Inexpensive DIY Halloween Party

Big R wanted to have a Halloween Party this year.  I thought it sounded fun and jumped on pinterest to start looking for some ideas.  I've been picking up items to use as prizes and treats on Clearance for the last 6 months.  The girls helped me make a lot of the decorations and games.  It was fun to work on these projects together.

Having lost track of what I have spent over such a long period of time, I feel comfortable guessing that I spent about $50 on this party.  Almost everything was purchased at the dollar store or on clearance through oriental trading when they offered free shipping on any order.  We had a lot of snacks, candy and prizes left over so I definitely could have spent less and still had just as great of a party.

There were a total of 10 children at the party ranging in age from 4 - 9. The guests arrived dressed in their Halloween Costumes.  All the kids had a great time.  I heard one little girl tell her mom it was the "Best Party Ever" as she was leaving.

Food:  Zombie Virus and Witches Brew - $1 each Fruit Punch and Root beer from the Dollar Tree with construction paper wrapped around the bottle and labels that I printed out.

Snacks - All $1 or less from Dollar Tree or marked down at Aldi - Honey Wheat Pretzels, Butter Popcorn (2 bags popped), white cheddar popcorn, sour cream and cheddar chips, banana chips

Decorations - We used white balloons with white streamers taped on them to make ghosts.  Plus we used a lot of the decorations we already had.  Here were a couple others:

Bloody Towel - used a really old kitchen towel and food coloring. Unfortunately,
the food coloring didn't dry all the way and I had to take
this down after someone came out of the bathroom with orange hands.

Bright Orange and Green spider webs were everywhere.  

The bloody hand prints were one of the most expensive decorations.
I think I paid $3 but it came with a large sheet of them. We had them all
through the living room and going down into the basement.

Treats and prizes:

Treat Bags - I got packs 6 bags for $1.15 each.  The girls and I had to put them together.
We put glue on the witches and bats and covered them with glitter.  Then
glued them to the bags and I wrote each child's name on their bag.

Prize Table -   Most of these I bought on clearance for $1 - $2 for packs of 12.
At the end of the party, I let the kids take whatever they wanted that was left over.
There were candy goody bags,ghost finger puppets, skull key chains,
monster had tattoos, Frankenstein sticker scenes, Halloween activity
books, glow bracelets, spider rings.

Games: I tried to make the games out of items I had around the house.  

Ring Toss - We did a ring toss using glow in the dark necklaces that I had bought on clearance at the dollar store - $.50 for a pack of 2.  I didn't buy them for the party, just had them on hand because my kids like them so I picked them up when they were cheap.  The kids tossed the necklaces around a pumpkin (already had on hand) a roll of paper towels with a ghost face drawn on it and a roll of toilet paper with a ghost face drawn on it.  

Halloween Bingo - Printed bingo game from a website for free.  Used candy corn as the markers for the Bingo Boards.

Balloon Stomp - We had over 100 balloons in the basement.  About 75% had 1 or 2 pieces of candy in them.  We used tootsie rolls, bubble gum and smarties.

Pass the Pumpkin - This was the kids favorite game of the party.  All the kids sat in a circle and passed the pumpkin around the circle.  We used a small pumpkin we already had on hand and played Halloween music. When the music stopped whoever had the pumpkin was out.  The last person still in, won a prize.  I think we played this 6 or 7 times because everyone liked it so much.

Sucker Pull - Each kid chose a sucker that was stuck into a foam pumpkin.  One sucker had the bottom of the stick colored in with black marker.  The person who pulled out that sucker won a prize.

Bean Bag Toss - Using containers I had on hand like a coffee container, Styrofoam bowls and a peanut can, we decorated the containers using markers, construction paper and glue, all of which we already had on hand.  The bean bags were from a bean bag toss game the girls got for Christmas last year.  I put candy in the containers and if a bean bag landed in the container, the child got to keep the candy.

Pin the spider on the web - Drew a spider web on a large piece of poster board.  Then drew spiders on construction paper and cut them out; added double stick tape to the backs of the spiders.  Used a sleep mask Big R had for the blind fold.