Best Money Tips: Ways to Save Money on Halloween

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some awesome articles on ways to save money on halloween, avoiding impulse buying online, and ways to take the work out of work.

9 Ways To Save Money On Halloween — Save money on Halloween by purchasing candy in bulk and making your child's costume. [Parenting Squad]

Avoiding Impulse Buying Online — Avoid impulse buying online by not storing your credit card information in online sites. [The Simple Dollar]

6 Ways to Take the Work Out of Work — To take the work out of work, eat lunch away from your desk. [SavvySugar]

Overcoming Financial Mismanagement: 9 Steps To Financial Freedom — If you want to move towards financial freedom, you must be willing to step outside your comfort zone. [Christian PF]

Save on Groceries and Eat Well — Save on groceries and eat well by buying in bulk and planning ahead. [Debt Free Adventure]

Cleanse And Organize Your Inbox In 10 Simple Steps — To organize your inbox, try using filters and unsubscribing for newsletters. [American Express OPEN Forum]

How to Be a Secret Shopper or Mystery Shopper — Avoid secret shopping scams by steering clear of companies that require you to pay to participate. [Consumerism Commentary]

Cutting Medication Costs — Want to save money on your medications? Ask your doctor to optimize your doses. [The Sun's Financial Diary]

The Worst Things to Purchase with Credit — One of the worst purchases to make with a credit card is an impulse purchase. [I've Paid For This Twice Already]

Tips on Coping with Debt — Overcome your debt stress and anxiety by being proactive. [Moneyhacker]

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5 Places to Save on Halloween Costumes Online

Halloween is one of those times that brings out the foolish spender inside so many of us. We can plan ahead and spend too much by picking the hottest costumes of the year from catalogs, or we can wait til the last minute and spend too much at those outrageously overpriced Halloween superstores. Instead, why not just take the easy route to really cute costumes by shopping for costume bargains online?

One note: All these ideas are a lot easier if you don't set your heart on a specific costume before you start shopping. For kids, if you do a little pre-shopping before having that "what do you want to be" discussion with the kids, you can guide them toward a costume that you already know is a good value on one of these sites. Nefarious parent! (Hey, maybe that's what I'll dress up as. No costume required.)

thredUP, the kids' clothing swap site, is doing special Halloween swaps. For $5 plus the cost of shipping, you can choose a box with a gently used costume. In return, you agree to list a box of clothes for swap and mail it (postage free) when selected by another user. Listed on the site right now are a cow, a lion, a unicorn, and other costumes. (Not only will this save you money, it's also an environmentally-friendly way to get rid of last year's costumes.)
For your high-end costumes, Zulily has multiple Halloween events running through Sept. 30: Le Top costumes and adorable outfits, Rubie's costumes, WishingWear costumes.
Freecycle! Again with the Earth-friendly! If you watch Freecycle listings for the next few weeks you will doubtless see costumes listed, or you can just ask your local Freecycle group for the exact costume you want.
Ebay's Halloween store is currently offering free shipping on "everything Halloween." Not only can you get great deals on used costumes, but it's also a good place to locate new items that finish off the DIY costume, like a pair of ruby slippers for Dorothy.
OldNavy.com. How could you not love this little bumblebee for only $15? Shipping is a flat $7, and if you spend $75 or more, you'll get 20% off your purchase, through 9/30. Maybe you can lump in some clearance-priced back-to-school clothes to get your total up to $75 — if you need them, of course.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

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85 Easy, Frugal Halloween Costume Ideas

I'm not crafty, but I know a good costume idea when I see one. That's why I was overwhelmed with the number of high-quality, affordable DIY costume ideas for adults, kids, and even pets available online and in some of my favorite magazines. Check out these links to some excellent tutorials. Most costumes can be made in a few hours or less — and are done with even the most limited budget!

All You Magazine's 7 Easy Halloween Costumes for Kids — This roundup includes directions for a robot, butterfly, a bunch of grapes, flower girl, baby bat, and lizard.

Family Fun Magazine's 13 Last-Minute Costume Ideas — These can easily be adapted for adults, and they are perfect for the parent who forgot to plan ahead and couldn't buy or make a costume in time for the big holiday! Ideas include Spa Princess and Miss Universe (as well as some "pun-based" ideas that may or may not be as popular).

Woman's Day 15 Print-and-Color Masks — If the weather is chilly, and your costume will be covered by a parka and gloves, anyway, you may want to consider a mask! These printables are easy to color, cut, and wear (and make a super activity for kids to participate in long after the holiday is over).

Like this? How about WD's 7 Super Easy One-Hour Costume Ideas? These include some pretty creative costumes, including my favorite — the mad scientist!

Real Simple's 8 Last-Minute Halloween Costumes — I'm not sure I like the outdated Broccoli Spears idea, but the rest on this list are cute and clever. If you have just a few minutes to throw something together, this is the list for you! (Includes highway, bubble bath, the impressive jellyfish!)

Ready Made's 13 Eleventh Hour Halloween Getups — These tongue-in-cheek costumes are probably best for the ambitious adult, but all of them take little time to create. Choose from Bubble Wrap Man, Cereal Killer, Freudian Slip, and more.

Woman's Day 3 Darling DIY Dog Costumes — These work well for anyone who has a dog too large to squeeze into a infant costume (which can be used for some breeds of dogs). Adapt them for cats, too! (We like the little Frenchman the best.)

Lifehacker's 14 Homemade Halloween Reader Gallery Costumes — There aren't instructions for these super-creative, reader-submitted ideas...but I think you get the picture.

Working Mother's 5 Go-to Halloween Getups — These adorable ideas for younger kids, like ladybug and cowboy, use things you probably have lying around the house (like pantyhose and winter gloves). There are even shortcuts for those of us less motivated moms!

Don't forget Wise Bread! We've got our fair share of tips for simple and creative costumes, too! You can check out our homemade costumes, cheap online shopping sources, cheap and easy kids costumes, and why spending more may be better.

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