Where to buy Halloween stuff


While Chris and I obviously make most of our costumes, often it is considerably easier and surprisingly cheaper to buy some pieces premade.

This year we’ve gone to so many different stores that I wanted to take notes, so I’ll remember where the best deals are for next year. And if you haven’t finished your costume shopping, maybe you can benefit from this too.

Value Village

We always start with the thrift and vintage stores. While there are plenty of thrift stores that have better deals and politics than Value Village, VV always has the biggest selection of second hand stuff. So if we don’t have a full day to spend combing through the racks of Ottawa’s vintage shops and charity stores, Value Village is the best bet.

Starting in September, VV stocks a wide selection of brand new costumes and accessories, but you’re usually better off looking for the real vintage items. Case in point: this authentic military cap cost less than $3, the cheap vinyl costume version was closer to $30.



Spirit Halloween

These stores that pop up in the fall and then pack up and leave the first week of November have a great selection of accessories and props. The prices are fairly high and the quality is pretty low, so I usually only go there when I don’t think I can find what I’m looking for anywhere else. This year they’re offering a 20% off coupon on their website, but the best deals will be the day after Halloween when they usually mark everything down 50%.



Malabar

While it has the best quality stuff, Malabar also has the highest prices to go with it. You can often find some of the same accessories available at Malabar for cheaper at Value Village and Spirit Halloween, but the really cool stuff you won’t find anywhere else. While you’re at Malabar you should pick up your tickets for the Great Pumpkin Ball.

Party Packagers

I always forget about Party Packagers until we’ve already gone everywhere else, and then I find out that I could have saved myself a bunch of money, since they carry many of the same things as Spirit Halloween and the Value Village Halloween section.

This year I looked everywhere for cheap toy grenades. The ones I did find at dollar stores were ridiculously tiny. After almost giving up I finally found the perfect set at Party Packagers.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flash's Guardians of the Galaxy Birthday Party

Image
As Axel's birthday falls so close to Halloween, I was hoping to save a little sanity by working his Halloween costume into his party theme. He was really excited about his upcoming Rocket and Groot party, but, three-year-olds being the fickle creatures that they are, on the day of the party he insisted that he would be the Flash and nothing could convince him otherwise. Now that Axel is getting older he has strong opinions on things, like how his party should be, which can be a little challenging for me, but on the flip side he is able to help out with the preparations which is a lot of fun. This theme worked well for the skill levels of a preschooler since nebulas and starscapes don't need to be precise and actually look best a little messy. My little helper and I had a great time baking and decorating galaxy star sugar cookies and painting the photobooth backdrop. His pride in the projects was so heartwarming, I'm smiling just thinking of it.   We als
Read more

Meet Bertha

Image
She's a beast. A 2000 Ford E-150, she's had a pretty rough life. She's been an airport shuttle bus and hauled countless lengths of hardwood for a flooring company. But life is about to get much better as she's now been tasked with taking us on an epic road trip. It'll be fun times like this and this
Read more

Superman Saga

Image
I previously posted that Chris and I were making Superman costumes for Burning Man. In honour of the Metropolis theme, a world record breaking gathering of people dressed as Superman was scheduled for noon on Burn Day and we didn't want to miss out on the fun. On top of our own costumes, I was making S shield patches to give out to anyone who may have forgotten their superhero outfits at home. Unfortunately, I didn't buy the iron-on interfacing for the patches (and read the instructions) until I had already traced and cut out a couple dozen red logos . Only afterwards did I realize that it would be much easier to iron the interfacing to the red fabric before cutting it all out. So I started over. Luckily I had plenty of free red t-shirts to use and many many hours of riding in Bertha to spend cutting. I ironed the red shields onto a $2 yellow sheet in our hotel room in Reno and then added another layer of interfacing so the patches could be ironed onto shirts. Since
Read more