Today’s guest post comes to us courtesy Jennifer Burg of TheSuburbanMom!

Fall means a lot of things to a lot of people, but to kids October means only one thing: Costumes and CANDY! Little ones across the U.S. are dreaming of the day when they can run door to door dressed as their favorite character begging for candy and eating more candy in one night than mom allows all year long. But someone has to provide all of that “free candy” kids get, and if you are like the rest of us you want to participate in the merry-making without breaking the bank. Here are some tips to keep your candy shopping dollars to a minimum while still providing a spooktacular evening of fun for neighborhood kids.

1. Get over brand names – Who cares what kind of candy you give out, kids don’t. Sugar is Sugar! Of course, chocolate is always a popular treat, but it tends to be the more costly candy so go for the cheap stuff. If you grab a handful and toss it in the bag, the kids won’t care. Sure there’s always that candy no kid will eat, but we always send that candy with my hubby to his office and sure enough someone eats it by day’s end. So someone eats it!
2. What’s the real cost? – Of course we all want to buy our candy on sale, but don’t fall victim to a “fake” sale. Just because it is on sale doesn’t mean it is the best price. Grab your cell, pull up the calculator app and do the math. The bottom line is price per piece of candy – not per bag or pound. You aren’t serving candy by the bag or pound, you serve it per piece and if you want to make the little kids giddy and keep the big kids from any “tricks” you want to be able to give each kids more than one piece. So calculate accordingly.
3. Get the Freebies! – As October progresses, businesses will start offering bags of free candy with purchase. (For example from 10/3 – 10/9 Kmart offered a free bag of candy with a $40 costume purchase.) Like “fake” sales, don’t buy stuff just for the free candy or you are wasting money, but, for example, if you were going to get a costume form Kmart for $40+… get the candy!
4. Shop online – My daughter’s favorite lollipops are Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops, so this is what we will be passing out this year. We buy them on Amazon in a 5 pound bag, which is about 300 lollipops! Right now they are $26.92 (although this price fluxuates regularly, I have gotten them for as low as $13!). You can also save 20% on Yummy Earth with the coupon code SEPYUMMY, and it ships free with Amazon Prime or Amazon Mom.
5. Coupon Matchups – With Halloween in the air coupons for candy are everywhere you turn. While one coupon might not be enough off to make you buy, matching a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon and a store sale can get you candy for pennies on the dollar. So hold on to those coupons and look to pair them up for better deals. Just remember the per piece rule to make sure you are really getting a deal.

Happy candy shopping and Happy Halloween to all!

I’m a SAHM, I’m a WAHM, I’m a WOHM. I’m thrifty, I’m green, I’m toy-picking-up machine. I’m a woman, I’m a wife, I’m a Modern Momma. I am The Suburban Mom.  Jennifer Burg is TheSuburbanMom, and she invites you to visit TheSuburbanMom for product reviews, giveaways, deals, DIY projects and much more. Join the conversation at www.TheSuburbanMom.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Guest Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.