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Ever wanted to decorate your house into a spooky place for Halloween without the big budget? Yeah, me too!
I usually find myself in the Halloween section just for fun. But, this year was different. I had done some significant purging of Halloween decorations last year as I was putting everything away. You see, our home was pretty much decorated with 90% off clearance items I found at Joann’s while I was visiting relatives for Christmas fifteen years ago.
Totally Outdated
Yeah, fifteen years! Not only did styles change dramatically, but things just started to get worn out. No problem, I told myself. I can just hit the stores and find a few cute things and be back in business.
It was time to set a budget and decorate for Halloween!
Then I went to Target.
In the past, I have grabbed a few things from their dollar spot that were really great looking. Well, I don’t know if it was just my Target, but there was basically nothing in the dollar spot. Then I went to the Halloween section. Even the smallest item was ten bucks!
I’m on a budget. Like, a serious budget people! I can’t grab small items at $10 a pop and expect to keep my budget happy!
I left empty-handed with a determination to not go broke this October.
Enter the $50 decorating challenge.
Fifteen years ago I spent about $25 at Joann’s and was able to deck my house out. Of course, that was during a 90% clearance event in December. So, about $250 in retail (okay, overpriced retail) did the trick. This time around I figured I couldn’t count on $25 doing what I wanted it to do.
If you start out with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING can you decorate – I mean REALLY decorate – the interior of your house for $50?
I set out to see what I could do with only $50.
Shopping My Halloween Storage
I had a few items I kept from the previous years, so I added the cost of those to my total. Fortunately, some time ago Target’s dollar spot DID have a few signs and a black tree that I snagged for $3 each. Thrift stores also helped me out when I was able to get two pillow covers for $0.50 apiece along with two pull-the-yarn-through-the-holes (whatever those are called) bat crafts, originally $3 at Target but only $0.50 from the thrift store. I had two spooky figures from the dollar store and kept two little figures from my ancient Joann’s haul. I spent $14 on it all.
With my old decorations out and ready, I needed to start adding.
New Inexpensive Purchases
What I really needed was an inexpensive way to cover a large amount of space. After a quick peruse through some blogs, I decided some witches’ hats would be awesome. When I looked for them on Amazon, I noticed some came with bats and spider cutouts you can put on your wall. Double awesome! $17.99 (update: Yes, the price fluctuates) bought me 12 witches hats, 28 spiders, 24 bats, and nylon string to hang the hats with.
I read that some people had put them up on the ceiling with tape. Yeah, right. They fell almost immediately. I got 12 command strips with mini hooks from Walmart for $5.97. Now the witches’ hats were securely in place. Fortunately the adhesive the kit came with for putting spiders and bats on the wall worked well.
There wasn’t too much to do after this. The hats, bats, and spiders DEFINITELY looked awesome and took center stage. I just needed to add a few fillers. That’s when I hit the dollar store and thrift store.
The dollar store had little cardboard boxes that look like books. They aren’t going to last forever, but they look great. I also got a couple of signs as well as two gauze-like cloth thingies to drape the piano and fireplace mantel.
On to the thrift store. Usually, this particular thrift store really brings out a lot of decorations. I don’t know if I was too early or what, but there were only a few things I really liked. I got four hanging ornaments that I used as signs.
To finish it all off, I printed out a few free printables I found online and added them to my gallery wall.
My new purchases came in at a grand total of $29.96.
Halloween Decorating Budget
That put me at a grand total of $43.96.
Now, I didn’t include tax in this simply because I’m feeling lazy. But, my tax rate is just under 8%, where I got Joann’s stuff was much less, and thrift stores don’t charge sales tax around here. That still keeps me well below $50. (Maybe I should keep shopping?)
The hats, bats, and spiders were definitely and by far the most bang for my buck and they took just over half my budget. They are also the easiest things to store. Everything folds flat like a pancake. In fact, everything I have is really easy to store. I’m thinking one Rubbermaid bin will hold it ALL!
Everything is completely reusable for next year as well, unlike, say, pumpkins. The only thing I will need to purchase again are some command strips for the hooks the hats hang on.
And lastly, one of the best things about my new decorations? Completely toddler-proof!
Next year it’ll be time to tackle the exterior!
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