Re-using Halloween supplies year after year cuts down on your Halloween expenditures over a period of time. These cost-effective measures add up because you’re not paying for new Halloween supplies each year. This amounts to a tremendous savings over time. You must ensure if you are re-using Halloween supplies, that you store all the Halloween items in a large box and mark it “Halloween supplies.”

It also is not a bad idea to list each item that you have stored on the outside of the box. There’s no way that you’ll remember what items you have packed away. So, by enumerating the items on the outside of the box, you will be able to check your inventory without scavenging through the whole box in order to check on your Halloween supplies the following year.

If you were ever disappointed about a party or celebration that you looked forward to as a child but were denied for no reason of your own, then you can empathize with a child who can not have a Halloween party because his parents can’t afford the supplies.

This does not have to happen to you – you don’t have to disappoint your child because you feel that the cost of the Halloween supplies is too much for your budget to handle. You can eliminate this problem and put a smile on your young one’s face again by re-using Halloween supplies.

You can find a slew of discounted Halloween supplies in supermarkets, super stores, party supply stores, and online. Make sure that you purchase mainly those items that can be preserved through storage year after year.

While you will not be able to preserve the pumpkins that you buy this season, you can certainly save the decorations and pens used to decorate the pumpkins.

What we are suggesting is that people need to use their creativity and ingenuity by re-using Halloween supplies. You just need to be pro-active and store your re-usable Halloween items in a safe place, label the box, and remember where you store it.

Here are some suggestions for re-using Halloween supplies as a cost-effective measure:

- Have some oldies records available to play to add to the atmosphere of Halloween. One such oldie would be “Monster Mash” by Bobby Boris Pickett. The song, a No. 1 smash from the week of Halloween in 1962, is best known for knocking the Four Seasons classic Sherry out of the top spot on the Billboard survey.

- In order to make fog each year, build your own fog machine from a PVC pipe and an old picnic cooler.

- Buy re-usable Halloween costumes such as witch’s outfits with brooms, skeletons, vampire, zombies and costumes from other themes of your choosing.

- Put recorded music as a programmed theme for your doorbell. You can de-program your door bell when Halloween is over, and re-program the door bell in time for Halloween next year.

- If you have pets, such as dogs or cats, buy an outfit for them in a pet store. You can use the outfit each succeeding year without incurring the cost of additional purchases.

- You can re-use Halloween flags and banners each year, or keep the Halloween spirit alive around your home all year long.

By re-using Halloween supplies as a cost-effective measure, you will make it possible to provide true Halloween spirit year after year, and not have to refinance your home.

A fun activity during Halloween is to decorate your home with hand made art and craft decorations. With a little imagination, one can make wonderful decorations to beautify the house and give it that festive look during Halloween. It is not necessary to be an expert at craft making, but a little imagination and ingenuity will go a long way to succeed in this project. A quick search on the Internet for ideas on homemade decorations will speed up your imaginative powers. You can come up with some creepy looking decorations by making use of simple household items. Most often, people like to transform their homes into haunted houses.

The yard is the best place to start with Halloween decorations. You can turn it into a creepy cemetery. You can give it a ghoulish appearance by putting ‘tombstones’ all around it. These can be simple plywood cut out into half- spheres. Attach some nails to the bottom, or push them down into the ground so that they stand up. You can paint them black and put some scary writings on them. The lighting in the yard can also be adjusted to throw eerie shadows over the yard. A few ‘ghosts’ made up of white sheets tied on to bushes will do the trick. Balloon Ghosts in white with attached bells can be left to float in the breeze. Their haunting chimes may scare even the strongest hearted person!

Halloween Crafts for the indoors can be made easily. One way to get a spooky effect in the house is to drape a fine white cloth, artistically painted with a ghost face, on the windowpane. Bats, artificial cobwebs and witch cutouts can be put up on the walls or hung from the ceiling to complete the creepy effect.

Many of these crafts can be made by kids too. However, if there is a need to use power tools for creating them, it is best left to the adults to do the job. Children can be involved to do simple things like painting or gluing on glitter, beads and sequins. This can be a fun activity done together to create something unique.

Your creativity is limited only to your imagination. Use your imagination and creativity while putting together Halloween crafts. As adults, your creations will be much neater since you are now agile while using your hands. Let the kids participate as well. There is nothing better than having a family activity to bring everyone closer! Have fun and enjoy your time with the family during Halloween.