Frighteningly Frugal Fun!

Great Halloween Ideas for Cheap

By Tawra Kellam

The average American family spends over $100 per year on Halloween goodies. As your kids drag you through aisles full of ghosts and goblins, the scariest thing about Halloween is threatening to leave bite marks in your pocketbook. No wonder so many moms flee screaming from the store. It can be much less expensive and a lot more fun to devise your own chilling creations. Here are a few tips that you can use to stave off the greenback gremlins and exercise your creative muscle. It won't hurt a bit! These and other free frugal tips are available at notjustbeans.com.

1 teaspoon corn starch
1/2 teaspoon water
1/2 teaspoon cold cream
Food coloring

Mix all ingredients together in an old muffin pan and you are ready to paint. This amount makes one color.

1 tablespoon Vaseline
Tissue
Cocoa powder
2-3 drops red food coloring

Place Vaseline in a bowl. Add food coloring. Blend with a toothpick. Stir in a pinch of cocoa to make a darker blood color. Separate tissue. Using one layer, tear a 2-by-3-inch piece and place at wound site. Cover with petroleum jelly and mold into the shape of a wound. The center should be lower than the sides. Fill the center with the red petroleum jelly mixture. Sprinkle center with some cocoa. Sprinkle a little around the edges of the wound to make darker.

2/3 cup white corn syrup
1 teaspoon red food coloring
2 to 3 drops blue food coloring
1 squirt liquid dish soap

Mix the white corn syrup, red food coloring and 2 to 3 drops blue food coloring to darken. Add one squirt dish soap (helps blood to run well).

Want to see more?

• Calling All Ghouls and Ghosts: Throw a Halloween Party Adults and Kids Will Love!
• The Ghost on Elm Street
• Ghouls, Goblins and Gobs of Candy
• Halloween Nightmares in Disguise
• Pumpkins: Not Just for Jack-O-Lanterns Anymore!
• Twinkles, Our Favorite Ghost