Cheap & Thrifty Halloween Decor

Haunt your house on a budget with these clever craft and decorating ideas from dollar stores and thrift shops.

Stock up on Plastic Skulls

Plastic skulls come in a variety of sizes at the dollar store. At $1 each, you can afford to buy a lot of them. 

They look really scary massed in lanterns, vases and baskets.

Stack them to create skull topiaries in planters.

Add ambience with cheap creepy cloth

The dollar store is the best place to buy this spooky fabric. It comes in black, gray, white and ivory.

Drape it on lampshades, windows, doorways, tables and more. It makes everything look old and creepy!

Gather old sticks and branches from the yard to use in Halloween displays. 

Forage In Your Yard

Turn empty food jars and paper cutouts into specimen jars.

Raid the Recycling Bin 

Use printable labels to turn discarded bottles into potions & poison. 

Buy Bones for a Bone! 

You can find lots of different plastic skeletons, bones and dismembered body parts at the dollar store.

Hands, feet, miniatures, complete skeletons, animal skeletons and more. Place them anywhere you want to create a scary vibe.

Use plastic hands and gory face masks behind a salvaged wood pallet for a scene that's right out of the zombie apocalypse!

Keep the Cobwebs

No dusting allowed in October! Keep those cobwebs or buy fake spider webbing from the dollar store.

Stretch webbing across windows and doors, inside and out, as a backdrop for wreaths and clingy creatures.

Fill thrifted flasks and test tubes with colored water to make potions.

Or whip up some brains in a brain-shaped gelatin mold from the dollar store.

Cook Up Something Scary in the Kitchen

You'll find all kinds of spooky treasures at secondhand shops.  Use a vintage typewriter or Ouija board to send messages to the beyond! 

Haunt The Thrift Stores

Shop for china with eerie patterns and black-and-white color schemes to set a frightful Halloween table.

Pair thrifted china with worn silver goblets and serving pieces available on the cheap.

Thrift stores usually have lots of vintage candelabras and candlesticks at low prices.

Fill bargain store vases with dead bouquets and dried flowers!  

Look for vintage game pieces and other interesting items to use in your Halloween decor.

Ratty old books can easily be transformed into low-cost Halloween decor.

Display Some  Creature Discomforts

A bag of rubber rats, bugs or scorpions will set you back $1 at a discount store. But the scares are worth so much more than that.

If a single bird is merely scary, a murder of crows is terrifying.

A flock of bats clustered on the front door is not the kind of greeting most guests would expect.

Keep Your Eye Out For Other Bargains

A bag of plastic eyeballs costs $1 at the dollar store. Use them in jars...

In Halloween punch...

More Dollar Store Faves

Or anywhere you need to keep an eye on someone.

Get more budget Halloween decorating tips and inspiration at the link below.