Last-Minute Ideas for a Frugal Halloween Night
There's only one day left until Halloween, and if this year's spooky holiday snuck up on you, you might think it's too late to celebrate. Not only can you still enjoy the holiday, but you might even be able to do it for free.
With so many people trick-or-treating and handing out candy, you'll find restaurants have a lot of great promotions and events to get people in the door. Kids can eat free at a number of restaurants, including Outback Steakhouse, IHOP, Chili's, Olive Garden, Boston Market and Sbarro. Adults can get $3 burritos, bowls, salads or tacos at Chipotle and free donuts at Krispy Kreme when they wear a costume.
Since Halloween is on a Friday this year, there are festive events going on into the evening all over the country. Check your local community calendar for street fairs, festivals and parades that you can attend for free. Almost every town or city has local haunts; you just need to look for them. Do some research at your local library or online to find folklore and haunted spots nearest you, and then visit them if you dare.
One obvious way to spend Halloween is to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, but what if you don't live in a busy neighborhood? See if you can volunteer to help hand out candy at a friend or family member's house that gets tons of trick-or-treaters each year. Pick up some candy on your way over (it will be heavily discounted by Halloween) to chip in. Another fun idea is to get a group of people together for a game night. Create bingo boards with the costumes you think you'll see this year and check them off as kids ring the doorbell. Winner gets the leftover Halloween candy.
Other ideas for a fun -- or spooky -- night in include hosting a scary movie night and carving pumpkins. Have everyone you invite bring one scary movie they already own. Have a Netflix account? Then you already have access to a ton of scary movies and documentaries on real life ghost stories. When you're carving pumpkins, you can also bake delicious treats using the pulp. Bonus: if you buy a pumpkin this close to Halloween, you can probably find it for cheap. Plus, a freshly carved jack-o-lantern will be a lot more impressive than others that might have rotted or faded over time.
Halloween night is also a great time for a campfire, s'mores and ghost stories. Gather together your friends and assign each person an item to bring so that no one spends more than a few dollars. Make sure you have plenty of blankets in case it gets cold that night. You can also take out scary stories and books from the library so you have plenty of spooky material.
If you decide last minute that you'd like to get dressed up after all, there are plenty of easy do-it-yourself Halloween costumes. Try a costume that only requires one or two key pieces, like a bandana for Rosie the Riveter, and then dig in your closet for the rest. Other easy costume ideas include putting a fun spin on common phrases and puns, like a "formal apology" -- just carry a sign that says, "I'm sorry," and dress in your finest formalwear. Another idea: Wear a t-shirt that says, "Life," and hand out lemons. Have a costume contest with your friends and see who can make the best costume without spending any money. Or for a fun twist on this idea, make costumes for each other.
Lastly, if you bought way too much candy this year or didn't get as many trick-or-treaters as you expected, you can put the candy to good use. Pop it into the freezer and take it back out in a few weeks for your holiday baking. Once it's unwrapped, most candy looks the same anyway. Use it for decorating gingerbread houses, baking in cookies, cupcakes and cakes, or melting it into hot chocolate or sweet holiday cocktails. Now you're already saving money for the next holiday!
Jon Lal is the founder and CEO of coupons and cash back website BeFrugal.com, which saves shoppers an average of $27 per order thanks to coupons plus an average of 7 percent cash back at more than 4,000 stores.
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