frugal zeitgeist

Cheap Halloween Party

Posted on 17. Oct, 2009 by Forest in General Articles, Saving Money & Finances

10 Tips for a Cheap Halloween Party

It’s always cool to hold a party at your home but they can often turn out costing you more cash than you imagined. Here are 10 tips that will hopefully help you save some cash if you hold a Halloween Party this year.

1. Make it a Potluck
Ask your guests to each bring a Halloween themed dish. If you have a enough guests coming then that should only leave one dish for you to make yourself. If  you set up a group email or something then hopefully people can communicate to each other and not all bring the same thing!

2. Just supply the punch and no other beverages
Depending on whether your party is for adults or not you could easily whip up some cheap alcoholic or non alcoholic punches for the party that should keep going for a while. Guests can bring their own soft drinks or alcohol.

3. Make all the decorations yourself
If you can make the decorations mainly from recycled materials around your house and old Christmas decorations you could save a nice wad of cash. You may need to purchase a few craft supplies and maybe some fake cobweb but much less than if your purchased everything.

4. Close off most of your house and ideally hold most of the party outdoors!
If you allow your whole house to be roamed around then you will have to clean your entire house. If possible keep people in the garden and only one or two easy to clean rooms. Cleaning supplies after a party can add up to a lot of money!

5. Cash in on leftover bottles
Don’t collect all the refundable bottles and put them out for recycling. Take the effort to actually collect them and refund them at your local supermarket. This may help claw back some of the money you spent. If you had some very thirsty guests you may even make a little money! You could place bins around and label them specifically for the glass bottles and cans.

6. Co-Host the party
If the party is going to be big, see if any neighbours want to co-host. This could help split any costs and you could meet some cool new people.

7. Specify that costumes should be homemade and no rentals!
If you and all your friends make the effort to make your costumes then you could all save money by not renting them.

8. Make Pumpkin Masks instead
If carving pumpkins, cut them in halve to make pumpkin masks rather than a full carved pumpkin and get two uses per pumpkin. They can be hung on walls and look great. Check out my post on Frugal Pumpkin Carving.

9. Ask Good Friends to Help With The Clean Up
This won’t really much money but it will save time and make the whole party more communal.

10. Throw your party after Halloween
This tip has many advantages. Halloween may not be on a weekend so you can hold it the following Friday or Saturday. Also you can buy any Halloween items that you need in the sales that happen just after the official Halloween date. Plus your friends won’t have to choose between yours and another friends party.

Read the Rest of the Frugal Halloween Short Series

Frugal Pumpkin Carving – A great tip for saving money on pumpkin carving.

Cheap Halloween Party – 10 tips for a cheap Halloween party.

Cheap Halloween Masks – Some ideas for you to make your own masks and some links to some well priced retail masks.

Cheap Halloween Costume – Ways to create a cool costume for less.

Cheap Halloween Decor – More tips for decorating your home for Halloween.

Related Posts B

1. Cheap Halloween Costume
2. Frugal Halloween
3. Cheap Halloween Decor
4. Frugal Pumpkin Carving
5. Cheap Halloween Masks