Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!

I tried to google "price of pumpkins" just now, to see what I'd come up with... nothing all that interesting:


However, the search did lead me to this MSNBC.com story on what Americans spend on Halloween:

Americans will shell out just over $5 billion on the harrowing holiday this year, up 58 percent since 2002...

About 95 percent will buy candy, nearly $21 per person on average....

While the percentage of those decorating for Halloween remains the same, the average amount spent per person climbed 14 percent, to $26.59, over last year. Estimated price tag for all those Halloween decorations: $1.4 billion.

How much are you spending on Halloween? Personally, I'm spending ZERO! I am not dressing up and I don't expect to get any trick or treaters, so I haven't bought any candy. I haven't decorated at all, or even bought a pumpkin. If anyone asks me what I'm supposed to be, I'll say I'm pretending to be someone more frugal than I really am!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Halloween is one holiday where I happily throw frugality out the window. It's fun to get dressed up, and I definitely buy candy and a big pumpkin.

I'd rather save money at Christmas, which I consider to be much more commercialized, stressful, and unfilfilling.

M said...

I spent $4 on two bags of candy and sent a Halloween card and stickers to my nephews, so like $7.00 total.

Mike said...

Hmm, I spent $2 on a bag of candy, $3 for a funnel (covered w/aluminum foil), $3 for some bolts and hot glue, $3 for a witch hat, $5 for face paint, $14 for a blue and white dress, and $4 for red shoes. So that's $34 total for me to be Tin Man, my wife as the Wicked Witch of the West, and my daughter as Dorothy =)

Mike said...

Oh yeah, and $2 for Indian corn as decorations. I think our friends who hosted the Halloween party easily spent over $100 on decorations though!

Curtis Miller said...

Hmm... we spent about $30 on the boy's costume (Jengo Fett) and then about $7 on candy. No parties, no decorating. All in all, a nice cheap year since we had no parties to go to and get dressed up for.

Anonymous said...

I bought about $15 worth of candy each year the last six years, and had a total of 3 kids ring my bell. That's three kids total, 50% of a kid each year, not three per year. So, of course, I ended up eating all the candy myself, and it didn't take me very long, either. This year I've gotten four Kit Kat bars (the preferred candy of all kids) and a dozen boxes of raisins, on the premise that I won't feel too guilty if I end up eating all of that. Call it $6 total, $3 of which could be justified as groceries. I loved Halloween as a kid, but I think there's less trick or treating in the city, and more partying, for safety's sake.

Bob said...

I had purchased a $40 dragon costume for my four year old son, who promptly informed me that he was going as Thomas and pulled last year's costume out of the closet. So back to the store the dragon went.
I went over to Costco and got a box of fruit juice chewy candy thingys, 80 packages for $8.something or other. There were at least a dozen packages left.

So all in all, less than $10 this year. Cheapest year ever. Apparently my child understands frugality better than I do!

Anonymous said...

We spent about $5 on some "just in case" candy. We got the Hershey minibars in case nobody comes by. They'll be packed in my lunches for a very happy November. ;-) Or something like that.

Our building's front door locks, so I'm not sure how many people will make it to our door. But there are a couple kids downstairs who we want to be prepared for. :-)

frugal zeitgeist said...

I spent jack diddly squat this year. Saw nothing more than a small vampire in the hall when I got home. Beats getting stood up by all the trick-or-treaters, though, which is what happened last year.

Anonymous said...

Our apartment building doesn't allow trick or treating, so I didn't have to buy any candy.

If we lived in a house in our neighbourhood I'd probably be spending about $20-$25 on candy and just eating whatever's left over.

I did buy a costume on sale for $10 this morning so I have something easy to wear to future parties.

Anonymous said...

I spent $2 on candy. I decorated with a pumpkin I bought years ago and a card my brother sent me.

Three groups of kids dropped by for candy, for a total of about eighteen people.

I dressed as a bottle of barbecue sauce, wearing dark red clothes I already owned and pinning on a label made of paper in front, an ingredients list in back, and a warning label on my cap.

I did not win any costume contests at work, but I was clearly a participant. And it's my favorite kind of costume: 1) clearly a costume, 2) comfortable, 3) interesting.

Bitty said...

I suspect the whole trick-or-treating thing is waning. Over and over I've heard stories of scads of leftover candy. I wasn't home because I had to teach, but I did spend about $15 on candy for my students, given to them at the end of class so I didn't have to deal with their sugar rushes.

I bought cards for grandchildren and tucked a small amount of money in them, so about $25 spent there.

And that's it.