Fight spooky spending fears

Sonya Khanna

Business Editor

Halloween leaves holes in your pockets. It drains your bank account faster than you have time to rethink purchasing that $60 cop costume, made up of two carefully crafted pieces of cloth.

Costumes are only half the battle. Gone are the carefree and cash-free days of childhood Halloween frolicking, where the wads of candy thrown into your hands offset whatever you spent. With consumers spending increasingly impressive numbers on Halloween, the holiday has moulded into yet another stressful and expensive holiday, souring whatever joys it brings.

Don’t get me wrong, Halloween is fun for many reasons, but I could do without the inevitable monetary woes associated with it.

This Halloween, monitor your spending. Alleviate the financial discomfort by fashioning yourself a costume out of materials around your house, or take a trip to your local fabric store. You might be surprised with the ideas you can concoct out of the most arbitrary items. Value Village or other thrift stores are another budget-friendly alternative.

Another way to restrict expenditures is to create a personal budget for all of the items you wish to purchase and all of the items that have been purchased. For smartphone junkies, a variety of nifty apps are available to ease the budgeting process.

The finance app, Budget Tool, created by Consolidated Credit Counseling Services, is a money management application that “tracks your total expenses and creates a simple to use budget to keep your personal finances in viagra super active online check.”

The app seeks to help you establish whether you are living within your financial means, as well as comparing current budgets and recommending ideal budgets in a “visually appealing way.”

If smartphone apps or other computerized gadgets aren’t appealing to you, there are other means by which you can easily track overspending. If your Halloween plans involve two-night binge drinking festivities or even coughing up cash for more than one outfit, put aside a fixed amount of money before you go out to ensure you are aware of how much money you actually have to spend.

“When I go out I tend to get caught up in the fun of everything and sometimes I tend to overspend,” says McMaster grad Filipa Jackson. “Now when I plan to go out I always set aside money before, I only take out a portion of it and I always make sure I put aside the rest for emergency – especially if we plan to go out again after.”

Going out can be financially exhausting for many reasons, especially on holidays. Ticket prices and transportation costs add up and the consumption of any beverage, alcoholic or not, costs a pretty penny. If you are genuinely feeling distressed about Halloween spending, talk to your friends about changing plans around to something more budget-conscious.