused basket around the house, create your harvest time arrangement in the basket.
A word of caution: Harvest decorating used outdoors will need to put into the garage or other shelter overnight in northern regions so Jack Frost does not turn the pumpkins, squash or gourds into mush.
Cooking with Pumpkin
Pumpkin and pumpkin seeds are a rich source of vitamin A and minerals, so do your budget and your health a favor and buy some pumpkins on clearance. Plan to have fun and get a little messy digging in to those pumpkins to clear out the seeds. Then start up your oven and make some roasted pumpkin seeds.
While canned pumpkin will be on sale soon for Thanksgiving, cooking enthusiasts can use pumpkins purchased on clearance to make fresh pumpkin puree. Do not use pumpkins you have carved for cooking because of the dirt that becomes embedded in the pumpkin flesh while the pumpkin is on display. Of course, making a good pumpkin pie or other pumpkin recipes calls for pumpkin you have not burned a candle in!
Costumes
Do you anticipate any costume parties coming up in the next few months? Will your child be starring in a school play? Be sure to take a look at Halloween costumes at clearance sales. You can get a great deal on a costume for next year, just be sure to buy a size larger if you are buying a costume for a young child. Costumes are not just for kids and not all costumes are scary. Wear adult-sized Halloween costumes to costume parties along with Halloween makeup found in the clearance aisles after Halloween.
Decorative String Lights
You may be able to find strings of mini-lights, similar to the type used to decorate Christmas trees, on the clearance sale displays after Halloween. Purple lights can be used for Valentine's Day, to decorate for parties, or on your Christmas tree, depending on your Christmas decorating scheme. If you find strings of white lights that have plastic Halloween decorations over the bulbs, check to see if the decorations are easy to remove. If they are, you can inexpensively buy white lights for your Christmas tree or any decorating occasion. Orange lights will be commonly found at sale prices, and these can be used in harvest or Thanksgiving displays along with pumpkins as discussed above.
More Budget Decorating Resources:
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