Frugal Halloween: Candy

Remember this?  You get home from racing around the neighborhood, challenging yourself to hit every single house with a light on.  You and your siblings convene in the family room.  Each person carefully dumps out their loot in a pile.  All disgusting candy such as Good & Plentys, Bottle Caps and Neccos are quickly discarded.  Your parents give the Smarties a quick glance for any suspicious pieces of glass, take their requisite Milky Way tax and nod their heads in approval.  The complex system of high-fructose-corn-syrup bartering may now commence.

Anyway, that was how things went in my childhood.  You don't realize it until you are older, but someone had to purchase all of that sugar.  And, boy, is it expensive.  Let's look at a couple ways to save some cash on candy.

• COUPONS:  There are some awesome coupons out right now for brand-name candy, and I anticipate many more in the next few weeks.

• PURCHASE OFF-BRANDS:  If you aren't married to the power brands, consider off brands or candy that is not chocolate.  You can get a big bag of Tootsie Roll Pops Miniatures for only $3 and a huge package of Dum-Dums for $5 at Dollar General.  You are going to pay a lot less, for a lot more candy.

• PURCHASE CANDY YOU WON'T EAT:  If you speed through the candy before the dates on the calendar get into double digits, consider buying the candy that doesn't trigger your sweet tooth.  I could have a bag of all of the candies mentioned in the intro that would NEVER get touched and would be gladly given away.

• THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX:  Do you have ten boxes of fruit snacks in the pantry?  And you don't even have little kids in the house?  Give out a small, prepackaged bag of whatever you have in excess.  Or, take take one more step away from the box and hand out pencils (stock up next year during the back-to-school sales), erasers or stickers.  I know I would rather my kids have a cute sticker than another Almond Joy.

• PLAN AHEAD: 
• Match coupons up with products on sale.  Ad-match at Walmart if more convenient.
• Buy early.
• Purchase Halloween candy on clearance this year for next year and freeze if expiration dates allow.
• Purchase chocolate candy such as M&Ms, Hershey Bars, Milky Ways and the like on clearance this year to use in baking instead of chocolate chips.

Other Frugal Halloween Suggestions:

• Frugal Halloween:  Costumes