holidays

Halloween is the scariest time of the year, but that isn't always due to the ghosts trick-or-treating you, or the creepy clown sightings on the news. The price of Halloween candy, not to mention the cost of costumes and home decorations, can give anyone the heebie-jeebies.According to the National Retail Federation, which surveyed 6,791 consumers from Sept. 6 to 13 about their Halloween shopping plans, the average American will spend $82.93 on Halloween, up from $74.34 last year. All in all, Halloween spending is expected to reach $8.4 billion in 2016.Fortunately, if you are worried about going overboard this year, many decorating experts maintain that it's possible to have the best trick-or-treat house in the neighborhood without breaking the bank. It simply requires a little imagination and preparation on the front end.[See: 9 Scary Things Consumers Do With Their Money.]Candy. We'll start here first, since it's the easiest thing to find cheaply. Buy your candy several days or weeks in advance, so you can be on the lookout for discounts.If you belong to a warehouse club, buying in bulk might save you money. Digital coupon websites like Coupons.com and RetailMeNot.com have coupons for candy and Halloween costumes that you may want to utilize. Just make sure that if you do buy Halloween candy weeks in advance that you hide it, so your family doesn't eat it and gobble all of your savings.Halloween decorations. Check out the dollar stores first. Sure, that may sound obvious, but if you're something of a dollar-store snob, it also may be the last place you would consider."You would be surprised [at] the fantastic finds that can really add value to your Halloween display. There are plastic skulls, dismembered body parts, creepy spiders and so much more," says Felicia Ramos-Peters, who lives in Hurleyville, New York, and is the founder of GetHolidayHappy.com, a website aimed at helping people celebrate holidays with ideas for recipes, decorations and gifts.Jeanine Boiko seconds the dollar store. Boiko is a New York City publicist who also blogs about home decor and owns an Etsy.com shop called Okio B Designs."Stock up on fake skulls, rats and crows, and jars, window decals," she suggests, adding that, "a can of orange or black spray paint can work wonders on sprucing up dollar store finds and creating the 'eek' factor."And if you see nothing you like at the dollar stores, leave. All you have wasted is some time.[See: 10 Oddly Practical Things You Can Rent.]Lights. But one thing to think about while you're at the dollar stores? Lighting."Lighting is everything," says Jamie O'Donnell, an Orlando, Florida resident who has been an event planner for more than 15 years. "Replace the bulbs of your outdoor light with LED lights in orange or purple to cast your house in a spooky glow. It's fairly inexpensive and only takes a few minutes to do but creates a dramatic look."Judging from what you can find online, festive LED lights may run you around $20 to $30 for a string of, say, 40 to 100 lights (which could cost a small fortune if you intend to light up your entire home). The conventional holiday strings of orange or purple lights are generally cheaper, and will likely run you more along the lines of $5 to $15. Of course, you can always buy your lights after the holidays, when they're on sale, to prepare for next Halloween.Sounds and music. Ramos-Peters suggests using sound as part of your Halloween atmospherics."I think music is an underestimated element for outdoor Halloween displays. It is really easy to download or purchase some scary music and sound effects," Ramos-Peters says. "You can turn heads with a display that has some spooky sounds like a chainsaw or evil witch laughing."[See: 11 Ways to Save Time and Money.]Pro Tip: Use What You Have in Your HomePamela Layton McMurtry, an artist and designer in Kaysville, Utah, and author of the e-book "A Harvest and Halloween Handbook," feels it's always effective when homeowners create a spooky scene on their lawn."I love creative, alternative decor for Halloween and go wild for themes taken from literature," she says (think "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz").Now, that might sound like a surefire way to destroy your future retirement funds. You want to entertain your neighbors, not create a multi-million dollar Hollywood movie. But McMurtry says you may be able to find props in your home or at thrift stores. If you really want cheap and effective, McMurtry paints this picture: "Set up a fake campfire with cricket sounds and sad harmonica music. Mound dirt for a grave and put a pair of cowboy boots nearby with a clue about [what happened to] the demised, like a rubber snake."Something else to look for in your basement, attic or thrift store, Boiko suggests, is a long-forgotten Scrabble game."You can use the tiles for easy Halloween decor by spelling out spooky words. I painted the tile holders black and spelled out creepy words on mine," Boiko says.And if you can keep your Halloween costs low, you won't be tempted to spell out Scrabble letters to make phrases like "holiday debt" and "I'm broke." On the other hand, that may be a creative idea. The children on your block may not get creeped out by those words, but you'll send a chill up the spines of their parents..

The holidays are fast approaching and that means there are presents to buy, trees to trim and merriment to be made, all of which will cost you money. Fortunately, your credit union, bank or credit card issuer may be willing to let you skip your monthly payment in December or January.“Skip-a-pay [programs] are a popular way for banks to add quick fee revenue while giving their clients some extra cash in their pockets,” says John Oxford, a spokesman for Renasant Corporation, which operates 171 banking, investing and wealth management offices in the South. While Renasant Bank previously offered a skip-a-payment program, it does not currently have one.At other institutions, these programs allow customers to skip their monthly payment in exchange for a small fee. Some lenders may even donate a portion of the fee to a local charity so it seems like a win-win for all involved.Not so fast, say some financial experts. Skipping one payment might not seem like a big deal, but it can have a negative impact on your finances.5 Reasons to Skip the Skip-a-Payment OptionRich Hyde, the COO of Prestige Financial Services in Salt Lake City, works with clients trying to raise their credit score and finds some use skip-a-payment programs to stretch their money through the holidays to buy gifts for friends and family. Although skipping a payment may be preferable to racking up debt on a high-interest credit card, it doesn’t come without drawbacks.You lengthen the term of your loan. You may be skipping a payment, but you’ll still need to eventually make it. “They are essentially letting you take the payment from December or January and adding it to the life of the loan,” says Kelsa Dickey, owner of Fiscal Fitness Phoenix. Skipping a payment every year means you could be paying an auto loan for five to six months longer than originally planned.You add to the interest you pay. Not only will the term of the loan be longer, but you’ll pay more interest as well. A $5,000 credit card balance at a 24.99 percent APR accrues roughly $100 in interest each month. As a result, skipping a payment means you’ll end up owing more the next month even if you haven’t used your card.You might forget to make the following payment. Hyde is concerned skipping one payment might snowball into several payments. “Customer behavior can be impacted [by skipping a payment],” he says. “Anything that gets people out of the habit of paying is a bad idea.” You could ding your credit score. If you do happen to forget the next month’s payment, than you could see a drop in your credit score. Plus, you’ll likely get hit with a late fee which typically runs around $35. Dickey adds that some people might be tempted to skip payments even if their lender doesn’t offer a skip-a-payment program. However, doing so could negatively impact your credit score and damage your relationship with the lender, making it difficult to receive loans or lines of credit in the future.You are reinforcing poor money habits. While all the above reasons are enough to say “no thank you” to skipping a payment, Dickey says there is one more to consider. “By skipping a payment, you’re saying Christmas gifts are more important than something like a car that gets you to and from work,” she says. “There’s a much deeper rooted problem of putting things that are not essentials in front of things that are essentials.” Declining to skip a payment is one step toward creating healthy money habits and smart spending priorities.When Skipping a Payment Might Make SenseWhile experts say skipping a payment to buy gifts doesn’t make much sense financially, there may be a time and place for skip-a-payment programs.“If a consumer wants to free up cash for the holidays and doesn’t mind a minimal fee and an added month on their loan, it can be a beneficial short-term move,” Oxford says, “but it should not be used to avoid a payment just because the offer is there.” To minimize the impact of skipping a payment, he recommends people use a portion of their tax refund, if possible, to make an extra payment later in the year. For people who are in a bind and considering a payday loan or going into debt to pay the bills, Hyde says skipping a payment would be the lesser of two evils. Meanwhile, Dickey believes using a skip-a-payment program is understandable in cases of unemployment. “If it comes down to putting food on the table, yes [skip a payment],” she says.Skipping a payment may also be a good strategy if you are planning to use the money from that payment to wipe out a high-interest debt. Installment loans, such as those for cars, typically have a much lower interest rate than what might apply to a credit card. Financially, it might make sense to skip an auto loan payment for one month, and send that money to pay off a credit card account.However, Dickey says most people don’t skip payments for strategic reasons. Instead, they do so to spend more on gifts or holiday deals. She asks, “If your parents knew you were skipping a payment or going into debt to give them a gift, would they want it?” She’s betting the answer is probably no. .

Be the Best Trick-or-Treat House on the Block Without Breaking the Bank

The Perils of Skipping Loan Payments This Holiday Season