Halloween Tips Save Time & Money

Unlock the mystery of Halloween with these 39 Halloween tips. Discover the secrets to making this your easiest and best Halloween yet!

Unlocking The Secrets To Halloween

This Halloween, why not take it up a level? Whether you’re looking for creative ways to decorate your home, make things easier, or ramp up the festive mood here are 39 tips to help you have the spookiest Halloween yet!

Get ready to create the perfect spooky atmosphere, elevate your costume, transform your home into a haunted house and save money while doing it. From eerie decorations to scary food hacks, you’ll find everything you need to make this Halloween a night of spine-tingling delight. So break out the candy corn, turn off the lights, and get ready for a Halloween extravaganza like no other!

How Can I Make Halloween More Scary?

The key to making Halloween more scary is to pay attention to the details and to turn everyday items into terrifying decor. A domed, glass cake stand isn’t scary but a domed, glass cake stand with a beady eyed rat peering out is.

You also want to work with colour. Step away from the typical black and orange decor ideas and instead try something new. Try using mossy greens, grey-ish blues, or rich jewel tones. Opt for a mono chromatic theme to really amp up the spook factor. Think about elements that you find in spooky movies and then incorporate those.

Lastly, go for a theme and stick with it. Birds, rats, bats, spider, clowns, pirates… I mean the list goes on. In fact, here are some more unique and terrifying Halloween themes to consider plus find tips for throwing a haunt-worthy party your guests won’t soon forget.

When you focus on a theme it allows you to hone in on the details and once again – The Devil is in the details.

When Should You Start Decorating For Halloween?

Ok, this is totally my opinion. Truly, this all comes down to personal choice. However, if you were to ask me I would say that…

You should start decorating your home for Halloween by the first or second week of October. Any sooner than that and you cut fall off a bit too short. Any later than that – why bother? You want time to enjoy your decorations but not so much time that you become bored. And outdoor decorations are subjected to the outdoor elements which can do a number on them.

39 Spook-tacular Halloween Tips

From easy ways to amp up the spooky factor to easy DIY costume hacks, discover the best ways to make this October 31st truly spook-tacular. Make this Halloween one to remember with these 39 Halloween tips that are sure to make the night the best one yet!

Hack Your Costume

• Make a reusable candy bag from an old white pillowcase. Using a Cricut, cut out a Jack-o-lantern face with heat transfer vinyl. Press onto the front of the the pillow case. Personalize it with the child’s name. Cut a slit into the top of the pillow case and slide a robe through to tie shut.
• Add red. There is just something scary about the colour red. Use red eye shadow, lipstick, and lip liner for makeup for an instant frightening look. Line a black cape with red and you’re suddenly a vampire. Throw on red stocking with a black and white dress, some red hair and a bit of makeup and Voila! You’re a creepy clown.
• Make an old costume new again by adding new accessories, add new pieces to it, or take it apart entirely and use the individual pieces to create something completely new.
• Mix and match for a unique look. Add lesser expensive pieces to a higher end costume for those much needed added details. Or go for thrifts store finds and mix it with newer store bought costume pieces.
• Your own closet is also a great place to find pieces that you can easily rework to fit a costume. Take advantage of your accessories and out of season clothing.

Add The Spook

• Pump up the music. Create a Halloween playlist to set the perfect eerie mood for your trick or treaters and have it playing through a cordless speaker. Just make sure that you keep it G-rated.
• Add eerie lighting by replacing regular bulbs with coloured ones for a spooky ambience. If you can, add a smoke machine for an even cooler effect.
• Use talking decor is sneaky ways. We have this maniacally laughing pumpkin head that I like to hang on the porch pillar by the entrance. Get’s ’em every time.
• Get creative with toilet paper rolls and glow sticks to make inexpensive “ghost eyes.”
• An abundance of anything is just scarier. 1 rat is scary – 25 rats scattering down the porch stairs is terrifying. Take your time and collect.

Bloody Good Halloween Tips

• Bloody towels and shower curtains brings the scare all the way to the bathroom and you just can’t go wrong with that. You can buy these or DIY your own with red spray paint or fabric paint.
• Sandwich cookies with blood dripping out are a cheap and easy way to make a terrifying dessert. Just squirt some red piping gel onto an opened sandwich cookie. Add a small squirt of white icing to the middle and restock the cookie halves together.
• Bloody candles can be made by dripping melting red wax down the sides of a white pillar candle. Do this slowly and carefully.
• Blood splatters can be added to throw pillow covers, dish towels, drop cloth curtains, windows, and throw blankets for a subtle touch of terror. Use your Cricut with red heat transfer vinyl, fabric paint, or spray paint.

DIY Hacks

• Reusable pumpkin stencils can be used to decorate cakes, carve out pumpkins, create DIY decor and so much more.
• Create potion bottles using your printer, Avery or Cricut printable sheets, and At Jenny’s Place free printables.
• Black card stock is so cheap and yet pair it with a Cricut machine and At Jenny’s Place free printables and you got yourself a creepy display for pennies.

Money Saving Halloween Tips

• Spray paint it black because a can of flat spray paint can turn any everyday household item into a spook-tacular Halloween decoration. It’s cost-effective and adds a personal touch.
• Upcycle cheap decorations that you can get really cheaply from the dollar store and then turn them into high end decor that you’ll love to decorate with.
• Recycle last year’s decor by taking last years decor and transform it into something new. It’s amazing what a little DIY touch can do. Those plastic skulls can be stacked for a spooky table decor.
• Cost-effective costumes can be found by either shopping in thrift stores for unique, budget-friendly costume options. On sale at the end of the season for the following year. Or by holding a costume swap with your friends. Make it into a party with these money saving party tips.
• Use what you have at home but add a few spooky elements to make it appear Halloween ready. Wrap a vase with a plastic snake spray painted gold. Add moss to an urn and then fill with pumpkins, spiders, and cob webs. Or fill old Mason Jars with plastic eye balls, herbs, or spiders.

Double Duty Decor

• Fall Wreaths: Natural or faux autumnal wreaths used in Halloween can also be used for Thanksgiving and fall. For Halloween just add some small pumpkin clips, a few plastic spiders, and a few black roses and you have yourself a spooky front door wreath.
• Chalkboard Signs: Either you can completely change them up with just a coat of paint and a new message. Or make them reversible so you can get 2 seasons out of 1.
• Hay Bales: Look great on the porch for Halloween, and yet these can be repurposed for Thanksgiving and Christmas decor as well. Just add a few appropriate festive touches such as skates, a sled, or a scarecrow to give these a whole new look.
• Plastic eye balls: Believe it or not these Dollar Tree lookers can easily be turned into giant beads with just a can of spray paint.
• Owls: Are a great addition to any Halloween decor set up but add a few festive touches and these little feather friends can also be used to decorate Christmas trees.
• Lanterns: Whether they’re wood, metal or glass, they can be used for Halloween, Christmas, and New Year’s simply by changing up the decor that you put inside.

Halloween Decor Hacks

• Use fishing line to hang decorations for a floating, ghostly effect.
• Dollar Tree is the ideal place to find all the inexpensive materials you need to create a frighteningly good Halloween front door wreath.
• Burlap bags, chalk paint and an apple is all you need to make adorable treat bags. Just cut the apple in half, dip it in some paint, and press onto a burlap sack. Then add a stem and any other personalization you wish.
• Add moss. For Halloween we often think of spider webs, bats, and rats when it comes to the decor. But a few bags of well placed dollar store moss can really add the creep factor. It can also be used to add that much needed touch to decor.

Spook-a-licious Foods

• Dark purple, black, and red foods always make for the best Halloween foods. Think blue corn chips, black spaghetti noodles, beet chips, or raspberry sauce dripping down vanilla ice cream.
• Anything cheesy and melty is perfect for Halloween food. Baked cheese dips, witchy cheese breadstick fingers or pumpkin cheese ball are great solutions. Or go super simple with grilled cheddar cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Spooka-licious!
• Use simple card stock stencils and some icing sugar to decorate the top of a cake. Or make things even easier and use the stencils to decorate store bought chocolate-chocolate chip muffins.
• Go for the creepy foods. There are so many foods out there that just naturally offer that creep factor so take advantage of these. Prosciutto looks a lot like human skin. Meatballs are easily made into eyeballs. Spaghetti is like eating worms. Finger bread sticks dipped in bright red marinara is sure to give them nightmares. You get the idea.

Safety Measures

• Cut the hole on the right end. Did you know that you’ve been carving your pumpkin wrong? Instead of cutting a hole into the top of your pumpkin instead cut a hole into the bottom of the pumpkin and place the pumpkin over the candle. No more precariously balanced candles.
• Use LED candles or glow sticks instead of real ones for a safer and longer-lasting flicker.
• Incorporated glow in the dark safety tape where you can on their treat bags, shoes, costumes, jackets, gloves, or hats.

Jenny’s Finishing Thoughts On The 39 Halloween Tips

With Halloween just around the corner, it is time to bring out all the tricks, treats and tips that’ll make this holiday a spooky and exciting one!

From decorating your porch to planning out your costume, there are plenty of ways to make this Halloween the most haunted yet. By using on or more of these 39 Halloween tips, you’re sure to create a spine-tingling mood that will leave all of your guests and neighbours delightfully scared. So go ahead, put your best ghoulish foot forward and make it a Halloween to remember!

If you have a Halloween tip you can’t live without share it in the comments below.

Happy Halloween!

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