After spending an hour in a Spirit store, I have to say that Halloween has become an expensive holiday. My daughter wanted a four-dollar ink pen with a hooting owl, my husband wanted every giant werewolf and zombie they had, and I wanted pretty much everything else.
But the makeup we wanted for our costumes—little wood sprite wants to be a werewolf, while we’re going to be Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd—was way too expensive, and the costumes were, of course, even more so. Lucky for me, I grew up on a DIY household, as did many Americans. We just have trouble remembering it.So we headed over to the dollar store—or Deals, as our local one is known as—for a couple of gift bags for upcoming birthday parties, and wouldn’t you know that they had TONS of Halloween stuff! From the face paint I needed to the table cloths, cupcake holders, and trinkets for my daughter’s annual Halloween/Birthday party, they’re totally going to be our Halloween central.
The thing is, they also have a lot of stuff that the Spirit store has. No, it’s not as much fun as browsing Spirit—and setting off every display they’ve got set up!—but they have the decorations, the creepy spider web, the Lilliputians and critters that run $6 to $12 at Spirit, only for a buck each. My husband did buy something for $3—an arm to hang from the trunk of our car—but check out these pictures they have and the door knocker above that we bought for a dollar each. Not bad, right? Why spend more when you don’t have to?