Husband vs. Wife: Halloween Budget Nightmares

Mrs. Fuchs: Well, at risk of sounding like an old person lamenting the good old days here, why can’t our kids do it like we did it back when? Did you know anyone whose parents spent $30 or more on a costume to be worn once? We came up with a costume and put it together ourselves – some of dad’s old shirts, mom’s costume jewelry, some poster board and glitter – voila! – you had a perfectly decent costume.  These are some easy, homemade costumes that worked last year and might spark ideas for this year: these costumes or try these.

Mr. Fuchs: Perfectly decent sounds great. It’s that reach toward perfectionism that always costs money. A lot are in the same boat. Also, according to this week’s survey, people are planning to spend an average of $56.31 on Halloween, down from $66.54 last year, with about a third saying its the scary economy impacting their plans.

Almost half say they’ll buy less candy, with around a third planning to reuse decorations. About 16.8% say they’ll make their costume and 15.8% say they’ll get last year’s out of the closet, mothballs and all.

Speaking of the candy, though, what about less of it?  We live on a block where literally hundreds of goblins and goons amble by with outstretched palms. Can we tell them to get lost?

Mrs. Fuchs: Listen, it’ll cost more to get egg removed from windows. You’re just going to have to buy them candy. Start looking for sales and we can compare that cost with Costco (Stock Quote: COST), Target (Stock Quote: TGT) and Wal-Mart (Stock Quote: WMT).

Mr. Fuchs: Sounds good. Between the homemade costumes and discount candy, we’ll be fulfilling the mandate of financial planners, who are spooked by the concept of getting surprised.  Halloween is a big holiday, expense-wise. But we’ve planned beforehand, which means less regrets afterward.

Mrs. Fuchs: I’ll even scale back my house decorations – I won’t dust until Halloween and we’ll have genuine spiderwebs and dust covered furniture in no time.

Mrs. Fuchs: If it saves money, I’m all for it.  Let me dust, allergies be damned.

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