10 Budget-Friendly Halloween Decor Ideas
If you're on a budget this year, your Halloween decorations can still look fantastic! Create amazing Halloween décor in your home with these money-saving tips, whether you're using just a few delicately carved jack-o'-lanterns or going all the way by turning your house into a spooky, haunted castle.
- Candlelit labyrinth: Go to your local party supply store and purchase some ghoulish music for around $5.00. Turn up the spooky sounds and turn off all the lights! Turn the room into a labyrinth by placing tons of candles in every size, shape, and color all over the place, but make sure to be careful about protecting any surfaces from candle wax that may drip. For a safer alternative, choose faux candles that look just like a real candle, but instead use a small light which glows just like a flame. Use these to light a pathway through your home to guide guests from room to room.
- Lonely luminaires: Use simple, brown paper lunch bags, which cost around $5.00 in your local market to make some spooky luminaires. Write scary words such as "Boo!" and "Scream!" with a thick black marker on them. Decorate them with drawings of ghosts and ghouls. Fill the bottom with sand and place small battery-operated votives candle inside for a creepy welcome into your front entrance.
- Haunted house: Throw some old white sheets over your large pieces of furniture to make it look as though the house is standing empty. Remove a few large pieces of furniture from the room to give it an authentic abandoned effect. Sprinkle around a very light dusting of cornstarch, baby power or baking soda on mantles, book shelves and all other surfaces to make it look as if the dust has been settled there for ages.
- Flying ghosts: Blow up a large, white balloon and drape a white sheet over it. Turn the balloon upside down and slide a safety pin through the sheet and the tied end of the balloon to suspend the ghost from your ceiling. Don't forget to draw a ghoulish face on your ghost!
- Pumpkin stack: Use one of your garden flowerpots and turn it upside down to create a base. Now, stack two or three pumpkins on top of each other, making sure to place the largest pumpkin on the bottom. Voila! You have a pumpkin topiary! Cut off the stems and secure them together using a hot glue gun for added safety. You can purchase the glue gun at your local party supply store for around $7.00. Don't forget to carve out some spooky faces on your pumpkins too!
- Lab specimens: Fill a vase or mason jar with water and add in a few drops of green food coloring. Drop in a scary novelty item like a bloody eyeball or a rubber bat for a complete "gross-out" effect and place this as a centerpiece on your snack table. Make sure to light candles nearby to enhance the green, glowing, "formaldehyde" effect of the water.
- Terrible tombstones: Cut large sheets of Styrofoam or cardboard into gravestone shapes. Crinkle and cut the edges to make it look as though it was cut from stone. Spray paint with a faux stone finish or simply a dull gray shade of paint. Using a black marker, decorate the tombstone with creepy sayings such as "Herein lies the Headless Horseman". Hang your tombstone on the wall, door, or use a stick to stake it into the front lawn.
- Spooky silhouettes: Trace or draw outlines of witches, ghosts, bats, werewolves and monsters on black poster board. Use a piece of white chalk or a white crayon to see the lines clearly. Cut all the way around each shape making sure not to leave any white chalk or crayon. Tape the shapes to your windows and doors. These creepy silhouettes transform your house into a haunted house when it's lit with candles.
- Horrifying spider webs: Drape and hang fake spider webs and plastic spiders in all the corners of your house or in your front yard. You can also drape them on chandeliers and picture frames for a ghoulish effect.
- Black lights: A black light will make anything that is white glow. Place one in windows and on surfaces for an eerie effect. If you're answering the door for the children who are out trick-or-treating, make sure that you have one placed nearby as your only source of light. You can also use them as a spotlight to cast ghostly shadows. You can get small, handheld black lights for around $10.00 at your local party store.
Make sure to check in at your favorite party supply store the weekend before Halloween. Many of these stores offer deep discounts (some up to 90 percent!) on seasonal items such as these.
* Specific loan program availability and requirements may vary. Please get in touch with your mortgage advisor for more information.