# One Girl, 200 Dollars—Decorating on a Budget



## Ulchabhan (Jun 20, 2018)

So here's the deal. I will have a budget of 200 dollars this year for new stuff, and I would love to know what advice you guys would give to a beginner decorator. What would make the biggest impact on people that isn't expensive while also not being trashy-looking? 

I have a low-lying fog machine, 5 small tombstones, and a bag of skeleton bones. I made a spiderweb with spiders for the garage door. The front doorstep is really nicely decorated with a cauldron I made myself and some witchy stuff—BUT, my front yard is a desert when it comes to decorations. 

I want to fill out the space (a yard about 25' x 25'). I could invest in one impressive prop, but I don't want it to look lonely in the middle of the yard. I thought of tons of tombstones, but they aren't my favorite thing, though they can look good if done well.

I would love to learn some of the mechanical and pneumatic skills on the props page, but I am a beginner to that stuff.

What do you guys think?


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## Kwll2112 (Sep 14, 2016)

I would suggest starting with a theme - what look do you want to create in the yard? Once you have that, it becomes easier to know if an item would go with the theme or not. 

I would also start hitting the thrift stores, like Goodwill, and see if you can find anything that would add to your theme. I've been able to find things like statues, HW decorations, urns, and all sorts of old stuff that can work in various HW themes.

Some cheap suggestions might be groupings of corn stalks, scarecrows, scary "trees" (bare branches), a few tombstones, a groundbreaker, some skulls, hay bales, pumpkins (lighted to unlighted), candles (fake ones), spider webs, maybe a packing tape ghost or two, and most importantly, colored lights.

Since a picture conveys more than words, I quickly went through Pinterest and cobbled together a board for cemetery ideas. Nothing too special, just some easy ideas or images to consider:
https://www.pinterest.com/prepcast/halloween-cemetery-ideas/

I think you should also consider the long-term picture on what you want your yard to look like 5 years from now, so you can work and build towards that each year.

I really think you can give your yard the Halloween look with colored lights. Placing the lights so it lights up your decorations and darkens the rest of the yard can change how your whole yard looks.


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## annamarykahn (Oct 4, 2009)

since you already have tombstones & i'm the "black light queen", i suggest painting them with fluorescent/neon craft paints and using compact fluorescent black light bulbs to illuminate them 

here are a few dollar store tombstones that i did several years ago. for some reason they're not showing ... so here are the links

https://www.halloweenforum.com/members/annamarykahn-albums-2011-picture91098-20111004-00166-a.html
https://www.halloweenforum.com/members/annamarykahn-albums-2011-picture91095-20111004-00173-a.html
https://www.halloweenforum.com/members/annamarykahn-albums-2011-picture91094-20111004-00171-a.html
https://www.halloweenforum.com/members/annamarykahn-albums-2011-picture91093-20111004-00170-a.html
https://www.halloweenforum.com/members/annamarykahn-albums-2011-picture91092-20111004-00169-a.html
https://www.halloweenforum.com/members/annamarykahn-albums-2011-picture91091-20111004-00167-a.html

amk


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## McBernes (Mar 10, 2015)

You could make a lot of creepy Pumpkinrot style lighted creatures for $200. All you need is monstermud, here is a tutorial from our forum 
https://www.halloweenforum.com/tuto...ster-mudding-unorthodox-chimera-tutorial.html.
They are really awesome, and the lighting makes it really dramatic. And you don't have to make creepy creatures either. The technique is super versatile. You could make gargoyles on pedestals with a plywood cathedral facade in the background. Or you could a group of wraiths/reapers and some smaller floating ghosts. There's a whole lot you can do with it. Sit down with your favorite beverage and a pad and pencil and have fun sketching and making notes and then go for it!


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## Oak Lane Cemetery (Sep 5, 2011)

Don't be overly ambitious and feel you have to do as much as you can with what little money you have. Make or buy one or two quality props and build it up a little each year. Spread your expense out over the entire year instead of budgeting it in a month or two beforehand. I keep an eye out year round for anything I can get for free and also build year round to spread out the expense. You would be surprised by how much you can grow a display in a few years. Mine for example...

2007...









2010...









2013...









2015...









2017...
















It's better to have patience and grow slowly, while learning to make new props at the same time. You will have better, more original props and not spend nearly as much money in the process. Of course, that's just my opinion


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## Engelspook (Jun 11, 2018)

I sympathize. Budget is always a obstacle for me. But there is a big difference between what $200 will buy now and what $200 will buy November 1!!! If that is your total for this year, I would wait for the half off sales. I am a big fan of using what you have and garage sales. Tree limbs painted black are a regular for me. When I use them inside, I spray them with bug spray before I paint them. Boards from free pallets can be signs or the pallets with red lights underneath (use Christmas you probably have) can hide a fiery pit with hands coming out. Four years ago, I found some three foot metal rods which I spray painted black and used as a fence posts for the cemetery. I just used "plastic chains" for the fence which I attached to the top of the posts. Take stock of what you have already. Not everything will work, but sometimes some even better ideas will come from a failed try.

I know you are worried about things looking trashy and I am suggesting things that might actually come from the trash ? That is one of the things I love about Halloween! It doesn't have to be perfect to look perfectly spooky! Flaws are ok and sometimes even better. Black paint, spider webs, and creepy cloth can cure most everything!

Good luck and have fun?


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## dbruner (Aug 23, 2012)

What is a packing tape ghost?


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## McCall72 (Jul 11, 2014)

dbruner said:


> What is a packing tape ghost?


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## McCall72 (Jul 11, 2014)

I've found that I really got the biggest bang for the buck with lights on the house. The Gemmy Fire and Ice lights are great and create a great effect. Look for them on eBay, last year I found a seller that was selling them for 10.00. 

Also, this Gemmy spotlight is great as well. I found one at Home Depot last year for I think for around 30.00.


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## Matt12378 (Jul 9, 2017)

I agree with everyone else. 
I usually spend a thousand each year on Halloween decorations mostly small stuff like lights projection lights etc all the big stuff I wait until right before Halloween for example Lowes a couple years ago had 75 percent off Halloween on Halloween day anyway I was able to buy a lot of stuff extremely cheap more lights, extension cords and in 2016 Home Depot had 90 percent off Halloween I think because of the election. 
I was able to by anything I wanted really it was so cheap but my point is to wait for sales of any type also if you’re buying from Lowes there is a site called renovo power. It’s a site for coupon codes. Good luck I suggest looking at party city too they always have great stuff cheap usually in the beginning of fall.


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## titleist1 (Oct 31, 2016)

Effective lighting is a good investment that holds up well over the years and can make your props really look good. It doesn't have to be expensive if you make some LED mini spots.


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## RCIAG (Jul 19, 2010)

Paper mache, thrift store, dollar stores, & Craigslist are your friend!


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## Azza (Jul 24, 2016)

I do almost everything on the cheap. Paper mache and tin foil are great materials for working on a tight budget. I'm half way through making a giant spider just using 2 plastic bags filled with shredded paper for the body and rolled newspaper for the legs and tin foil details after which I'll paper mache over. 

Cereal/cardboard boxes and things similar are also your best friend for things like tombstones, pillars, grandfather clocks etc . 

There are an absolute ton of amazing Halloween tutorials on sites like youtube and instructables that you could probably kit the house out on half of that amount.


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## Stinkerbell n Frog Prince (Sep 4, 2009)

First a theme first is a great idea... it helps to keep the ideas in check and on track. Don't want to make something for a clown scene if you are really into wanting a witches scene. 

I agree with everyone home made can be cheap just look over all the tutorials here for ideas. It's amazing what one can do with cardboard, newspaper, glue and paint. Monstermud is pretty cheap and easy to work with. My Haunt partner Frog Prince has an easy to follow tutorial on how to use a car's wiper motor. 

Craigslist for freebies, there are real treasures there.... besides pallets and paint there are crates, fence, clothes, plexiglass, mirrors. Foam board for making more tombstones... baby cribs make great cages, even old Halloween decorations. We snagged a bunch of painted plywood haunt walls from a pro haunt that was closing down. Got a bunch of other made props from another pro haunted they was closing up shop and moving and couldn't take it with him. 

Home Depot usually has a spot in the back with unwanted lumber they sell for 70% off. It's far from perfect but who cares about a warped 2x2. Also while the prices have gone up over the years OOPS paint whereever they mix paint can be had for under $10 a gal. Garage sales are great got a homemade wood coffin for a few bucks and oversized blow mold pumpkin for a couple of bucks. Harbor Freight has endless 20% off coupons in the paper to use for things like packing tape (for packing tape ghosts). Two years ago we purchased canvas drop clothes on coupon and using free paint from craigslist and a coupon discounted air paint sprayer did a number of carnival freaks banners. 

After holiday sales are the time to buy retail. Watch for coupons if you have to buy before the holiday most places will have some kind of deal early on, got the Big Lots dragon last year with an early 20%off weekend sale and an online coupon added on. Had a friend who worked Home Depot who got me the skelly pony fell off the truck discount. 

Think out of the box other holiday decorations can be turned Halloween with just a little paint or revamping. I got a bunch of 90% off Easter egg light strings for my dragon's nest. Same sale I got a number of metal arrows with little lights poked in them.. they said eggs this way or some such thing got some reflective paper from Dollar Tree and cover over the writing and had arrows to mark my midway for our Carn-evil haunt. Dollar tree pool noodles can bulk out arms and legs, be cut to look like coral reefs, cut up then covered in melted black plastic to look like tree roots or branches or covered with cheese cloth, painted and little pipe insulation rings glued on for tentacles with suckers. Attach them to a goodwill found back massage and you have moving tentacles. 

Cheap ideas are so numerous that one could go broke trying to do them all.


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## dbruner (Aug 23, 2012)

That video on the packing tape ghost was awesome, McCall72. Thanks!


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## HauntedWyo (Apr 13, 2017)

Thrift stores, garage sales, and Habitat For Humanity stores are great places to find inexpensive material for building your own props.

Get some PVC pipe and you can build numerous cool things. You can build body forms/mannequins and create witches, or grim reapers, or scarecrows, or zombies, or...etc. You can also make graveyard fencing. 
Styrofoam wig heads, pool noodles and wire coat clothes hangers come in handy as well.

Paper mache or paper mache clay can be used to form faces on wig heads or make a myriad of other things. 


Here is one witch head I made with a wig head and paper mache. Because we get snow and rain I made sure to paint it with drylock first, then latex house paint and then went over it with Spar Urethane for outdoor use to seal the mache well. I made the hands with a chunk of 3/4 inch PVC pipe, wire clothes hangers and paper mache. I also painted them the same way I did the head.








The head attaches to a body form made with PVC pipe. I used pool noodles on the shoulders and arms of the body form/mannequin and used some clothes purchased at garage sales to dress her. Chicken wire or stuffed plastic bags can be used to fill out the torso.

Here is one of my witches (I made 3 last year) all dressed








I bought a cheap witch's hat at Dollar Tree and put it on her head to finish her off. I also dyed the skirt a bit darker.

If you want to build an animated prop, a cheap, easy and good one would be Monster In The Box. You can use pallet wood to create the box. You can usually get pallets for free.
Here is just one DIY video to show you how to create it. There are more on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4zFLg_p8Zw

Gravedigger might even be another easy and cheap animated prop to build. This one uses a skeleton, there are tutorials on how to make them just using PVC pipe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI7R4E8FqXs

A tombstone popper would also be another cheap and easy animated prop. Here is but one of many tutorials on how to make them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiY54FR7Ihk

Lots of things you can make on the cheap without looking trashy. Like others have said pick a theme and build on it. I started out my first year of decorating with a giant spider I made with paper mache and wire clothes hangers and some webbing. I just kept adding to my yard year after year things that worked together. 2nd year I added a graveyard and a grim reaper. Last year I added three life sized animated witches surrounding a giant cauldron. This year I'm making a haunted forest. Good luck and happy Haunting.


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## McBernes (Mar 10, 2015)

@ HauntedWyo; That witch looks awesome!


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

Back in 2010, everything I owned was destroyed in late August when a storage shed collapsed, and I had already spent most my budget, winding up with $220 left for the year. 

$60 in pumpkins, and $160 in lighting later, it remains one of my favorites. (the corn stalks and reed grass used for most the decor were free)











So, I'd say spend on lighting first. It's not only important, but less likely to break than props.


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## doto (Nov 20, 2009)

I just posted on your thread regarding how to attract more people. In it I mentioned TOT's need to see your display and know it's worth their time heading down your cul-de-sac to come to your place when your neighbors aren't participating on Halloween. 

Adding affair bit of volume to a 25 x 25 front lawn on a budget is feasible if you have access to some free materials. 

If you can get access to tree branches and some used wood to use as bases I would bundle the branches together to imitate creepy dead trees and use these to fill height and space in your front yard. Stretch some dollar store spider webs in the branches and light from below. Some of the dollar store battery LED's are bright enough to throw the light high enough and can light up your tombstones as well. For a tinge of colour cut up some thin plastic sheet covers from the dollar store and tape them on the LEDS. Get some cheap black weed barrier and cover the wood base. You could use black garbage bags and re-use them as garbage bags after Halloween, and this way they would count towards your home budget and not your Halloween budget right?!

A lot of companies throw out white Styrofoam when they receive various shipments. See if you have any friends/relatives who work in a warehouse or at an appliance or department store where you might get some for free. Check and post on Craig's List / kijiji etc for Styrofoam, lights, and other materials. If you can get some for free make a few more tombstones to fill areas under and around your new trees. These don't have to be perfect right away. Another filler is white crosses made from scrap wood. 

Spend some money on decent lighting as well so your display is easily noticed at the end of the cul-de-sac. Lighting draws attention and enables TOT's to see your display. In my area halogen flood lights are still a lot cheaper than LED's. Starting out I would buy coloured halogen floods even though they don't have quite the same brilliance as LED's but do consider a Fire and Ice light to add some "motion and ambiance" to your display for a lot less than an animatronic.

If you have access to borrow a projector from a friend/work/relative then you can do a nice rear projection using a frosted dollar store shower curtain or table cloth in a windows or doorway . (Don't tell anyone but there are some AtmosfearFX torrent downloads on the internet that can be had for free, if you don't mind downloading torrents.) 

Build on detail from year to year and have fun along the way.


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## FreeRangeWackadoo (Aug 28, 2015)

I agree with the lighting! It makes a huge impact. Right now, Grandinroad has a rotating spotlight on sale for around $6. I also found red, green and purple lights on Amazon for around $8 each. I try to uplight my trees in front of my house which makes scary looking shadows at night. 
For ghosts, I purchased several foam heads from Michaels, some spray on glue, and several yards of cheesecloth. I lightly sprayed the heads/faces and molded the cheesecloth over them. I then took the hook part of regular wire hangers and poked it through the heads so I had something to attach the ghost to. I hang the ghosts from tree branches and shepherd’s hooks in my yard.


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## deedletak (Jul 18, 2015)

I made her out of a step ladder. I wrapped it in cloth and put on a costume. I put her head on the paint shelf part of the ladder. The arms are made with pool noodles. The cauldron is a flower pot. Super easy!


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## jordand3 (Jul 26, 2013)

Like many others have said, I think one simple and fairly cheap addition that makes all the difference in taking your display to a new level is good lighting. Good LED flood lights can be purchased for very cheap now, and it makes your display stand out from the rest.

Also, for a good starter prop, I would suggest this one with four skeletons carrying a coffin: https://www.halloweenforum.com/tutorials-and-step-by-step/110419-skeletons-carrying-coffin.html. It was the first real prop I ever made and it has been a huge hit. The skeletons aren't the cheapest to buy, though, but if you found them secondhand, you'd be in great shape. Here's how mine looked last year:


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## debbiedowner67 (Sep 13, 2015)

Atmos FX Projections. Start with those. Its the biggest bang for your buck. You can get a decent projector for about $50 on Amazon that will have a thumb drive and you can spend up to $50 buying Atmos projections. As long as the room is dark a lower lumen projector will work. To this day I have people who will sit in front of my house and watch my projections. Its a great investment. 

I made all my tombstones from scrap wood and painted quirky names on them. I also bought Dollar Tree tombstones and glued it to the wood. You can also glue the Dollar Tree baby skellies to the wood or spiders, birds, rats. 

Buy a few Skeletons. They usually run $30 every year. 

The little clown was built with a scarecrow prop from a garage sale. They sell them come Fall at Michaels. The big one was built with PVC pipe. The costumes were about $10 at Walmart. A lot of these things you can maybe find used. Look on FB Marketplace for costumes. 

I am the queen of cheap LOL I would rather spend money on Atmos projections than foam tombstones. And I'm not adept at making foam tombstones. 

A few showstoppers and a few cheapies will get you the yard haunt of your dreams.


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## Drdesade (Sep 9, 2017)

*How to start*

When I started this was how I started the Panther Creek Cemetery 
(1) Cheap light setup - Clamp Light with Aluminum Reflector - Floods of different colors - Spray paint the backs black.
(2) Cheap Tombstones idea 1 - Dollar store, $5 everything or Walmart tombstones. Glue two of them together with liquid nails and open house metal stake between them. Paint seems grey
(3) Cheap Tombstones idea 2 - Foam insulation - See all the post and ideas on what you can carve. Check here or pinterest. Ton of tutorials on this. 
(4) Fence idea 1- See the tutorials on the PVC and wood 
(5) Fence idea 2 - White Pine Spaced Picket Garden Woven Wire Rolled Fencing - 8ft $15 - Paint it black

The best thing you can do is have fun and don't worry about it being perfect. Wait until after Halloween and go buy stuff on sale at Target and Spirit Halloween. Then go dumpster diving when Spirit Halloween closes. We have found $100's of free stuff... Costumes to actual decor in the dumpster.


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## drac484 (Jun 6, 2009)

The great pumpkin is right.You need a theme that you can add to.My very first theme was a coffin (Homemade and a skeleton from the spirit store).I have added to this through out the year.I ended up having a haunted house at the Sacramento zoo for 4 years.I have since retired,but the kids around here love it.


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## hopelesslyinsane (Sep 6, 2013)

It's been said in this thread already but it's important enough that it bares repeating: lighting, lighting, lighting!!

With the right lighting your display will be amazing. for an example here is my display from 2015








you can see how I had my lights set up in the yard. It took 4 flood lights for my yard and inside it took 4 red light bulbs to achieve the glowing house look. The lighting combined with the fog was a powerful effect. Kids were so focused on the house that they almost didn't see me with the bowl of candy and were making remarks about how scary the house looked. 

DIYs are your friend. A fog chiller is definitely worth the investment. And don't be afraid of second hand items. You can always upgrade later. What you don't buy or get done this year can be achieved next year.

I'm looking forward to seeing your display!


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## Ulchabhan (Jun 20, 2018)

Thanks for all the ideas so far, guys! I am so excited and I am sketching out ideas. 

https://www.grandinroad.com/holding-hands-witches-2c-set-of-three/905484

I love these witches from Grandin Road, and I bet I could make more than three for pretty cheap! Does anyone have ideas for the lighted heads?


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## ylbissop (Sep 6, 2007)

One of your local hardware type places should have these 
https://www.google.com/shopping/product/5917528422573968996

they are acrylic not glass so you could screw thru the bottom into a wood stake to stick in the ground. drop in a led candle and then put the hat/veil over the opening on top add some celing wire arms and a dress with a ceiling wire hoop at the bottom. pretty cheap and fun to make i would think.


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## HauntedWyo (Apr 13, 2017)

Ulchabhan said:


> Thanks for all the ideas so far, guys! I am so excited and I am sketching out ideas.
> 
> https://www.grandinroad.com/holding-hands-witches-2c-set-of-three/905484
> 
> I love these witches from Grandin Road, and I bet I could make more than three for pretty cheap! Does anyone have ideas for the lighted heads?


To make the glowing heads you could use tissue paper mache using thinned down PVA glue or modge podge over balloons. Leave a hole in the bottom of the heads and you could use some small LED flashlights, or use some LED bulbs like this. http://www.topledlight.com/5mm-Blue-Wide-Angle-Flat-Top-Led-Pre-Wired-12V-DC_p910.html
You just have to wire them up to a 12 Volt maybe 1-2 Amp power supply which you can probably find at a thrift store for cheap. (think of something like a cordless phone power supply) You should be able to wire up quite a few of them to one power supply.
I'm sure someone on here could help you figure out how to wire them up. My hubby does all my electrical stuff for me, thankfully he is an electrician.


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## 66539 (Feb 20, 2016)

*What Works for Us*

Having the same $200 budget as you, I agree it’s not easy to create a haunt if you use the retail world as your main source of inspiration. The previous posts have some great ideas. The ones that we found most helpful are:

*Find Yourself a Theme.* 









It keeps you from buying something you think is really cool only to find it stays in the closet because it just doesn't seem to fit. Our theme has always been a haunted house and graveyard we refer to as the Haunted Hovel. (Yeah, you don’t like them all that much, but boy can tombstones creep out a front yard for less than just about anything else.) Like the folks at Oak Hill Cemetery, every year we add a bit more to our cemetery. (And like them, more and more of our stuff is made by us instead of purchased from the store. Check out their tutorial videos for some great ideas.) Growing a haunt over the years is part of the fun. 

*Don’t Pay Retail.* 









We have _NEVER_ bought a larger prop at full price. We wait for the sales or find them at thrift stores. (Our Grim Reaper cost us 20 bucks at Goodwill. We had to repaint him to match our other skeletons, but we saved a lot over his retail selling price of $80.) It may mean you don't get the item you adore this year, but your haunt will grow much faster if you're not trying to keep up with the Joneses who have a budget that lets them buy at full retail. You can get twice as many skeletons if you wait for them to go on sale. (Which often is a week or two before Halloween at many places. If you wait until after Halloween, they’re actually all gone.)

*Make Your Own Props.*









If you're willing to make your own props, a bottle of Gorilla Glue and some paint can go a very long way toward making your haunt just what you envisioned. All the tombstones in the picture were created for less than five dollars apiece. (We have a furniture store that saves their large sheets of Styrofoam for us, so we’ve never bought any foam for our tombstones and mausoleums.) 









We have a tombstone popper that kids love that cost us about $10 to make. (Skull was $3 bucks, motor another $3, PVC pipe, paints, and hardware rounds off at around $4.) . We’re working on a cauldron creep that will cost us about $40 bucks after all is said and done. That’s less than a quarter of our $200 budget instead of the entire thing to buy one from the retailers. Make it yourself. It’s way cheaper and more satisfying when you see it out on your lawn.

Lastly:

*Find What Works for You.* 

All our suggestions, whatever they may be, are the things that worked for us. Be willing to try things on and keep them or cast them off based on what you enjoy. Never, ever, get into doing something you don’t enjoy or try an approach that stresses you out. Being a haunter should always be fun. When you're sitting down deciding where the money is going to go, budget for the stuff that makes you glad to be haunting over impressing the neighbors.


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## Madame Leota (Sep 19, 2005)

You mentioned tombstones aren't your favorite thing. Ok, so what IS your favorite thing? Don't waste money on something that doesn't really appeal to you even if it has mass appeal. Find something you love and play that up to the fullest! That said, I will agree with those that said lighting can make the biggest impact for a small investment. Last year I was unable to do my normal display with cemetery, ghosts, witches, etc. due to other commitments. Instead, I used a ton of beef netting spider webs on the house and highlighted them with green floodlighting. On my garage door I made a giant jack o'lantern face with black duct tape and hit it with an orange fire & Ice light. That cost me next to nothing and about an hour of my time but the kids were absolutely enchanted with it! So yes, lighting is EVERYTHING!


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## Kwll2112 (Sep 14, 2016)

This is a great shot of your house! It looks awesome!



hopelesslyinsane said:


> It's been said in this thread already but it's important enough that it bares repeating: lighting, lighting, lighting!!
> 
> With the right lighting your display will be amazing. for an example here is my display from 2015


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## Kwll2112 (Sep 14, 2016)

hopelesslyinsane has a great picture showing how lighting up windows can add to the effect. My wife likes this effect and at her suggestion, we lit our windows starting the second year.

The first year, we decorated just for a party and at the last minute, I decided to put up some exterior lighting. It looked better than nothing, but other than the courtyard, it wasn't very Halloween-ish:








The second year, we added a small cemetery (another 11th hour idea), and also added the window lighting and a thunder/lightning machine (the bright highlight on the upper right of the house):
View attachment 551529


The 3rd year, we gave more thought into the exterior and added more themed lighting. It didn't look as bright or washed out in person, as it shows in this picture:








Last year, we spent a lot of time working on HW projects, with a good number of them being for the exterior. Though many of the details are lost in this photo, it does show our progression of adding things each year:
View attachment 551533


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## Stych (Nov 3, 2016)

Wow! It never occurred to me to “dumpster dive” Spirit Halloween after Halloween. I guess I’ve been to fixated on the sales inside,


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## drac484 (Jun 6, 2009)

I made a homemade chiller for my fog machine.What I used was a Styrofoam ice chest,1 circular hole at each end.Put the fog machine inserted in 1 hole,Dry ice in the chest,and chilled fog comes out the other end,giving me low lying fog.A note,the fog machine chest end has to be slightly bigger so the Styrofoam does not touch the hot end of the machine.Happy Haunting


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## notjustaphaze (Sep 18, 2010)

Azza Would love to see your giant spider!!


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## McCall72 (Jul 11, 2014)

hopelesslyinsane said:


> It's been said in this thread already but it's important enough that it bares repeating: lighting, lighting, lighting!!
> 
> With the right lighting your display will be amazing. for an example here is my display from 2015
> 
> ...


Wow, I love your set up. One of those examples where the house, the lighting and the props all just work out perfect! I'll be stealing that red light in the windows idea!


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## HauntedDiva (Oct 1, 2009)

I made this guy last year. The mask I had although you can find one cheap. A haybale, cornstalks and some clothing from the thrift store. I put a battery operated strobe light (from Walmart) on him at night and a carved pumpkin. It was quite effective I think.


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## revengemaiden (Sep 4, 2014)

UnOrthodOx said:


> Back in 2010, everything I owned was destroyed in late August when a storage shed collapsed, and I had already spent most my budget, winding up with $220 left for the year.
> 
> $60 in pumpkins, and $160 in lighting later, it remains one of my favorites. (the corn stalks and reed grass used for most the decor were free)
> 
> ...


Wow! I love this set up. I may have to try this myself!


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