Tips For An Affordable Halloween Party

Throwing your own Halloween Party at home does not need to be expensive.

It’s easy to go over your spending limit without a plan. It’s also easy to create a memorable Halloween party with minimal dollars at your disposal.  Utilizing cheap solutions and repurposing items is our goal!

Let me share with you some of my favorite Halloween decorations and cheap game ideas that don’t break the bank.

Outside Halloween Party Decorations

You want your party guests to immediately feel the Halloween party mood as they are walking towards your door.

Here are some ideas for the outside:

• Line your driveway or walkway with pumpkins (they can be real or fake)
• Add DIY hanging bats wherever possible (see below on instructions)
• Place cobwebs with plastic spiders over bushes and doors
• Line a walkway with fake candles
• Place a fog machine near your entrance or along a pathway
• Take skeleton parts and place them in your yard
• Perch fake black birds on fences
• Create bloody handprint windows by using finger paint or food coloring – This can also be done to garage doors!
• Utilize old white sheets to hang outside – cut some eyeballs in them to create a ghost figure
• Silhouettes in windows can easily be created by cutting shapes out of black construction paper and placing a light behind them
• Cut eye shapes into toilet paper rolls and place colored glow sticks inside. Place the filled sticks into bushes.

DIY Hanging Bats:

• Print or draw a half‑bat template, fold cardstock, trace, and cut.
• Fold each wing slightly upward (using a bone folder or smooth edge) to create depth.
• Punch a small hole—in the body for upside-down or through the head/wings for flying stance.
• Attach fishing line or black thread, cut to various lengths for that layered, flying effect.
• Adhere to the ceiling with clear tape or removable adhesive.

Inside Halloween Party Decorations

My favorite go-to Halloween decoration (on a budget or not) is creepy black cloth. Basically, I hang it all over my house. I put it directly over all my normal cute stuff and this cloth turns it evil looking.

I think it actually makes my dining room look better. There’s something about it that brings the room together

I love the fact that I can use scissors to cut it to the size I want. I hang it over a variety of light fixtures I have in my home and can customize larger holes or shorter length as needed.

Inside Halloween Party Decoration Ideas List:

• Spider Webs – these are so cheap from the dollars store. Stretch them thin and add them everywhere.
• Take orange balloons and draw jack-o-lantern faces on them.
• Take black balloons, add some wings, and add bat faces to the front of the balloon
• No need to remove family photos! Add cut out images to the photos or splatter some red washable paint onto the glass. Add red eyes to the people in the images using red dot cut outs or red markers
• Create mini tombstones by cutting cardboard into shape and adding names or sayings to the front with markers
• Add creepy messages to your mirrors using red lipstick
• Creepy curtains can be created in doorways by cutting strips in black trash bags and hanging
• Cut more DIY bats and place them on the ceiling or on a wall
• Grab a bucket of fake spiders or bugs and scatter them in unexpected areas of your home

Halloween Candle Tea Lights

There’s something about candles. They can change the mood to spooky in an instant.

Halloween isn’t Halloween without candles. Although I love a great melting candle as much as the next person, I have kids and you’re having a party. Anyone could knock something over and nobody wants to be the one who did it.

These candles come in a huge pack of twenty-four for cheap. Spread them out. Use some of the garland or flowers we talked about earlier and design your own spooky centerpiece.

Halloween Balloons

Although I’m all for the creepy and scary items, Halloween balloons are a cheap way to set the mood.

Perhaps you’re throwing a child’s party or there’s an area that you have designated for snacks and such.

Off subject a bit, but for Christmas, I have a room off to the side completely decorated with a Grinch theme. The rest of my house is more of a traditional type “pretty” Christmas. This one room is the fun room and it totally works.

I think of the balloons like that. The rest of your vibe can be scary and creepy. Then you walk into the party room or outside on the back patio and it’s balloons and Happy (not creepy) Halloween galore.

Perhaps you’ve found this article on Pinterest and you’re super crafty and you’re capable of making a balloon arch.

Baby Dolls or Stuffed Animals

Baby dolls, when decorated in Halloween gore and sometimes even when not, can be quite creepy.

See if you have any old dolls or stuffed animals around your house. (I have way too many.) You could also head over to your local Goodwill or yard sales to grab some for cheap.

Be creative. Cut out the eye balls. Switch the heads. I love spray paint so spray on some blood or place them in a pool of “blood” with a fake knife jammed in their skull. (Wow, that sounded demented.)

The Spider

This 5ft spider is (currently!) a steal for less than $20 on Amazon.

I love propping this guy up against the house so it looks like he’s climbing.

If there’s a certain area (like stairs) in your home that you are trying to get people from entering, placing this guy right in front would stop anyone.

Add a massive amount of cheap spider web around him and the mood is set. (Full disclosure: I hate how difficult it is to get all the spider web strings up.)

Halloween Party Games

Crickets And Keys In A Jug

I really do not like creepy crawly things. That said, most people don’t and this is a super fun game to play at Halloween that won’t hurt anyone.

Purchase a canister of crickets at your local pet store.

Purchase a master lock with a bunch of keys. Place the keys into a large jug with a hole in the lid just large enough to fit a person’s arm so that they can reach down to the bottom of the jug. Pour all of the crickets on top.

One of the keys at the bottom will open the master lock. What you plan to open with the master lock is your choice. It could open a box filled with candy. You could have someone locked in a closet and this opens the door (eek!).

If you don’t want to mess with buying keys, purchase a lock with a code.  On small pieces of paper, write #1 – (first digit), #2 – (second digit), #3 (third digit), and so on, depending on how many digits it takes to open your lock.  Place the folded up pieces of paper into the jug instead of keys.

It’s fun if you have multiple groups trying to go against each other. The only downside is that you’ll have to have multiple jugs of keys and crickets. (Set the crickets free after. 🙂 )

Bobbing For Apples

Classic game. However, I don’t like the idea of getting soaked or my guests getting soaked. Especially when they are most likely wearing cool outfits and could have face makeup on that they spent a good length of time making perfect.

That said, try bobbing for apples tied on strings from a tree or posts.

Apples are hard to grasp without your hands regardless if they are hanging or floating. If you do not have anywhere to hang the apples, you could make this more of a relay. Place everyone in groups of two. One person is to pick up an apple without their hands from a table covered in apples. They then run over and “pass” to their partner without using hands. The partner then carries to apple with their teeth over to a final bucket that will be counted once a timer goes off.

It helps if the partners like each other. 🙂

Marbles And Worms

Have a cardboard box filled with a few marbles and a lot of worms. Add some dirt so your worms are happy and your guests are a little grossed out when they see the marbles covered in black and brown mush. Don’t let anyone know that there are worms inside. To your guests, it’s simply an unknown “creature”.

Cut a whole out of the top of the box that is large enough to fit your hand.

Set a timer and see who can grab the most marbles before time is up.

Halloween Movie Trivia

Give the classic movie trivia game a twist and make it Halloween themed.

Have two (or more) teams that are going against each other. As the creator of the questions, you can be the one asking. First team to call out an answer, gets a point.

Depending how many teams you have and how many questions you have come up with, determine how many questions a single team needs to get correct in order to win the game.

If you want an easy way out and don’t have time to look up questions and create cards, check out this alternative on Amazon.

Shots – Alcoholic Or Not

Take out some shot glasses and come up with your craziest ingredients.

Depending on the ages at your party, alcohol may be included.

Label them with creative, gross names that will have your guests guessing what they just drank.

Some suggestions:

• Pickle Juice – Marked as Alien brain juice.
• Lemon Juice – Marked as Werewolf pee.
• Tomato Juice – Marked as Spider blood.

Final Thoughts

Throwing a party for Halloween can be super cheap if you can get a little creative.

The best part about Halloween is the fact that you can repurpose so many items that you already have.

Guests are going to already come in dressed with stories to tell about their costume or any costume fails that they had. The initial conversations are going to flow naturally.

Consider having a theme for your party. “Creatures of the night” or “Witches and Warlocks” immediately come to mind. Have some spooky music playing in the background.

If you’re looking for Halloween themed party food, check out AllRecipes.com page on Halloween Recipes. If you want an adorable Charcuterie Board, here’s one for you:

Have fun!