How to have a 'spooktacular' Halloween on a budget

This weekend is Halloween and with trick or treating and the usual traditions of the day being curtailed by Covid-19 this year, more and more people will be doing Halloween at home this year.

For youngsters, that will still mean wanting to dress up and decorate the house in a spooky way for a fun night.

And like with anything, a good bit of planning and preparation can really reduce costs and stress, two things you don’t want to be dealing with come Halloween with the kids.

Luckily, the people at Hillarys have compiled a list of tricks and treats you can do to help you decorate your house on a budget this Halloween.

Use your old white bed sheets or scrap fabric

Bed sheets are a fabulously easy way to make decorations around the house and they’re a fantastic way to get your children involved.

For a simple yet eerie effect, drape sheets over all of your living room furniture for that abandoned house look, or drape a white bed sheet over something and with washable black ink or using black paper, create a spooky ‘ghost face’.

For an outfit idea, how about cutting or tearing old sheets into long strips of fabric that can be wound around arms, legs and torsos for a great ‘mummy’ costume?

Old clothes

Get creative with your old clothes and shoes by turning them into monsters, ghosts or vampires and all things associated with Halloween.

An unusual favourite for Halloween decorations is old stockings or tights.

With a bit of imagination these can be transformed into spooky cobwebs around the house or tattered curtains for windows and door frames.

Collect your old jars and bottles

Whether they’re lined up on your windowsill or carefully made into holders for garden candles, empty bottles and jars are incredibly versatile.

Using paints, paper and stickers, you can transform your bottles and jars into whatever scary creatures you like, or fill them with a string of battery operated fairly lights to turn them into spooky lanterns.

Old jars are great for creating creepy ‘pickled’ items; print out scary faces, or put unusual objects inside the jars, then fill with water and a dash of green or red food colouring.

Free garden material

If you’re looking for free items to decorate your house with, there is no better place to look than to nature itself.