5 Cheap and Fun Ideas to Decorate Your Home for Halloween

With tariffs driving up the price of store-bought décor, here are five budget-friendly DIY ways to keep your home spooky without overspending.

This Halloween season, families are feeling the pinch at the store. Tariffs on imported goods have driven up the cost of everything from plastic pumpkins to spooky inflatables, leaving many of us wondering if we can still deck out our homes without overspending. The good news? You don’t need to rely on pricey store-bought decorations to make your house festive and frightfully fun. With a little creativity, you can transform everyday items into Halloween magic.

1. DIY Ghost Lanterns

Instead of shelling out for decorative lanterns, you can make your own using empty jars or leftover spaghetti sauce containers. Clean and dry the jars, then wrap them in layers of white tissue paper or cheesecloth, securing with glue or tape. Draw spooky faces—smiling, frowning, or scary—with a black permanent marker. Drop in a battery-operated tea light or candle and watch them glow eerily in the dark. Arrange them on your porch, along the driveway, or in windows to create a haunting pathway for trick-or-treaters.

2. Trash Bag Spiderwebs

Black trash bags are cheap and easy to find, and with just a few snips, you can turn them into oversized spiderwebs. Cut the bag into a large square, fold it into a triangle a few times, and cut out triangular notches (like making a paper snowflake). When you unfold it, you’ll have a dramatic web that can be taped to doors, windows, or even stretched across bushes. Pair your web with a few fake spiders made from black pipe cleaners or pom-poms for a creepier effect.

3. Pumpkin Balloon Faces

Pumpkins can be pricey, especially if you want more than one. Balloons are a fun, affordable alternative. Blow up orange balloons and use a black marker or cut-out paper shapes to give each one a jack-o’-lantern personality—happy, scary, goofy, or surprised. Tie them to chairs, railings, or banisters, or bundle several together to create a “pumpkin patch” by your front door. If you want them to last longer, stick the balloons on walls or windows indoors so they don’t blow away or pop.

4. Creepy Silhouettes in the Window

Cardboard boxes or black construction paper are perfect for making Halloween silhouettes. Sketch out bats, cats, witches on broomsticks, or even zombie hands, then cut them out and tape them inside your windows. At night, turn on a lamp or LED light behind them so the shapes cast eerie shadows. To add layers, use tissue paper in orange, purple, or red as a backdrop to give your windows a glowing haunted-house effect. This is an easy project for kids to help with, and you can save the cutouts to reuse each year.

5. Haunted Sheet Ghosts

Old white sheets or inexpensive thrift-store finds can be transformed into spooky floating figures. For standing ghosts, stuff the head with crumpled newspaper or a small ball, tie it off with string, and drape the rest of the sheet to fall naturally. For floating ghosts, hang the sheets from tree branches or porch hooks with fishing line so they sway in the wind. Cut out black felt or paper eyes and mouths for expression. Add a glow stick underneath for a night-time scare. A group of three or four ghosts clustered in your yard can create a haunted graveyard vibe without costing much at all.

✨ With just a handful of household supplies, you can give your home a spooky, festive atmosphere without spending big bucks at the store.