I must confess, I have not done anything to decorate our house for the past couple of Halloweens. I just got too busy, and although my entire family loves Fall, we don’t necessarily go all out celebrating Halloween. This year, when Kmart challenged us to decorate for $100, I thought it would be a great opportunity to have some fun around the house. At the end of decorating day, my kids were so excited about the house – I felt a little guilty I had not done this for the past couple of years. I can tell you my family has spent more time together in the living rooms since we decorated for Halloween/ Fall.
So here are some *Frugal Tips* I used while shopping at Kmart, and then decorating the house:
1) Kmart is offering 50% off on Halloween costumes on weekends from now until Halloween (I was just in there yesterday and they were 40% off during the week). They also have a Kostume Kreator online that you can use to get an idea of what you want to be this year before you start shopping! I got my two youngest costumes for about $25 t0tal, after the savings (and the both got Disney costumes – not the real ones, but they don’t know the difference). You can get 10% off on items Sold by Kmart too when you use code: KMART10PSAVINGS
2) Most of my budget went to decorations that are more Fall oriented, so they will last me all the way through Thanksgiving – rather then having to take them down in a couple of weeks.
I loved these organic place mats from Sandra Lee’s line ($2.49 ea) and paired them with these $2.49 harvest plates for a place setting that I can live with from Halloween all the way through Thanksgiving! I already had the chargers, so by purchasing just a couple of new items I was able to spruce up my dinner table for around $25 (I got a vinyl table clothe too – just because its so easy to clean with little ones).
3) Since I have young kids, and we are not really into the *really* scary items at my house, I spent just a little bit of my budget on Halloween specific items – but just enough to make it feel like we decorated for Halloween and not just Fall. At the end of the day, I had a hard time keeping my kids away from the faux spider webs. The loved them!
- Two boxes of orange lights – $3.49 ea
- Small pumpkins to top off the candle sticks – $.50 ea
- Spider webbing – $2.49 for a pack
- Large Spider web and spider for the window – $2.49
- Candy for candy jars (pictured at the top of the page) – $3
My total was just over $15 fro these items.
To make the candy jars, I just spray painted a few candle sticks I had around the house with black spray paint (about $1 a can). I then used a mason jar, a pickle jar and a del monte fruit jar to display the candy in (paint the lids black to match the stems). Place them on top of some spider webbing, and add orange candy and BAM – cheap candy fun!
This was one of my favorite projects because Halloween candy can be pricey. By finding a fun way to display it, I was able to use cheaper varieties of candy, but the kids still get excited about it (oh, and the hubbie too)….
Corn stalks were from our backyard garden this year (small house, small garden, small corn stalks :-)!
Since I was decorating, I figured that I better spruce the couch up some. Its been looking a little worn these days. Couch covers can be pricey, but I found these fleece throws for just over $5 each. Grabbed two for my sectional and a couple of throw pillows for $8 each, and for less then $30 I had a couch make-over for the full sectional!
Lastly I picked up a pumpkin candle and some fall potpourri so the house would smell good too!
All in all we are really enjoying changing the house up for the season. What are your favorite frugal Halloween or fall decorating tips?
Disclaimer – Kmart provides me a gift card to use to check. All opinions are 100% mine. See our disclosure policy for more details.
