Halloween on a Shoestring

How to have a happy Halloween without breaking your budget.

Retailers make a nice bit of money on Halloween. Here are some ideas to help you beat the costs of costumes. Look to see what your child has in their dress up trunk. If your child is willing, you might be able to use what you have in there.

You can easily make a costume even if you're not handy with a sewing machine. Basic costumes start with sweat pants and sweat shirt. Instead of using a regular sweat shirt, use a hooded sweatshirt to embellish. If you live in a warmer climate, you can use leggings or knit pants and a long sleeve shirt. A few costumes that lend themselves well here are: mouse, cat and dog. On a hooded sweatshirt, you can baste on ears, stuff and stitch on a tail, put on cotton or any light-weight gloves and add on paw prints. You can also baste on spots and tummys. Use felt for ears, spots and such. With a little creativity if you use bigger size sweats, you can turn your child into an elephant. To make a trunk, use either out-grown gray knit pants, or pants found at a thrift shop. Cut off one of the legs to make the size trunk you'll need, stuff with fiber fill or newspapers, stitch close at both ends, add elastic to one end to fit around your child's head to keep the trunk on. With a black marker, make trunk nostrils on the other end. Kiddo doesn't want to be an animal this year? Add a cape and turn them into their favorite superhero, Dracula, wizard or Little Red Riding Hood. To make a cape, you can use an old solid-color tablecloth, or get a few yards of material and check out Fellowship Cloak Pattern. To see more ideas and get your creativity started, see Martha Stewart Halloween ideas.

Talk to you children about Halloween safety. The most basic rules of safe trick-or-treating are using flashlights, putting reflector tape on costumes and staying with your group. Hopefully all children know they should not open goodies before parents check all items. Check out this list for more treat safety from the Dept of Agriculture. There are more safety tips at the menu on the left of this page. Do not hesitate to throw something out if you are unsure about it. You may also take the treats to your local courthouse or family court to pass through their scanner.

Are you planning the party this year? Check out EHO's Celebrations on a Shoestring for fall celebrations.

Prepare a delicious, healthy meal before your family heads out the door for trick-or-treating. CBS's Chef on a Shoestring treats you to Crispy Nori Bats with Sea Salt, Mini-Pumpkins with Angel Hair and Grilled Chicken Breast (and Peanut Dipping Sauce), and Scary Spider Cake whose guts run green when cut in the center - just like a stepped on spider!

your Halloween ideas please!

Easy Ghost decoration project Take white card stock or construction paper. Trace childs foot on the white paper. Heel of the foot is the ghost's head. Put eyes, mouth etc... at the heel end with black paper or marker. Hang with a string. Posted by reader Melissa

Jack-O-Lantern Pie 1 cup boiling water 1 (4 oz) package orange flavor Jell-o 1 pint vanilla ice cream; softened (2 cups) 1 prepared chocolate flavor crumb crust thawed non-dairy whipped topping or whipping cream candy corn black licorice, cut into 1 inch pieces Stir boiling water into gelatin in medium bowl 2 minutes or until completely dissolved. Spoon in ice cream, stirring until melted and smooth. Refrigerate 10 minutes or until slightly thickened (consistency of unbeaten egg whites). Spoon into crust. Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm. Just before serving, make Jack-O-Lantern face on pie with whipped topping, candy corn and licorice. Want more Halloween recipes? Click here or here.

Pumpkin Juice 2 cups diced pumpkin 2 cups apple juice 1 teaspoon honey ½ cup pineapple juice Juice the pumpkin and add the pumpkin juice to the pineapple and apple juice. Add honey and blend in a blender. Serve iced. Sweet Pumpkin Dip 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin 2 cups sifted powdered sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1 serving of sliced fruit, bite-size cinnamon graham crackers, gingersnap cookies, toasted mini-bagles, toast slices, muffins or English muffins Beat cream cheese and pumpkin in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Add sugar, cinnamon and ginger to the pumpkin and cream cheese mixture and mix thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for one hour. Serve as a cip or spread. Makes 5 cups. Want more Halloween recipes? Click here or here.

Five Little Pumpkins Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate, (Hold up fingers for pumpkins) The first one said 'Oh my! It's getting late!' The second one said 'There are witches in the air!' The third one said 'But we don't care!' The fourth one said 'Let's run and run and run!' The fifth one said 'It's Halloween fun!' Oooooooo went the wind, And out went the lights. (Clap hands on the word 'out') And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight. (Roll hands)

The Witches' Spell Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubbble. Fillet of a fenny snake In the cauldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble. Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubbble. —by William Shakespeare— Want more Halloween rhymes? Click here.

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