Halloween on a Budget

Anyone who knows me, knows that lately my favorite phrase has been, "I can't afford it right now". I have never been a very private person about my humaness, along with all the life stories that go with it.

Money has been tight and at times, non-existant for us as of late...long story. Suffice it to say, it will all be OK as soon as we get this current job finished, so we can get paid.

I didn't want to deprive my children of Halloween decorations and fun, but couldn't justify replacing the old worn out decorations, considering the financial restraints we are currently experiencing.

So I broke out some of my Halloween themed magazines and found some really cute decorations that required only a little planning, a little effort, and a little time.

My girls and I made "Ghost Jugs" to line the walkway in front of our home. I notified everyone in the house, not to throw away any milk jugs, but to rinse them out and put them with the others. We saved bunches of plastic milk jugs. I cut a hole in the bottom of each with an Exacto knife. As I began the job of cutting out the holes, I quickly realized that someone had forgotten to "wash" some of the jugs! Nothing like old soured milk odor to get you in that Halloween, holiday mood! : )It reminded me of the phrase in "Thriller"...the funk of 40,000 years...lol. That was pretty smelly, but luckily I had plenty that were properly cleaned. The girls drew faces on the jugs, then we stuffed about 8 white lights (on a strand of 50, with bulbs about 6 inches apart ) into each of them and placed them outside to guard our home, through the long, Halloween nights.

What fun we had making them, how easy they were to make, and how proud are my girls to have been creative enough, to be the originators of such cute ghouls, to illuminate our front lawn.

I posted a picture to share with you how cute these little ghosties are. I hope to bring another easy, inexpensive Halloween decoration to you, that we plan to make with dowels, newspaper and trash bags. Keep watching for it...