Halloween – in thriver words

Make This Week Less Spooky

skeleton mask made of tile pieces in green, brown, and turquoise on black background

Let’s make this week less spooky for children! No matter how you feel about their parents’ work ethic, choices, or government subsidy programs, there are children who are hungry and about to be hungrier. This is not their fault.

Instead of leaving our most vulnerable in the frightening position of wondering whether there will be food to eat, we can choose to make their lives less scary. When a child comes to your door this week (if you have the funds available) consider one small action to make their next week better. Provide nutritious food along with treats.

You don’t have to break the bank or do anything heroic. Do whatever feels comfortable. Think of it as a community potluck. If we each add a nutritious offering to our candy bowl, we cumulatively provide a meal.

If your budget is tight, you may still have options: check the laundry change jar (or swear jar if that’s more lucrative); skip a meal out; or take the opportunity to clean out the pantry. This is also a great time to utilize discounts for purchasing in bulk.

Here are a few ideas for items to consider including: (Peanuts are a common allergen.)

Beef jerky or other meat sticks
Tuna pouches
Vienna sausages
Sardines
Snack size packages of nuts
Individual peanut, almond, or cashew butter
Peanut butter crackers
Cheese crackers
Instant oatmeal
Instant grits
Individual cartons of shelf stable milk
Individual mac & cheese
Ramen noodles
Individual cereal
Protein bars
Freeze dried vegetable snacks
Boxes of raisins or craisins
Applesauce pouches
Veggie and fruit pouches
Baby food jars or pouches
Microwave popcorn (the bulk helps fill a hungry belly)
Individual microwave rice

If you have survival food that needs to be rotated, you may want to consider a brown bag station that offers family meals containing items like beef, beans, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, instant eggs, and powdered milk. Include those ketchup, mustard, mayo, soy sauce, and cheese packets you’ve saved from takeout meals.

You can make meal/supply bags using canned options as well – soup, chili, vegetables, chicken, and tuna. A real treat for families could include high quality instant coffee and flavored creamers plus packages of hot chocolate and pudding cups.

Funds don’t just go to pay for food, so providing other necessities can help increase household budgets. If you’re like me, you may have extra toothbrushes, travel toothpaste, travel shampoo, travel lotion, travel detergent, and fancy soaps in the cabinets you’ll never use. Why not have a toiletries treat bucket or make toiletries grab bags?

Other things you can include in a family supply bag are paper plates, napkins, paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, hand wipes, baby wipes, band-aids, hand soap, bubble bath, sandwich bags, and trash bags.

And don’t forget fun items like crayons, markers, colored pencils, notebooks, sketch books, glue, and glitter are treats that may not be purchased when money is tight. Having tools to express creativity can improve a child’s day when the rest of life feels uncertain.

This week may be ghoulish, but it can be less spooky. Support families in your neighborhood with treats that show you care!

Budgetween?

Hoping to make this year’s Halloween a Budgetween? I normally buy Halloween candy early because the specially bagged versions have always seemed expensive. I also mix less costly favorites in with pricier ones so that every child can grab a handful. In spite of this, and other penny-pinching measures, Halloween does not come cheap.

torso of child holding pumpkin with black tape creating a jackolantern face

The typical US household spends between $100 and $500 on Halloween. This year, many of us will need those dollars to cover the increased cost of necessities. This leaves us needing alternatives that keep the holiday fun for the kids and affordable for the adults.

Here are a few options to explore:

Shrink it down. Instead of buying pumpkins you won’t eat, make smaller jack-o-lanterns out of food you can use. Hollow out butternut squash, acorn squash, eggplant, or potatoes and use the internal meat in recipes.

Draw it on. Make cabbage pirates, aliens, or skulls using a nontoxic marker. Place on a clean, food-safe surface for Halloween night. At the end of the evening, peel off the outer two layers. Later you can cook the cabbage or use it for coleslaw.

Put creepy removeable makeup on your kids’ dolls. Add witches hats made from construction paper. Drape the dolls in ghostly gowns and hang them from the porch ceiling.

Draw a bat pattern onto black paper. Cut it out. Use fishing line to hang groups from the ceiling using removeable hanging strips.

Change it up. Instead of purchasing decorations, Line the sidewalk with Halloween luminaries made by the kids using paper bags. Hang a couple of ghosts made from balloons draped with white trash bags or use milk jugs, markers, and battery-operated tea lights to create porch ghosts.

Stretch it out. Buy party favors or fidget toys in bulk. Some assortments include 1000 pieces for around $24. The inexpensive toys will make the candy go further while still giving the kids a treat.

Party on. Consolidate the efforts on your street with a porch party. Everyone brings their own drink, a dish for potluck dinner, half the candy they’d buy for their house, and any decorations they have on hand. Party with three or four neighbors while greeting trick-or-treaters.

Halloween may not be the only holiday that’s different this year. When things are uncertain, we sometimes have to batten down the hatches and do what it takes to get by. There’s no shame in having a simpler, less flashy, more connected way of life.

In fact, if this sort of life were more common, we’d probably be healthier both physically and emotionally. The largest decorations, flashiest house, and most expensive candy don’t automatically signal you are a wonderful person who has a wonderful life.

Trappings are often deceptive and easily avoided. Perhaps foregoing the trappings is the fastest way to a successful Budgetween.

Ghostly Simple

This Halloween, I’m keeping it ghostly simple as well as gluten-free.

I sometimes think back to the Halloweens of my childhood. They were filled with homemade candied or caramel apples and popcorn balls. My parents worked on carnivals for weeks making sure we had dry ice to create creepy fog as we bobbed for apples from a galvanized tub or stuck our hands in spaghetti brains in a haunted house. The doings were quite elaborate. Some years, life delivers too much for Halloween to be a priority.

Nonetheless, I don’t want to disappoint any trick-or-treat regulars. That means keeping the décor, activities, and treats simple. A few pumpkins with drawn faces or trash bag draped balloon ghosts will suffice for decorations. Answering the door in costume (or not) is sufficient activity. All that’s left is to choose and purchase some candy.

Some years, I spend hours researching a range of gluten-free candy or fun trinkets. That can mean searching far and wide to buy the most interesting things I find. This year, I’m skipping all of that in favor of the largest, cheapest bag of candy available from my regular grocer.

As it turns out, a 5 lb. bag of Child’s Play Tootsie® Roll Favorites looks like a good option. Not only is it gluten-free, it’s peanut-free too. Plus, this bag offers me FUN right there on the bag. And I love fun!

I also love Tootsie Roll POPS® and my grandson loves DOTS®. Seems like the way to go. On further examination, I discover even more variety than I expected. The bag contains Tootsie Roll Midgees, Juniors, and Snack Bars. Those are the technical names. You may recognize them as small, medium, and large Tootsie Rolls. I love this because there’s something for every size trick-or-treater.

With all those sizes, the fun has just begun. The bag includes an assortment of Fruit Chews in lemon, lime, orange, vanilla, and cherry flavor. I think vanilla is a little weird for a “fruit” chew, but some people may not.

Gummies are not neglected in this collection. DOTS are packaged in a box that looks like it was shrunk from a movie theater. The boxes feature gummies flavors of cherry, lemon-lime, strawberry, and orange.

If you like to work for your rewards, choose the Tootsie Pops. My bag seems to have mostly cherry, chocolate, and grape, but there may be some other flavors buried in there.

And although this collection is gluten-free and peanut-free, there are some common allergens buried in there – milk, soy, and possibly eggs may be present. The good news is, Tootsie makes it easy to view that information on their website.

If 5lbs is more than you need, the Child’s Play assortment is available at my local store in a 21.98 oz bag as well as 2.5 and 3.5 lb bags. Some sizes will also be offered through your favorite online retailer.

Instead of buying multiple bags or more expensive chocolates, this bag fits the bill for this year’s theme of keeping life ghostly simple.

Happy Halloween!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Boo on a Budget

Boo on a Budget

Given the high prices of groceries, you may have to boo on a budget this year. Here are some tips for making Halloween budget friendly, even when your kids are gluten-free.

1)Right size your candy purchases. If you have lived in a neighborhood for a while, you probably have an idea how many trick-or-treaters you average each year. Don’t buy too much. You can always limit what each child gets if you see more traffic than usual.

2)Consider bulk pack candy or bubble gum with lots of small pieces when buying for a large group. Bubble gum is gluten-free and can be purchased for as little as $.07 per piece. Dum-Dums® are gluten-free and can be found for $.08 each. Other bulk candies to consider are Tootsie Roll® Midgees $.075 and Charms® Mini Blow Pops® $.05 each. Both are gluten-free, peanut-free, and kosher. Smarties® are a long-standing popular gluten-free choice $.075. If you lean toward chocolate, Snickers® Mini Chocolate Bars can be found for $.20 each when purchased in bulk.

3)Get the neighbors together. There’s economy in numbers. Have several households gather on one front porch. Block your home’s entrance with a decorative spider web that holds a sign telling trick-or-treaters where to find the treats. Create a costume theme and dress up as a group or simply pass out candy.

In my neighborhood, we’d choose the biggest porch and have a signature cocktail. Each household buys less candy, but we’ll still make the kids happy we’re their neighbors.

Don’t worry about children getting less candy. They don’t technically need candy in their diet. It’s much more about them feeling powerful through getting adults to do their bidding, enjoying the costumes and decorations, and getting a treat. They’ll enjoy the experience even if the treats aren’t large.

4)Make a witch, goblin, ghoul, or werewolf photo companion. Use cardboard from boxes. If you’re like me, it won’t take long to amass enough cardboard to create a witch cutout. I have some house paint I can use for the large surfaces and paint markers to fill in the details. Create a few ghosts using white balloons draped with white trash bags and hang them by your cutout. Let all the kids pose with the cutout and ghosts for a photo. An optional takeaway can be a single sticker, sucker, or plastic skeleton.

5)Make crayon bundles. Boxes of 800 crayons would yield 50 bundles of 16, 100 bundles of 8, and 200 bundles of 4. The crayons can be purchased for $.05 each. Secure them together with a rubber band, black & orange ribbon, or string.

Some of us remember a time when it was okay to accept a homemade treat. Having the flexibility to prepare something at home without all the packaging made it easier to keep costs down. If you use these tips to spark your own ideas, you’ll find Halloween doesn’t have to be scary. It’s still possible to provide a good boo on a budget.

Happy Halloween!

Ten Halloween Treats for Any Child – in thriver words (cooking2thrive.com)