Halloween is just around the corner! A time for tons of candy and costume-fun – which makes me pretty excited. The one thing that can be stressful around this time? Going over budget.  But I’m here to tell you that doesn’t have to be an issue.  Below are 3 frugal ideas for a non-budget busting Halloween.

Make Your Decorations

Making your own decorations can be daunting at first, but with so many resources available on the internet, you can easily learn how to do it. I’ll tell you one thing – the craft store is a great place for inspiration!  Just stroll around the store, look at all the options around you and then go home and brainstorm different ideas like:

• Painting pictures on poster board
• Making Halloween-themed jewelry
• Ripping up some cloth to use as drapes for a scary look

There are tons of great ideas — all you have to do is get to thinking creatively!

Make Your Own Food

This is the part of Halloween you can have the most fun with, in my opinion. Buying something from the local grocery store isn’t necessarily a budget-buster; on the contrary, making your own food will provide a lot more value and fun.

Once again there are a lot of sources for great Halloween food ideas, so I’ll just give you a couple of tips:

• Let your imagination run wild. Food is really easy to be creative with, especially with a little food coloring.
• Don’t be afraid to mix foods that don’t normally go together. This is Halloween so have a little fun.
• Sketch your food idea first. It doesn’t have to be a perfect sketch, just something to give you an idea.

The most important thing is to just have fun with it and show off your pieces of art to friends and family.

Make Your Costume

Costumes can get to be a really expensive cost. Luckily there are many great ways to make your own costume and a lot of great sites and videos to teach you how.

One of my favorite sources for costumes is the local thrift store. You can get real clothes that will make your costume really believable — not the thin material costumes tend to be made from. I went there one year, bought a pair of jeans for $3 which I ended up ripping up and added some fake blood.  Then BAM, I’m a zombie.  This year I’m going to be a gangster, so I’ll be getting a suit from the same place.

As you can see the craft store is a great place if you want to try and make your own costume. This can be a real fun activity, especially if you get creative. I tried to make a costume a couple of years ago and I was surprised how well it turned out. A little fake blood makes everything look better.

If you must buy a pre-made costume, and you’re not picky, I’d wait until right before Halloween to go to a Halloween store because by that time they always have great deals. Unfortunately the selection is really thin….but definitely cheap.

Bonus: Enter Halloween Contests!
Once you have your costume, be sure to enter Halloween contests like the FreeScore Halloween Mask Contest which runs until November 3^rd.  You’ll have a chance at winning $583 just for uploading a picture of your mask and getting friends to vote for you.  Scariest mask wins the grand prize, but second and third place entries get $200 and $100 each. Winning that will help your budget for sure!

Do you have any frugal Halloween ideas?