6 low-cost ideas for a happy Halloween
1. Halloween house decorations
DIY option: Make your own cobwebs with large cotton balls and hairspray. Simply pull apart the cotton balls and hairspray them together! You could also use white and yellow balloons and a black marker to draw pumpkin-style faces and fill the house with creepy 'floating heads'.
Low-cost option: If there's no time (or motivation) for DIY decor, then you can just purchase some fake cobwebs and spiders from Amazon for £2.99.
2. Halloween activity ideas
Free option: Get Halloween ideas by joining a parent WhatsApp group or share ideas with TheSchoolRun community on Facebook.
You can also download our free Halloween worksheets and share them with your friends:
Low-cost option: Purchase a Halloween DIY decorations book for kids for £6.95 and get crafting!
Check out the wide range of craft products and Halloween ideas from Rymans.
3. Halloween window decorations
DIY option: Use black thick card to cut out spooky shapes (such as a cat or a witch on a broom) then stick them to your window. If you make holes in the shapes for eyes or a mouth, when you turn your light on in the evening it will shine through and make it even creepier.
You can also cut out letters and stick a message in your window like Have a Spooky Halloween!
For more decoration and craft ideas, like paper jack-o-lanterns and Halloween bunting, have a look at this blog from our friends at Twinkl.
Low-cost option: Alternatively, you can buy some fairly cheap window stickers online for £4.99.
4. Halloween costumes
DIY options: Get creative with items around the house (no-sewing required!). Use binbags, bedsheets, old socks, boxes or anything you can get your hands on. You could also try to organise a swap shop with other parents (maybe get your PTA on board and organise a mini-market).
Low-cost options: Search your local charity shops for anything that could be made into a costume — they may even have old Halloween costumes. But if you can’t find anything suitable there, you can often find reasonably priced outfits online (like the £14.98 zombie cheerleader costume to the right). You can also find lots of tips on facepainting and purchase face paint pens, which make the process a lot easier.
5. Halloween entertainment
Free option: Have a movie night! Snuggle up with low lighting and put on an age-appropriate Halloween movie. You can get access to Halloween kids movies on Amazon Prime. They normally offer a free week or month trial and you can cancel anytime (but you can only do this once every 12 months).
Low-cost option: TheSchoolRun has partnered with Lovetovisit.com to help our readers get the best family-friendly deals on events and activities across the UK. Browse the Lovetovisit site or download the app for great family deals on tickets to the cinema, theatre, museums and more.
6. Halloween food and treats
Free option: Download an app like Olio, which offers food, treats, clothes — perfectly good items that others have too much of or no longer need — entirely free of cost. All you have to do is pick it up from a nearby neighbour. There are bound to be people who bought one too many pumpkins or bags of sweets (or basic ingredients for cakes). You can also look up free Halloween recipe ideas on sites like BBC good food.
Low-cost option: Supermarkets will often compete with each other during holidays, so do a bit of research and compare what's out there.
Please note that some of the products included in this article feature affiliate links; this means that if you click through and purchase one of the featured products, we might earn a small commission.
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