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How many times have you waited for the stores to
finally receive their Halloween stock only to find yourself short of cash? Or had some unforeseen
event drain your pocket book at the last minute? The key is to start building your
Halloween mad money through-out the year, not just in October. Budgeting for
Halloween can be a difficult task, and with only two months
separating it from Christmas, it's even harder. There are so
many great Halloween props, costumes and decorations to buy
or make and so little money!
Start A Pumpkin Bank
 Always trying to find new ways having more funds
by Halloween, my wife and I bought a small plastic pumpkin several years ago to act as our
Halloween savings bank. At the end of each day we both drop our change into the
"pumpkin
bank". You can collect a lot of change over the course of a year and throwing it into a
jack-o-lantern reminds us of what we are saving for. If you collect the amount of change
that we do, you may have to empty it a few times. Just remember to save it for Halloween!
We average well over a hundred dollars ever year!
Open A Halloween Savings Account
You've heard of the old Christmas Club Accounts, why not
a Halloween Account. Open a savings account at your local bank or savings and loan. From
every pay check make a deposit into the account. Even if it's a small amount, ten
or twenty dollars, you'll end up with a nice chunk of cash that will come in
handy by October.
Have A Garage Sale
 Holding a garage or yard sale in August or early
September is a great way to infuse your pre-Halloween funds. Plus it clears out more space
in your garage for Halloween stuff! When picking things out for your garage sale, always
remember "If you haven't used it in a year, seriously consider
sell it!" And think of all the
wonderful things you'll be able to build or purchase for your upcoming
Halloween haunt! If you have
neighbors that want to get in on it, make a co-op out of it. It's a great way to get your
neighbors on your street to dress up their houses for Halloween as well.
Some quick
sellers at most yard sales include:
Books
you don't intend to read again
Old Computer and Video Games
Video Cassette Tapes and DVD's
Music CD's, Cassette Tapes and Vinyl Records
Old Computers and Game Systems
Dolls, Action Figures and Toys
Unwanted Clothing
Here's a
perfect example. We recently went through our storage boxes and found that we had over three
hundred movies on video tape, all of which we had already
replaced with DVD's. We priced these for only a dollar a
piece and sold them all the first day of our garage sale.
Auction Off Unwanted Items
 You probably
have hundreds, if not thousands of dollars worth of unused
items just
laying around the house or stored in your garage that you
can auction off on eBay. You may not think that anyone would
possibly buy the things you intend to discard, but remember
the old adage, "One person's' trash is another person's
treasure". While selling online does take more attention and
time, you can often get more money for your unwanted stuff
than you would selling them at a garage sale. Selling off
these things will also help to will cut down on clutter in
your home and storage.
Recycling
 Be
sure to save all of your aluminum
cans, plastic containers, glass bottles and other recyclables
through-out the year, so that you can take them to a recycling center
in October and trade them in for cash. We keep a tall
plastic trash can in our utility room specifically for
putting all of our recyclables in. When it fills up, we
transfer its contents to large lawn bags and store them in
the garage until we take a trip to the local recycling
center for our reward. Of equal importance to having extra
money to buy Halloween products with, is that recycling is a great way to help
preserve our natural resources and protect the environment.
And be sure to save some of your Halloween
budget for the after Halloween sales. You can find some great deals and you'll kick
yourself if you have to miss them. We know, we do it every year!
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