How will the economy affect your Halloween?

For example, will you pass out candy if you really can't afford it?

Are there more homes in your neighborhood that are vacant now and there won't be as many places to take the little ones?


Just some questions I saw on another message board and would like to see more responses.


We won't pass out candy. We never do. No one ever comes into our neighborhood even though we have lights on. We will go out only if it's not freezing here in Iowa! LOL

We haven't had the foreclosures, etc. happen too much yet here so that won't change either.

I always go to my parents house, since we never get anyone at ours. My sister joins us and each of us brings 10 bags of candy (sometimes more depending upon sales!) to hand out. Since there have been some great coupons here, I have my 10 and am working on more!

In our neighborhood there are no empty houses, but there are less and less kids each year that come to the door. When my kids were little I would purchase inexpensive items from Oriental Trading and hand that out.

This year I bought a big tub of pretzel treats, $5.99 for 60 packages (UTZ). Plus I love the clear plastic bin and plan to use it for a donation bin when I run fairs.

So....for me, it is not too great an expense.

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We have no kids but we have in past years always given out candy. We get a LOT of kids too being that we live on main street. This year Money is really tight and I am cutting back on everything so We are NOT giving out candy this year. I have given up going to play my normal tourneys of poker and euchre which cost me about $22.00 a week as well. With dh out on Comp money is really tight. We even have to cancel our health insurance as of next month. Its just not possible to pay it.

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I bought 3 big bags of candy at Costco and have some temporary tatoos from Oriental trading I got for 75% off last year. We always hand out candy. Sometimes we get a lot of kids, sometimes we don't. It depends on the weather. Sometimes it's raining or snowing Besides our home, my husband's work does treat or treat. Each cubical puts out candy or hands it out (but most go home early and have a big bowl out in front). We collect more candy there than we give out in one night!

I spend about $25 total for candy to give out and it's worth it to me. I'll cut back in other ways in able to do Halloween

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I am not looking forward to buying candy this year. We usually have at least 100 kids and I like to make up little bags of candy. This year I will buy the mini candy bars but they will just get one each. We have 3 or 4 houses that give full size candy bars every year. I wonder if they will do it this year.

Oh yes I will because we all simply love the holiday and always will. Being a kid and ringing someone'e door bell to get a treat. Aaaaaaaaaaannnd believe me , me and dh and our kids 16, 20, 23 and all their friends still do. I have gotten so much free pretzels and the 100 calorie bags and m & m's with the coupons so there is plenty to go around. Peace. Catherine

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I'm not sure if we'll make it home from the circus in time for Trick or Treat, but if so, we will pass out candy. We usually get a huge amount of kids through here.

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Michelle
*Mom to McKenna and Tanyn ~ Nov. 2000 Twins*

If I was home, I would pass out candy, but we don't get a lot of kids.
This year, DS will probably have a soccer game so we probably wont be home. Its a weekend tourney.

I have been wondering the same thing. We usually hand out cold sodas for the older kids, and bags of animal crackers to the little ones. The sodas run about .16 a can, so actually I think it works out to be a bit cheaper than buying candy, and the kids love it. Not sure what we are going to do this year. It is on a Friday night, so it might be a bit busy. Just not sure.

I usually give full size candy bars or something away, but normally I can get them free using coupons, this year we have not got any coupons to do that with, so I won't be doing that this year. I will purchase some bags of candy that I have coupons for since we can double 1.00 coupons, something should be reasonable. I have been waiting until the last minute 1. for a sale so I can get it cheaper and 2. so DD and DH don't eat it all before Halloween. Plus I have some sheets of Halloween stickers to hand out too.

I remember one year I gave away full size boxes of Tic Tacs and full size rolls of Gummi Savers and my husband told me no one is going to want those TicTacs (because I let them choose which one they want). The TicTacs were a huge hit! he was shocked and I couldn't wait to say "I told you so" LOL.

We probably get about 50 kids and we have no vacant houses anywhere near us. We live in a small town and places are snapped up almost as soon as they come up for sale.

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Well, we'll definitely be changing the "type" of treats we give. Generally, at my DH work (college)he has about 100 litttle kids(from the onsite pre-school) that come through. It is a low income pre-school so they request non candy items. In the past, we've given play-doh,bubbles, pretzels, popcorn, etc. This year, it will be cheap candy As for my children, they will wear something we have here, create a costume, or borrow one from their cousins. I too like to make goody bags for the trick-or-treaters, but that too will probably be dowsized to a piece of candy. It is what it is

We will pass out the same stuff we always do - the good name brand chocolates. We always have a huge variety.

However, the one thing that will throw a damper on it is oldest dd is a freshman and they have a home varsity football game that night. That's kind of a bummer. She passed out the candy last year - not sure what she'll decide this year. We have been going to the games, but youngest will want to trick-or-treat. Guess we'll see.

Lisa

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We live down a very long driveway which is very very dark, so no kids ever come down here, lol. I bought candy the first 2 years we were here, but no one braved it. It might be different this year though since my 12 yr. old is in a new school and has met a lot of the kids that live nearby now. Who knows. We go out with our 4 kids anyway and pretty much don't get home until 9 p.m. or later. Halloween is on a Friday this year so it should be fun! DH's office has a huge carnival for the kids (he works for a major retail home office) and they do trick or treat through the building too. The kids get tons of candy, etc. I always take the kids to Sonic, here they give away hot dogs and cokes free if you are in costume. That pretty much makes our night. We do go to a few neighborhoods as we know most of the people that live in them. My inlaws moved here last year and they pastor a church here, so it will be interesting to see if the church is doing anything also.

We love Halloween too, but we all understand that the economy is getting so bad and that a lot of people will not be able to 'do' the candy, etc., this year. For those of you that want to do the 'candy' but can't afford to really, check into Sam's Club or Costco. Our Sam's has those huge bags of Tootsie Rolls or Double Bubble gum for something like $6.xx (I hope the prices haven't gone up--sorry if I'm wrong on that.). There are numerous hundred pieces in those packages. That would be a pretty cheap way to do it and just give out one piece each if you get a lot of kids (or a couple pieces each if you don't get bombarded). Then when the candy is out, hey, it's out! People understand. I know how much fun handing out candy is and we miss people coming to our door on Halloween.

There are no trick or treaters in our area. If there were I would buy tons of candy.

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There have been so many fantastic coupons out this fall, I can't even count how many free packages of Hershey's candy bars I have. But I have been taking the candy to work because I am giving out PopTarts for Halloween! I have cases of PopTarts from the Target deal! I don't see finances being a problem in giving out treats on Halloween when there have been so many ways this fall to get free items.

If I could not afford $20 for Halloween candy I would have bigger problems to worry about!

We live in a small rural town not far from "town" so we have lots of kids and usually some parents bring their kids from town.

I always overbuy I'm paranoid about running out. Towards the end I give the teenagers big handfuls and it pays off my pumpkins don't get thrown.

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We love Halloween. We'll be doing it up pretty big this year, giving out lots of treats to the kids at the schools.

We bought a ton of candy last year, and had a TON of it left over, which was fine. I always buy what we like, anyway, so it gets eaten. I will scale back how much I buy to give out at home , since we didn't get so many kids last year, and when we run out, we run out.

We like to make things fun for the kids. No need for them to take on the worries of the world so young.

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We don't have any vacant houses in our neighborhood, we have lots of kids in our area, and we look forward to trick or treating and handing out candy. tons of candy always on sale here too.

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My kids are grown.. But our nieghborhood has lots of kids and no vacant houses. However we will not be home for Halloween. We go to the campground everyweekend where we keep our motorhome, and Halloween weekend is the last weekend of the season so we will be winterizeing our camper. We are doing Halloween at the campground on Oct 18th. It is the last big weekend of the season and lots of overnight campers and the seasonal ones are all there with grandchildren and children. So bringing our 3 local grandchildren to trick or treat there. I am planning on 350 kids (as that is what they had last year) We are buying plenty of candy. The economy hasn't changed that. But it will change our Christmas this year. We are cutting back at least 25% possibly more.

we only have a couple of kids come to our house since we live so far out of town so yes we will give out candy.

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Brenda

GO #24 JEFF GORDON

This year we have fewer vacant homes & lots in our neighborhood than we've had before, but we still don't get too many kids -- just the ones in the neighborhood. the houses are kind of spread out so some of the neighbor kids don't go to every house in the neighborhood because its too far to walk.

I will probably be giving out chips or pretzels, mostly because if there are leftovers, I can put them in my kids lunches. I don't want a ton of candy leftover, but don't want to run out either. I also have pencils & erasesrs from Target clearance last year. If the kids teachers don't ask for non-candy goodies for school, I'll give those out to trick-or-treaters too.

I bought my kids costumes for $12 (for both of them) from a consignment sale. Both are Star Wars characters (I don't remember which ones -- that is so not my thing). DS#1's costume was new with the tags still on it. I saw the same costume at Target for $40.

I agree -- if you don't have $20 to spend on Halloween candy to give away, you've got bigger problems.

Sarah............

I'll be the "mean" lady, i've got a huge paper bag of toothbrushes! lol

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and I am planning on handing out candy that I got pretty cheap at Walgreens. I will also hand out fruit snacks I managed to get FREE after coupons and we set up a cooler with cheap juices and water bottles if anybody wants a cold drink. My kids go around the block and race home to pass out the candy. They just love to see what people are wearing and could really care less about the candy.

Buying candy with sales and coupons. I love Halloween and I am having a party for kids and friends. Apple Bobbin, Donut on a string. Mummy Game. Music etc. Simple but fun. Will decorate the garage and have the fire pit going with the torches.

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Actually, that's a good idea.
Plus I personally love various assortment of treats (not just candy), especially if they are useful!

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