Halloween Candy on Budget

By Mary B

Halloween is fast approaching. Whether your children go trick or treating in the school parking lot from car to car, or in your neighborhood, you will want lots of candy on hand – even if it’s just for you and you use the kid’s holiday as the excuse.

Did you know candy freezes well?  Did you also know you can buy your candy in bulk either at Costco and BJs and save big bucks?  Or, you can do what I do, and stagger it.

Instead of going out on Oct 30 and finding whatever is left over, and paying full price, even if at one of the bulk stores, try staggering your purchases over the next few weeks.  All stores, from CVS to ShopRite will have their candy on sale in varying degrees during the month of October.  Each week set aside an extra $5 from your grocery bill (or whatever you can afford) and buy that week’s special.  By the time Halloween comes you will have a large assortment of candy and you won’t have felt the pinch of spending a portion of your budget as badly (or even at all really) if you had bought all at once.

The key to the success of this plan is hiding the candy once home, both from yourself and wandering eyes and tummies in your household.