The Average Cost of Halloween Per Person…What Do You Think?

It’s been projected that the average cost per person for Halloween this year will be $75. Of course some spend more, some less, and I think it depends on how much you decorate, if you’re throwing a party, and even what kind and how much candy you buy.

I know that the years we threw Halloween parties I had a tendency to spend, and spend, and then spend some more, especially on outdoor decorations, which can be really expensive. And then the wind would knock them down, the deer would trample over them, and the squirrel would chew through the electrical wires. So now I pretty much use a lot of inexpensive spider webs from the dollar store, get creative with colored outdoor bulbs that are pretty cheap, pull out the broken pieces of past Halloween decorations (that I “fix up/hide” with all the spider webs) and call it a day. By day it doesn’t look that great but at night…it all looks spooky and the neighborhood kids love it.

This will be the first time I don’t decorate the inside of our home. Not one skeleton,pumpkin, spider, or witch. Last year I tried decorating with just a few items. You know, a bit of holiday spirit in a “fashionable” way. But once I opened the lids to the dozen or more “Halloween decoration crates,” and started digging through them, well, let’s just say our house looked like its usual kind of over-decorated, claustrophobic, could rival any holiday store based on quantity kind of look. Oh it looks good that first day but after that, it’s a bit much and I spend a lot of time rehanging things up the cats pulled down. I admit I’m going though withdrawal but I’m not putting out one single decoration this year. (Except for the outside, cause I have like 25 bags of spider webs and need to do something with them!)

When I do buy indoor Halloween decorations, I buy the bulk of them from thrift and dollar stores where you can get them pretty cheap. But it does still add up.

We’re  not dressing up this year and since I’m not buying any new decorations, we’ll spend way less than the average $75 per person. (Which might compensate for the years I went way over the average cost.)

And then of course there’s the expense of candy. And the decision of what kind to buy and how much. I try to follow the sales, buy some good stuff the kids will like, and buy just the right amount but seriously, I either have a ton left over or find myself running to the store to buy more because we’re about to run out. We’ve had years where frigid temperatures and snow kept the kids indoors and we had maybe 5 trick-or-treaters and then we’ve had warm, dry weather where there are hundreds of little ones ringing the bell.

One year both my husband and I were sick so I put out a big bowl of candy with a note saying “Happy Halloween, Please Only Take 2 Pieces”…the entire bowl was empty in oh, about 5 minutes. I did not run to the store that night but rather, just turned the lights off and felt like a bit of a Scrooge.

The candy…it’s what I spend the most time on thinking about. Those really good, big bars of chocolates are expensive and if you live in a neighborhood with a lot of trick-or-treaters, you can easily spend $30 or more just on candy. If I get the super cheap candy, I overcompensate and give out handfuls at a time, which means I run out faster and have to go buy more. I will admit, I hand out the candy I personally don’t like first so if there are leftovers, well, I get to enjoy them.

What Do You Think?

Do you think spending around $75 per person for Halloween is about average, on the high side, or on the low side? What do you spend more money on; the candy, costumes, party supplies, or decorations? And when do you stop handing out candy? Is there a cut-off time when you turn off the lights or do you keep handing it out as long as it lasts?