Halloween Decorations ... On a Budget

As the days till October tick away, I wanted to get a few decoration Ideas up here to help everyone prep for the season.

As a family we are on a tight budget right now as we're getting ready to move into a house (from a 900 square foot apartment). The money is tight but I can't WAIT to decorate my place for Halloween Next year! I hope to lure in a few trick or treaters too. I digress...

The photo to the left here has a hot link to a website that offers ides of in expensive decorations, but there's only like three ideas on there. I am offering a few more that I've used in the past, or am looking forward to using in the coming season.

1| EMBRACE THE DOLLAR STORE | this is strictly forbidden in my house until this time of year. My Husband is anti-dollar store, but I go there for the staples. Like, the pumpkin leaf bags, and fall leaves. I also often find little white ghost bags which I stuff with old newspaper and hang all over my back porch. Big stores often charge a lot more for things like this, but like most people I know I throw things like this away at the end of the year so I don't have to store them again - so check out what your local dollar store has to offer before you shell out $3.99 for something you can find there.

2| GARBAGE BAGS | There are a lot of house hold items that you can use to "Spookify" your place but I have found that I often use Garbage bags for an array of things. You can make witch curtains by cutting slits in a black garbage bag and then pulling them to make them look distressed. Hang them in doorways and it gives your house that spooky feeling. See photo to the right. You can also cut them into spider web patterns and hang the spider webs. I will have to take a photo of how I use them this year if we end up doing them (see the above moving situation screwing up my decoration plans).
White garbage bags can also be used as ghosts, and spider webs. I have also seen wreaths, spiders, and various other decorations made from something simple like a garbage bag. I encourage you to take a look at things you allready have around your house and get creative!

3| GLASS JARS | Year 'round I stow away any glass jars we empty out from the kitchen, and use them in various ways to decorate for Halloween. Mostly, they end up painted as a Pumpkin, ghost or Frankenstein and sit out in our hallway, but there are several candle holders, and other neat things you can do with them to make a decoration on a budget.
Most of mine look like the guys to the left, though I don't think they're quite as cute as the ones pictured. Last year, I painted 6 of them in candy corn colors, and then tied a little ribbon around the top, and then I filled them with Candy Corn and gave them to the neighbor kids as their trick-or-treats. We get very few (if any) trick-or-treaters, so I do a little something special for them each year. The other great place to collect jars is get friendly with a new Mom who is looking to unload the massive amount of baby food jars that their child  consumes. That's one of my best scores this year, and I am meeting up with her today in hopes of getting MORE!

4| KEEP IT SIMPLE | Some think that MORE decoration is BETTER - but It's not, keep it simple, Sometimes that makes it look more spooky than anything. I hardly ever buy a new Halloween decoration, I think the more aged they are the better, and don't worry about splurging the $2.99 on the bag of spider webbing each year... that's the finishing touch that goes a long way and does a lot for your decorations!

Keep on Spookin!

For a few other DIY ideas - Check out this article by Party City!