By Tawra Kellam

http://www.LivingOnADime.com/

 

The average American family spends over $100 per year on Halloween goodies. As your kids drag you through aisles full of ghosts and goblins, the scariest thing about Halloween is threatening to leave bite marks in your pocketbook. No wonder so many moms flee screaming from the store... It can be much less expensive and a lot more fun to devise your own chilling creations. Here are a few tips that you can use to stave off the greenback gremlins and exercise your creative muscle. It won't hurt a bit! These and other free frugal tips are available at http://www.LivingOnADime.com/ .

 

Face Paint

1 tsp. corn starch

1/2 tsp. water

1/2 tsp. cold cream

food coloring

Mix all ingredients together in an old muffin pan and you are ready to paint. This amount makes one color.

 

Fake Wound

1 Tbsp Vaseline

tissue

cocoa powder

2-3 drops red food coloring

 

Place Vaseline in a bowl. Add food coloring. Blend with a toothpick. Stir in a pinch of cocoa to make a darker blood color. Separate tissue. Using 1 layer, tear a 2x3 inch piece and place at wound site. Cover with petroleum jelly and mold into the shape of a wound.  The center should be lower than the sides.  Fill the center with the red petroleum jelly mixture. Sprinkle center with

some cocoa. Sprinkle a little around the edges of the wound to make darker. 

 

Fake Blood- Mix 2/3 cup white corn syrup, 1 tsp. red food coloring, 2-3 drops blue food coloring to darken and 1 squirt dish soap (helps blood to run well).

 

Abrasions -Dab brown, red and black eye shadow on area. Apply blood over area with cotton balls. Use comb to gently scratch area in one direction. Apply cocoa or dirt over wound with cotton balls.

 

Black Eye -Apply red and blue eye shadow to depressions around eyes.

 

Bruises-Rub red and blue shadow over bony area to simulate recent bruises.

Blue and yellow eye shadow to create older bruises.

 

Look Old - Cover face with baby powder. Draw dark lines on your skin for wrinkles.  Smooth edges to blend. Cover again with baby powder. Add baby powder to your hair to create gray hair.

 

Deviled Eyeballs

Make deviled eggs. Add a green olive with pimento in the center for an "eyeball".

 

Radioactive Juice- Mix equal parts Mountain Dew and blue Kool-Aid

 

Toxic Juice- Add some green food coloring to lemonade for a spooky color!

 

Brains- Scramble eggs with some green, yellow and blue food coloring

 

Bloody Eyeballs- Boil cherry tomatoes 30 seconds. Allow to cool; then peel skin.

 

Goblin Hand- Freeze green Kool-Aid in a rubber or latex glove, float in punch.

 

Use the tape from old cassettes or black yarn to make spider webs.

 

Use cotton balls stretched out for small spider webs.

 

Glass Jack-o-Lantern- Outline a pumpkin face on a  spaghetti or pickle jar with black paint. The paint around the outside of it with orange paint. Place a candle inside for a jack-o-lantern.

 

Halloween Guess It Game

     In this game, you challenge the participants to reach into mystery boxes filled with creepy things and try to guess what each item is. The person with the most correct answers wins the game. An example is if you want them to guess "grapes", you might try to confuse them by saying, "I think it's eyeballs..."

     Cut a hole in the top of a shoe box or laundry box for each item to be used. Cover the box with b