Everyone knows that spending a fortune on halloween candy is not fun, mostly because we do it just to avoid being "that house" that all the kids are going to look down on and possibly egg or toilet paper in the future. But there are alternatives to spending a lot of money on Halloween candy, and so I present the guide to inexpensive halloween candy shopping or making.

Most people have the idea in their mind that they should either go out and buy their halloween candy as soon as stores start to sell them. Others think that waiting the night of halloween is going to somehow drive the prices down… but in fact halloween candy is at it’s highest price the day of halloween - it only becomes cheaper the morning after halloween night. One way to save money would be to buy a lot of candy a year in advance, but then you’d be giving out stale candy, which might anger kids and parents alike.

If you live in a very rural area, you can probably get away with making your own treats. If your neighbors are very close and the kids coming to visit are not strangers then this is the ideal situation since you’ll be able to provide kids with the most original Halloween treats, that are very inexpensive for you and that will put a smile on parents’ faces. If you do decided to make your own halloween treats make sure to include a tag with your name and phone number. You might also want to mention a list of the ingredients to save parents some time and headaches for those kids that have allergies. Here are some great home made halloween candy and treat ideas: make your own fruit roll ups using a dehydrator, buy bulk nuts and seeds and make cool halloween baggies, buy dried fruits and decorate them like pumpkins. My favorite is this: take dried apricots and use black sesame seeds to draw on a pumpkin face! You could also bake some halloween cupcakes, brownies, hand out fruit cups and so on.

If you live in a less open neighborhood or the city, here are my suggestions: Try to find nut and seed bags that are individually packaged and just decorate them better for halloween! You could also give out some pencils, erasers, notepads, and so on. These items can be bought in bulk and are easy to find if you look at places like Costco. If you’re still finding these halloween treats to exceed your budget, how about turn this into an arts and crafts halloween project with your kids and family? You can use supplies from your own home, dried leaves and twigs from your back yard and make something creative! Not all of your treats need to look the same, so let your halloween creativity look wild! You could also buy some plain plastic rings and color them for halloween and glue some plastic spiders onto them.

Another good idea is to hand out spare change. Give kids some pennies, nickles and dimes. Kids love this! It will be much cheaper for you too.

Happy halloween and happy trick or treat hunting!

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