Tuesday, October 30, 2007

I'm going as a tightwad for Halloween

I've never been one to spend a lot of money on Halloween. Actually, no matter what the occasion, I'm always looking for ways to cut costs and save moolah. I'm the mom who cut holes in a sheet for her child to be a ghost, and then patched them up with pieces from an old pillowcase after Halloween.

Here are some more ways that I save money:

* buy discounted white sweatsuits and then dye them to match their costume choice.
* Use lots and lots of cardboard--cover it with foil and it's a sword, cut it out and paint it and it's a shield.
* Save odds and ends in a dress-up box. They can always pull something out of that.
* Go to Target or Wal-Mart the day after Halloween and stock up on 1/2 price costumes.
* Always ask myself, "How can I make this?"

But now that Halloween is tomorrow, I would love to hear how some of you genius moms are saving money this year. I'm planning on compiling a list of your awesome ideas and use them next year to help other moms...So, bring thm on!

2 comments:

lisa said...

My mom bought their costumes this year . My plan was to just have them wear one of their many princess dresses. I have 3 and 4 year olds, both girls.
Guess what they had grandman buy them this year? Yep another princess dress. I think its great they have gone a princesses both years I have braved it enough to take them out. Plus it is actually great because they really get use out of them all year.

Heather B said...

I just told the children that I would not buy their costumes this year. One tried the guilt trip, "I am not dressing up", didn't work. These children are the ones with imagination so one wore what she wore last year, the 5 year old wore his spiderman dress up outfit, the 8 year old cut a shirt wore a hat and we dabbed brown eyeliner on his face to make "Larry the Cable Guy" (which won our church fall fest contest), the 10 year old put on a suit, barrowed a kanga hat from Dad and called himself a "wedding crasher" (even though he didn't know what that exactly was) and I did spend $6 at Walgreens for a ladybug costume. We didn't even buy candy, since we are always out trick or treating we miss everybody anyways. The children just get used to getting things when they don't really need them and when in a crunch (financially) they can made do, just like parents have to do sometimes.