Halloween decorating is our family’s all-time favorite part of the year!! We have an entire closet filled with totes of halloween decor in our house and I love it. What I don’t love, though, is spending money on something that only comes out for a few weeks each year. So today I’ve compiled a list of my favorite Halloween decorations – all for under $10!!
Halloween is one of the best times of the year. The smells, the cooler air, and all of the decorations just put you into a fantastic mood. Being parents, however, sometimes you spend so much time on your kids’ costumes that you don’t have enough time to put something together for yourself. And maybe you’re thinking, “But, Amber, I’m an adult! I don’t need a costume!!”
Looking for easy Dr. Seuss birthday party ideas? Dr. Seuss may seem like a cliche party idea, but when Target has a bunch of Dr. Seuss goodies in their dollar bin, what’s a thrifty guardian to do?! So in July of last year, my daughter’s 2nd birthday theme was settled….7 months in advance. Yay for being prepared!
Let’s have some fun with scary stories of being cheap, eh? As a thrifty person, I do everything I can to avoid spending money on things that I find superfluous. Well, ok, maybe not everything…
I make meticulous grocery lists that involve buying meat or vegetables on sale and freezing them. I utilize Facebook resale pages to get the most out of each dollar, particularly when it comes to kids’ clothes, and I haven’t had cable for years now, a feat I give credit to both Hulu, and a lack of time to actually watch shows (also called having children).
With Halloween fast-approaching, perhaps it’s time we examined some of the most hair-raising ways that people have been known to save money.
Now some of those might sound a bit extreme to certain people, particularly if you’re not a spendaphobe like me, and that’s fine. We all find our way in our own terms. That said, there’s a handful of extreme cases of frugality that I cannot personally subscribe to, no matter how useful they might be.
Be warned: this is a course in fringe-frugality; in penny-pinching taken to extremes that would make Scrooge McDuck rethink his ways; in getting blood from a stone and being frustrated there wasn’t more.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
This was a story I’d heard a few years ago, on one of those shows like “I’m a Cheapskate” or something similar. A couple, in addition to more practical ways of saving money, had taken to using a paper towel and then carefully “washing” it, and hanging it up to dry in their kitchen. They had little clothes lines running across their sink and over their stove, covered in ghostly white(ish) sheets of paper towels, drying to be used again and again until, having haunted this life well past their deaths, they disintegrated.
I love a good ghost story, but my gosh. GOSH.
A story so foul, it’s illegal in ten states (so if you’re in Ohio or any of the Eastern states, click away now!). This one comes to us from the terror that is dorm life in college. It goes that a young man, determined to save as much money as possible, went out and calculated how much money he’d need to spend to have enough porridge for a semester, eating it morning, noon, and night. He then went out, bought enough raw ingredients to make a massive amount, and filled one of his drawers in his dresser with it. He let it dry, cutting pieces to eat as he went along and felt hungry. Not only is this terror story bland and tasteless, but it harbors the hidden scourge of scurvy! The young man fell victim to the lack of vitamin C (or A, or B, or…any others) in his filling-yet-nutritionally-light meals, narrowly avoiding a brush with the hereafter!
A young man, owing to his desire to avoid paying taxes on his income, avoided a job that paid above board, and for a time, it suited him. As the years went on, however, his tax-free cooking job came with a price; his teeth began to rot from years of neglect. With no insurance to speak of, and with the threat of professional dentistry threatening to wipe out his hard-earned savings from years of fringe-living, he did the only thing he could think of and pulled his own tooth. On cold winter nights on the moors of wherevertherearemoors, you can still hear him moaning “taxation is theft!” only with a weird slur because his mouth is horribly infected. HORROR!
There once was a man (or probably many) who, upon realizing that a penny from 1909 to 1982 was made of copper worth more than the face-value of the coin itself, sought out to gather them all to his lair. Glowering in the darkness, with water jugs full of heavy, smelly coins, he waits for the day that the United States government allows the pennies to be legally destroyed, for on that day, he will have roughly twice as much money as the pennies themselves currently represent, assuming that day ever comes and that copper retains or increases in value.
Mark Pettigro met his girlfriend on a frugal living dating service: www.fruGALSandguys.com. They fell in love instantly, and eventually she wanted him to meet her family. Mark gladly went to their home, and after a dinner, he excused himself to use the restroom. Upon completion of his tasks in the bathroom, he went to find toilet paper, only to realize that where there SHOULD be a roll of paper of varying thickness and softness, instead was simply a towel, of various colors, none of which it started out with. Horrified, he thought perhaps he was simply overlooking it, and he frantically searched, but to no avail. With a creeping, desperate horror, the realization swept over him; these were people who used cloth instead of toilet paper. His descent into madness was swift and horrible, and he was never heard from again. At least, as far as his girlfriend knows – he still goes to work and stuff, but now has a crushing phobia of running out of TP.
My son’s birthday falls near Halloween, so we’ve gotten very good at the groove of spooktacular parties, and while throwing Halloween parties (or any parties, for that matter) can be as elaborate as you want it to be, we’ve mastered the cheap-but-awesome Halloween bash.
Mother’s Day brunch is one of my favorite times of the year, especially when it comes with delicious food! As I covered in my Valentine’s Day post, I think holidays like this should serve as an opportunity to do nothing but enjoy the day as a family. That’s not to say when Mother’s Day comes around, I wouldn’t love a crafty present from my babies, but beyond that, all I want is time…oh and maybe some French Toast Bake…
Yeah, it looks as unhealthy as it is. But it’s such a quick breakfast and is by far the most decadent, mouthwatering dish I’ve ever had.
I don’t normally share recipes (or at least ones that aren’t somewhat healthy) but if ever you were to break your diet over a dish, this one should be it! The best part is that this dish will cost you little money and even less time, especially since you prepare it the night before.
Chances are you already have all of the ingredients necessary to make this succulent dish and it’s sure to make for a great start to your Mother’s Day or Father’s Day celebrations.
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
bread
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar + 3T + additional for sprinkling
Vanilla
Cinnamon
If you prefer it to be a bit more like custard, you can stop there. I prefer to pull it out, slice it up so that caramel bottom runs golden sugar rivers between the slices, then put back in for 5 more minutes.
When you dish the bread, use a spatula to serve it and flip it so that the sugary bottom is now the top. You’ll want to dish it while it’s still hot and you’ll want to do so quickly, before the sugar hardens.
I’m not normally a fan of French toast but this…oh this is so different.
The cooked sugar creates this crisp shell that serves as a perfect complement to the fluffy, rich bread underneath. No syrup is needed, though a warm cup of coffee or a bowl of fresh strawberries would certainly round out what is sure to be one of the best breakfasts you’ve ever had.
Believe me, the whole family will thank you.
