When it comes to throwing a successful Halloween party, we believe the more terrifying, outlandish and bizarre it is, the better. In a word: go big or go home. But with Halloween just around the corner, turning your humble home into the dungeons of hell needn't give you nightmares - at least not because of the cost. Fortunately, we've spotted some fantastic (and affordable) essentials you can pick up on the high street or online to make hosting a party on Fright Night less of a frightening financial situation and more of a fun knees up. Set the scene with some top notch spooky decorations. Budget stores Wilko, B&M and Poundland all have plenty of good decorations for under a fiver. 's range of wall stickers, lanterns, balloons and pinatas - and there are plenty for under £10. If you really have no cash to splash, get crafty and start making your own spooky decorations out of any old household bits you may have lying around - or enlist the kids. This is probably the one time Mary Berry and co wouldn't judge you on a less than perfect bake.

In fact, we would go as far as saying the more freaky and misshapen your cakes are the better. Daily Mirror columnist Nadia Sawalha has some easy Halloween recipe ideas. If you're not up for DIY on the food, major supermarkets like Asda and Tesco have a wide range of pre-prepared party food on offer for the festivities. Halloween isn't Halloween without OD'ing on Haribo Horror Mix. Aside from regular supermarket chains like Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury's, there's also fun retro sweet hampers you can pick up from Amazon for £10 or less. If whipping out that dusty Ouija board and summoning evil spirits isn't quite your idea of fun there are some less terrifying games you can play. eBay has an excellent selection of cheap Halloween games, including pin the smile on the skeleton for £1.95 (see what they did there?) and Halloween bingo, for £5.99. Prep your Spotify playlist with 'Thriller' and the Ghostbusters theme tune to get your guests on the dancefloor. Alternatively, whack on this Halloween Party mix from iTunes and party the night away listening to Meat Loaf's 'Bat Out of Hell' and Bobby Pickett's 'Monster Mash'.

What's Halloween without some pumpkin carving. Not only is it a cheap way to keep the kids entertained, but they also double up as great decorations around the house. average price to paint the outside of a houseTake advantage of this spooktacular day by concocting some lethal cocktails for guests. cheap home decor ebayTake a look at our list of cocktail recipes and expertly whip up a Bat Bite or Screaming Banana Banshee for your guests.christmas tree decorations to make free patterns Halloween ideas, cheap deals and handy tipsbest brand of exterior door paint

Best Halloween pumpkin carving ideas How to carve a pumpkinThere are two kinds of Halloween Decorations: The kind of perfectly darling twee decorations on Pinterest, and the kind that my 7-year-old son wants to put everywhere.victoria home decor stores A snapshot of our house this last weekend:diy wall decor paper H: “Mom, when are we going to put up the Halloween decorations?” Me: “There’s a ghost pillow on the couch.” H: “A pillow is not Halloween decorations. I’m talking about scary decorations. Like cobwebs everywhere and ghosts over the doors and windows, and graves in the front yard.” That = “scary” to him.) Me: “Do you know how much graves cost? That’s a whole thing. I’m not sure that’s in the budget.” (This is my standard response to graves and cobwebs.)

H: “Let’s go to the dollar store then. Then, it’s just like a dollar.” Let me stop here and ask, do you know about the dollar store?…the dollar store being a concept. This was a whole new thing to me when we moved to Central Texas. To my knowledge, there were zero dollar stores anywhere near me in downtown Houston. Within five miles of my house in Central Texas, there are at least six dollar stores that I know of. The dollar store is a thing here, y’all. And not all dollar stores are built alike. Most of them have some things that cost a dollar and lots of things that cost more than a dollar, but there’s this one dollar store chain that is true to its name. Everything inside is exactly a dollar, no more no less, and that’s the one we go to. So anyway, to add to the few hacks we did last year, we went to the dollar store and outfitted our whole house for not very much at all. Pin bat cut outs on ribbons and hang them from the chandeliers. Here's a step by step on this.

In the end, I still somehow ended up with graves in my front yard. But at least there are no cobwebs. Well, no fake cobwebs anyway.If you are still looking for easy and cheap Halloween decorations we found some great ideas of how to decorate your home for Halloween at lowest cost by using trash bags. You can make from them ghosts, spiders and several other interesting decorations. Check also: 22 Super Easy Halloween Decorations and Crafts You Can Make Yourself Tutorial: The Pink Pixie Forest Via Make The Best of Things Via Party Girl To Crunchy Mama5 Ways to Skip Halloween Candy — Without Getting Your House Egged It's an age-old question … or at least one asked by those health-conscious no-good-doers: What can neighbors give out to kids on Halloween night that won't contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic? Many ideas out there will surely get your house egged or worse. Hand out bookmarks or spooky pencils? Why not just label which garage windows you want the disgruntled children to soap?

A list of healthy alternatives on a Clemson University website includes bean dip. Fun times in South Carolina, for sure. Other ideas bantered about on the Internet are well-intentioned, but ultimately impractical. Spooky toys and decorations? News flash: Halloween is over by the end of the night. Vampire teeth just don't have the same impact on Nov. 1.That's kind of, well, expensive. Candy costs less than 10 cents apiece. Handing out a dime seems rather cheap. And don't even think of trying 10 pennies. That's very expensive, and big kids — the kind who can TP your house — don't care much for "creative" toys. What follows is a list of five candy alternatives for Halloween that are practical in terms of expense, trick-or-treaters' health, acceptability among a wide swath of ages, and safety to home and person from mischievous pranks. [13 Halloween Superstitions & Traditions Explained] Glow sticks and finger lights: Glow sticks cost about $1 for a pack of 15, on par with the price of small pieces of candy, or about 7 cents each.

Online, you can buy them in bulk for as low as a pack of 100 for $5. LED finger lights are much cooler, but will set you back $6 for a pack of 40, or 15 cents per kid. The only downside, which isn't entirely insignificant, is that you're creating a lot of trash for landfills. Mini-packs of pretzels, raisins or dried fruit: These are marginally acceptable by the kids, and you reduce the impact on landfills that glow sticks bring. But with these, you're getting up into the 20-cents-per-kid range, and you likely aren't saving any teeth. These foods may be lower in calories than a candy bar, but their carbohydrate base and ability to stick to the teeth ultimately promote tooth decay. Batch of warm, low-sugar cookies: Hear me out on this one. The kids will either eat them immediately and happily, or their parents will toss them out later because they don't trust their origin. Either way, your house and wallet are safe. Temporary tattoos: With an amazing variety of choices — dinosaurs, butterflies, pirates, zoo animals and the like — you can probably please trick-or-treaters of any age.