Save on sweets
Sweet prices have gone up as the cost of ingredients and production have risen. A Haribo Starmix 22-pack from Tesco now costs £3, up from £2.35 last year.
Meanwhile, the price of chocolate on shop shelves climbed by 18.1% in the year to September, according to official figures.
To keep your Halloween outlay low, bulk-buy and check packets. “Choose individually wrapped treats – they last longer, stay hygienic and reduce waste if they’re not all handed out,” says Zoe Morris, a savings expert from VoucherCodes. “Only buy sweets your household enjoys – that way, any leftovers won’t go to waste.”
Morris recommends comparing the cost per kilogram, but if you are giving a treat to each person who comes, the number in each bag will be as important.
At the time of writing, the retailer B&M was selling a Tricky Treats Popping Candy multipack of 36 sweets for £1. At Morrisons there is a 16-pack of Swizzels Luscious Lollies for £1.25 – or £1 if you have a More Card – while Asda has the Haribo Share the Happy 22-bag multipack, for £1.98.
DIY your costumes
Raiding your wardrobe and using clothes you already own is one of the best ways to save. A black top paired with some DIY ears made with an old headband and some black card cut into triangles, makes for a mysterious black cat.
While a vampire costume from Amazon costs about £20, your local charity shop may have a cheap white shirt that you can accessorise with a length of black material and makeup. These can also be reused or repurposed.
Get creative with props: stick some googly eyes on a black umbrella and attach dangling thick strands of fabric to make a spooky spider, or add fake blood stains (flour, water and red food colouring) to some damaged old clothes to be a zombie.
Ditch the wasteful decor
British shoppers buy an average of 10 Halloween items every year, a report for Gumtree in 2024 found, with many ending up in landfill.
“People think impressive Halloween decorations require expensive props from specialist shops, but some of the most effective scares come from simple materials you already have,” says Jessie Brooks, the product manager at the art kit website Davincified.
This includes cutting out spooky shapes on cardboard (from £1 a pack at The Works) – think bats, spiders or creepy hands, and hanging them from ceilings or on doors and windows.
Make floating ghosts using white balloons or old white sheets, and glow sticks (£1.50 for a pack of 15 from Tesco). Plant pots could be styled to look like pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns by using a marker pen, or sticking on adhesive felt in the shape of the eyes, nose and mouth.
If you do want to purchase decorations, make sure they can be reused year after year. Cancer Research stocks a spider doorstop for £6.99 – perfect to display in October but practical all year round. Look ahead, and go to charity shops during November to pick up people’s no-longer-wanted bits from this Halloween often at a fraction of the price.
Plan shared activities
“Hosting at home, or heading to a house party, can also be much cheaper than going out,” says James Andrews, a money expert at the website Be Clever With Your Cash.
For families, some Halloween activities and days out could cost a family of four more than £130, with Legoland Windsor’s Brick or Treat events starting at £34 a head.
For a low-cost alternative, host a Halloween party with cheap, or free, games. These could include apple bobbing (a six-pack bag of apples from Asda costs 99p). Place them in a big bowl of water and participants have to grab an apple with their mouths. Or pin the wart on the witch’s nose – a Halloween version of pin the tail on the donkey.
You could recreate the theme park experience by putting together a living room haunted house, using DIY decorations and fancy dress. Use string to make spiders’ webs, add cardboard-cutout silhouettes to windows for a spooky feel and download a free sound effects app. Hide your phone or speaker while the noises of creaking doors, distant screams or chains rattling play in the background.
“Halloween is all about creativity,” says Andrews. “And with a little planning, you can enjoy all the thrills without giving your wallet a fright.”
Save on your pumpkin
Most supermarkets have discounts at this time of year. Sainsbury’s was selling carving pumpkins for £2 (or £1.75 with a Nectar card), while Asda does one for £1.88. For those on an even tighter budget, Tesco’s munchkin pumpkins are 60p (or two for £1 with a Clubcard), and Aldi’s only 42p.
Have a day out at a free-to-enter pumpkin patch. There are many around the UK, including Orway Porch farm in Devon, Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire, and South farm in Rodmell, East Sussex.
And do not think the pumpkin has to be thrown away after it has been carved – if it is in a good state and washed, eat it. Roast the body and blend the flesh for soups and purees. There are many seasonal recipes to choose from. Try pumpkin and parmesan crumble, Mauritian curry or a pickle.
However, do not use any that have been left outside or exposed to flames, because of bacteria.
Get deals on spooky films
Nothing conjures up the Halloween spirit more than a horror film, or a family-friendly spooky movie. Look out for offers on films to watch at home – Sky Store has newly released films such as Weapons and 28 Years Later on sale.
Make the most of TV streaming, as many have added seasonal films. Netflix has movies such as Beetlejuice and The Witches, Disney+ has The Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus, and Amazon Prime streams classics such as Corpse Bride.
Many of these services offer free trials, so you could sign up to one, binge-watch all the scary films you like, and then cancel before you are rolled over into a full paid-for subscription.
Alternatively, save on fees by opting for a with-ads service – at Disney+ and Netflix they now cost £5.99 a month.
Some cinemas do special deals. Cineworld is hosting Halloween screenings for £5.99 a ticket – with films including A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge and The Descent. If you are in London, Time Out has opened a popup outdoor cinema, with tickets going for £6.66. Films being shown include Addams Family Values and Gremlins.
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