Host A Halloween Party For Under $50

This is one of my favorite kinds of post because we get lots of emails asking us for tips and tricks on hosting parties for next t nothing. Especially kid’s birthday parties where parents simply can’t afford to spend money.

This post is going to about Halloween parties not birthday parties, but if your child is having a birthday in October do consider having it Halloween themed because buying seasonal products is such a money saver.

Tip number one, decor, these Halloween decorations above is under $30 and contains 130 pcs. So that is ALL the decorations you need. The best way to decorate on budget is to allocate a small area that can be themed well. For example, 130 pcs might be lost in your backyard, but pop them in the garage or up against the side of the house and you have a full-looking theme.

Need more decorations? Black bing bags can be cut into strips to make spooky doorways, hang them from the ceilings. Fill them with empty boxes and place them around the room, like trash in an alley. Add some red paint for blood, like bodies wrapped up. VERY inexpensive. Old newspaper can be cut into cobwebs (like snowflakes) and draped on the walls. When everything is together the newspaper will look amazing.

Food? You can’t have a party without food right?

Sandwiches, bread is cheap! Jam is cheap, red jam/jelly looks like blood. So Blood sandwiches for dinner! Add some bowls of rice bubbles for snacks, (bowls of teeth) or make piles and piles of popcorn, cheap and yum! Drinks? Cordial, red, green, orange.

Kids don’t pay much attention to food and how it looks, just how it tastes, so sugar is always a winner. Want more food? Make pancakes, inexpensively with flour, sugar, and water. Serve cupcakes covered in red syrup or orange food dye for a sweet treat, these can also be given to take home.

Have some money left over? Want to send them home with a gift? Print out some free Halloween coloring pages or An Apple or a pair of Dracula teeth, (kids love those things).

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If you’ve been around here long, you know that I’m in a perpetual battle with my stash. I feel like I haven’t bought yarn in years unless I needed it for a specific project. I knit fairly a lot, and crochet some, too, but it feels like my stash never gets any smaller.

It’s not just the unused balls of yarn that are a problem. In fact, maybe a bigger issue is all the odd balls and leftover bits that seem to pile up without any effort. Even though I love scrappy projects (and knit a whole sweater dress with scraps earlier this year) it still feels like a never-ending quest to use up all the little bits.

So I’m always on the lookout for good patterns that are made to use of the extra bits of yarn. If they are super easy, too, that’s so much the better.

So it is with the Lalu Scarf by Sheena Stone. This any yarn, any gauge pattern is designed to use up whatever scraps you have on hand (assuming they’re mostly the same weight or can be held double to make the same weight).

It’s a tube scarf worked in the round, and she specifically notes that she works it outside in, so the back of the scarf is on the outside as you knit. The needle tips are on the part of the circle farthest away from you as you knit.

It also has an attached I-cord edging, which sounds really time consuming but does give the edges a nice, finished look.

The way the colors are changed as you knit you don’t really need a lot of each color. It would probably be good if you had at least enough of a color to complete one round, but you can change colors more often than every round if you need to because you’re using all your tiny bits.

Grab the free pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Sheena Stone.]

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