Three Tips to Keep Your Decorations Budget Friendly
I love everything about fall, from getting to wear boots and sweaters, to pumpkin flavored and scented everything, and the amazing decor. Fall has officially been here for a few weeks now according to the calendar, but it’s finally starting to feel like fall. The days are getting a little cooler and the evenings are definitely cooling down. It has been perfect weather for bonfires and s’mores. We have really been enjoying red wine on our back porch for the past few weeks.
A change of seasons always encourages me to change up the decor both inside and outside of our home. Seasonal and holiday decor is something I really enjoy and feel it gives our home more character and personality. It’s important to me to bring the seasons and holidays into our home and to share them with the neighborhood on the front porch.
I am strategic with my decorations and choose items that are seasonal because they give me a little more bang for my buck. This allows me to integrate specific holiday decor items into those seasonal items. I have staple items and areas that I change out for the seasons. Keep reading for some tips to decorate for fall and Halloween on a budget.
1. Keep the majority of your decorations seasonal: Choose items that revolve around the season, not just the holiday. Doing this not only saves money, but prevents you from accumulating a lot of holiday decorations that you feel obligated to use every year.
On our front porch, I decided to use mainly fall themed decorations, so after Halloween I only need to remove the skull, the witch, the BOO sign, the silver pumpkin, and the jack-o-lantern, then the porch will be decorated until the day after Thanksgiving when I start decorating for winter and Christmas. I have a few additional fall decorations that I will add in after I remove the Halloween decor, more pumpkins and a harvest sign. I will also change out the wreath for a fall themed wreath. I am personally a fan of wreaths and the witch themed wreath was too cute to pass up. So I decided to get a Halloween wreath, but you can opt for a fall themed wreath to keep costs lower.
I do the same thing inside the house. I like to add in fun themed throw pillows, blankets, and seasonal or holiday items here and there. I found this adorable pillow of dogs trick-or-treating on sale and I had an extra percentage off so I purchased it this year. I also changed out my normal front entry decor and added some cute Halloween items that were gifted to us, the witch shoes and haunted lantern.
2. Hunt for deals and start early: I don’t know about you, but I can’t resist a great deal. I especially love getting deals on items that I don’t use all the time, like seasonal and holiday decorations. Michaels typically has deals on seasonal or holiday decorations. They send out great coupons if you join their discount club that usually apply on top of their in store deals.
I went to Michaels in early August knowing that I wanted to purchase a garland and pumpkins for the mantle. Since I went a few months ago during their pre-fall sale, everything I purchased was over 50% off with my additional coupons.
I also found these great floral pieces while I was shopping. I am a huge fan of flowers, but I have the opposite of a green thumb. I am guilty of killing many of flower arrangements, so I opt for faux flowers. I decided to purchase the floral pieces above for the vase in the kitchen and the entry way console to replace my spring and summer faux hydrangeas.
3. Not everything has to be brand new or has to stay the way it looks on the shelf: Estate sales are great for many items, holiday and seasonal decor included. You can purchase beautiful items for pennies on the dollar. I have also had good luck at garage and rummage sales and Goodwill. Moms, my local Goodwill has new Halloween costume accessories, face paint, etc. for $1-$3 each.
Something else to keep in mind is that you don’t have to leave everything the same color as when you purchase it. For example, if you like the decoration, but don’t like the color, grab a can of spray paint of the color that you have in mind from your local hardware store.
I found this cute candy dish at a rummage sale for $1. I adore it, but don’t feel obligated to use it every single Halloween because it was inexpensive.
I hope you are enjoying the change of season and prepping for Halloween as much as I am. Each year our family does a chili cook off for Halloween, my husband and I won last year, so the pressure is on to come up with a killer chili recipe this year. Stay tuned to see what we come up with!