My Frugal Halloween Decorations

October is the time for Halloween! As soon as first of October hit my calendar, I brought out my box of "holiday decorations" and pulled out the scariest items. Unfortunately, since this is my first time decorating a house for Halloween, the items that I pulled were scarily low. Even scarier-er, my budget for decorating for Halloween was also low.

With that in mind, I managed to decorate my house for Halloween for only nine dollars. Is it the coolest house you have ever seen? No. Am I completely satisfied with the way it works? Partly. Are we in the Halloween spirit? MOST DEFINITELY!

This is the front door of our duplex. My options for decorating the house were constrained by the lack of front porch. So, no one can actually see this door except us and our neighbors who share our duplex, as our car blocks it from the street.

Last year my mother-in-law sent a package of Halloween decorations, but we received them after the holiday. So, even though I had these decorations in my box, I had not used them yet. The pictures on the front door came from her. I made the "Happy Halloween" sign and bought the foam bats from Target for five dollars.

This is the doors to the carport shed. I felt really classy using Macbeth quotations to decorate my house for Halloween. Language Arts teacher in the house! I made the letters using my computer and laminated it from the Hawaiian humidity with packing tape. The bats were in the same five dollar package from Target.

These towels are from the package from my mother-in-law. I used them for the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom.

We also received pothandlers from my mother-in-law for the kitchen.

This is the backyard sliding glass window. I got this window decal from Target for one dollar. Owen in particular loves it.

I wanted to get Owen a candy bucket that was in the shape of a pumpkin, but the only ones like that at Target were black and purple. Pumpkins are orange, duh. So I settled for the open top bucket instead. Currently, it is empty and decorates the printer stand in the dining room. I bought it for one dollar at Target.

Here is my grand finale decoration-- a Jack 'o' Lantern! It is a very petite one though (or just a baby pumpkin!) and will only be lit up during the week leading up to Halloween to save on batteries. It sits in the downstairs bathroom window overlooking the carport. I bought it from Target for two dollars.

I haven't decided if I am going to turn it around after Halloween so it can be a Thanksgiving pumpkin like my mom always did.