Is this TOO cheap? or smart?

[hrh_disney_queen]

OP HERE

Okay it is time for me to fess up... there is no way I am doing this but I wanted to get your reactions... THANK YOU! (didn't expect it to be this big)

This was on another forum I follow called pocket your dollars and I thought this was going a bit far to pocket my dollar and I thought maybe I was the one over reacting and that doing this was fine and dandy. I know there was only one group of people I could count on to put me on track.... my fellow dis budgeters!

Thanks for the input.... the laughs... and I promise I will hand out the "good" chocolate and leave my light on all night long

You can always count on the folks here to jerk a knot in your tail!

Happy Halloween!!

 

[Spacepest]

ITA. My kids love that stuff more than the candy. One year they got a fake million dollar bill and thought it was soooo cool. The only problem was it had religious stuff printed on it talking along the lines that everyone is sinner etc. We don't go to that house anymore

One year my sister and I got tiny comic books from one house. When we got home and read them, we found out they were religious related. And boy, were they a hoot! The comic basically said that Halloween was started by Satanists who like to lure children into rest stops and molest them, and candy was their lure. We were laughing to hard to be offended. We never got any more comics from that person, because they moved away before the next Halloween.

And seriously...printing coupons. TOO CHEAP. Don't give out anything, and just shut your door and turn out your lights.

While I have to give the OP some kudos for creativity, they missed the fact that printer ink is not CHEAP. It would be cheaper for me to buy candy for 500 kids than it would be for me to replace a couple of printer cartridges that I would burn through printing up 500 coupons.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

OP HERE

Okay it is time for me to fess up... there is no way I am doing this but I wanted to get your reactions... THANK YOU! (didn't expect it to be this big)

This was on another forum I follow called pocket your dollars and I thought this was going a bit far to pocket my dollar and I thought maybe I was the one over reacting and that doing this was fine and dandy. I know there was only one group of people I could count on to put me on track.... my fellow dis budgeters!

Thanks for the input.... the laughs... and I promise I will hand out the "good" chocolate and leave my light on all night long

So, why didn't you just say that instead of using people for some sort of social experiment? Lying isn't cool.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

So, why didn't you just say that instead of using people for some sort of social experiment? Lying isn't cool.

no harm done. At least she didn't do what a lot of people do, start a big "to-do" then leave us to duke it out..she came back! No big deal, OP.

 

[cheap traveler]

I really wish I got ANY trick-or-treaters at my house

I live in a "lake community", so a lot of the houses are owned by older people with grown kids, and nearly 50% of the houses are still seasonal. I always get 'something' and leave my light on, hoping that at least my 2 neighbors nearby with kids will stop by. This year is 5 years in this house, still no tot.

This year I got a bag of playdoh, and may send it to school with my DD5 to hand out to her friends. Not to worry, there is always candy in my house, in case the kids do stop over

 

[TheRatPack]

We don't get any children at our house so I buy candy to hand out to my own kids LOL Our neighbors usually buy a whole bag of something and just give us the bag....we have 5 kids. There is a neighborhood around here that everyone goes to though, hundreds of cars/people flock to their neighborhood on Halloween.....sad. It's actually gotten so bad that the residents of this neighborhood give out 1 piece of candy (tootsie roll or smarties...etc). We have friends that live there and I feel sorry for them

As far as what to give out...maybe you could order some of those healthy suckers by YummyEarth on Amazon that are so cheap and hand those out? Good for you and from what I've read they taste really good too. Or maybe you could hand out these: http://www.overstock.com/Bulk-Medic...d-Toothbrush-case-of-144/1929630/product.html for all those cavities

Joking of course on that last one.....the kids might egg your house if you did that.

 

[singnring]

TOT'ing has gotten way out of control if hundreds of kids that don't live in your neighborhood are coming there to score free candy! Sorry but I was raised that TOT'ing was something you did strictly in your own neighborhood.

Thank-you for throwing that in!!

We get 600+ kids a year at my house!

The entire town and surrounding area bring their kids into our neighborhood and expect us to support the night's ToT'ing!

If they would all stay at their own neighborhood and pass out candy, everyone could share the burden.

I would love to sit it out, but DH insists on passing out candy.

We have to rely on DumDums and Smarties because of the numbers of kids coming. Mini candy bars on sale at Rite aid would run us almost $70.
Sorry - too much for me to spend on ToT'ing!

 

[SeansMom]

It's not a bad idea, but I think the expense and time it would take you, plus the fact that most kids would never use it, makes it a no go.

You send very creative and I'm sure you'll do what works best for you.

BTW, in a way I'm envious. We are rural, and while we used to get a handful of kids, we now have no kids young enough to trick or treat. I miss seeing their costumes.

 

[dzorn]

Pixie stick are cheap also. I have also bought on ebay the glow sticks and passed them out. The kids really liked them.

Denise in MI

 

[wendypooh]

We get TONS of kids too.......... in the hundreds........ this is my plan....

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-of-120-New-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4149a46223












LOL - I'm kidding, but, DS DID get a toothbrush one year from someone - he was not impressed!!! LOL

 

[ceecee]

My boss gave out Oral B's one year!!! What do you expect at a dentist's house? They were expensive toothbrushes but they did have his name on them!
Do you think the Wendy coupons are bad to give? Maybe I should just stick to Snickers like every year.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

we give out juice boxes every year because I remember walking around for hours and wanting a drink!!

 

[MaumeeMom]

OP - I'm glad this was a "trick" as the coupon idea was really bad. If I owned the bowling alley I'd be really upset.

PARTIAL
My mom gets between 100-150 kids every year and this year she bought 4 cases of pepsi on sale (I think that will be heavy for the kids to carry around and what if they drop their bag oh no now I am really worried about this. LOL) and a few bags of candy bars and I know she didn't spend more than $50 and she will just turn out her lights if she gets more kids than that.

Yikes, Pepsi? I don't know about that - I agree they will be heavy and may leak. I bet my kids would love it though.

I always hit up "my" comic book guy for back issues at a bulk price and pass them out instead of candy.

The kids love it.

I LOVE this idea!!

we give out juice boxes every year because I remember walking around for hours and wanting a drink!!

I'm not big on the juice boxes, I've had them leak before and if it comes from a house with people I don't know, I would pitch them. It is probably an urban myth but they can be spiked/injected with stuff. The Pepsi at least can't really be tampered with.

Yes, I am one of "those moms". I go through the candy and throw out anything unwrapped, homemade, raisins, etc., basically anything that can be tampered with.

We give out full size bars to about 150 kids - this started when we moved into our first house years and years ago. We moved in Oct. so we were the new people whom everyone came to check out. The full size bars made a big impression. I love the look on the little ones faces when they see what I'm putting in their bags. Most go running back to mom or dad to tell them what they got. Of course, I have a bag of the fun size bars for the older, usually rude, kids who really shouldn't be going out any longer.

Just for fun - this link is to an article on the Top Ten Worst Halloween treats. Enjoy!

 

[momtosam]

[/QUOTE]Just for fun - this link is to an article on the Top Ten Worst Halloween treats. Enjoy![/QUOTE]

Uh, oh! Smarties and Dum-Dums made that list!

 

[jlima]

No one has said this yet . . . when I was little my dad would by mandarin oranges from his grandmother every Fall; and that's what you got at my house. But a lot of people in our neighborhood did that. One year I came home from ToT'ing with SIX oranges.

I liked the houses with chocolate much better.

We get our candy at Smart & Final.

Oriental Trading has great deals; this is 200 pieces for 9.99:

http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/b...dy&sd=Miniature+Tootsie+Roll®+POPS®

or 180 pieces for 10.99:

http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/b...ssProductsCatalog&rd=candy&sd=Twizzlers®

 

[DISdreamin']

Thank-you for throwing that in!!

We get 600+ kids a year at my house!

The entire town and surrounding area bring their kids into our neighborhood and expect us to support the night's ToT'ing!

Yes, THIS! We get hundreds of kids, but it does irritate me that you can watch cars drop loads of kids off at the main road to wander through our neighborhood later in the evening. Big kids...some not even in costumes! Nope, that's the point where the lights go out and we close up shop to get our little ones ready for bed.

Honestly I understand having to do the car ToT thing as we lived in a very rural area when I was growing up, but my parents only took us to houses where we actually knew the people. To just randomly be dropped off in a neighborhood - it just seems weird! And I can only imagine what it's like in the really swank neighborhoods a few miles from here. OTOH, our lots are smaller so it might be a shorter walk for more houses here...might be why traffic is so high in this area.

Anyways, on the candy topic, I typically spend about $50 on large bags of mostly chocolate (4 bags of choc, one non-choc) and when they're gone, they're gone. The best part about Halloween here is that our neighborhood fire department comes through with their truck and tosses candy out to the ToTers! It's so fun to see the fire truck with all its lights on driving through the streets! The little kids LOVE it.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

Just for fun - this link is to an article on the Top Ten Worst Halloween treats. Enjoy![/QUOTE]

Uh, oh! Smarties and Dum-Dums made that list! [/QUOTE]


It also said that fun sized candy bars, tootsie rolls, and Laffy Taffy were the worst, too. What's left?

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

No one has said this yet . . . when I was little my dad would by mandarin oranges from his grandmother every Fall; and that's what you got at my house. But a lot of people in our neighborhood did that. One year I came home from ToT'ing with SIX oranges.

I liked the houses with chocolate much better.

We get our candy at Smart & Final.

Oriental Trading has great deals; this is 200 pieces for 9.99:

http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/b...dy&sd=Miniature+Tootsie+Roll®+POPS®

or 180 pieces for 10.99:

http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/b...ssProductsCatalog&rd=candy&sd=Twizzlers®

I don't know about the Twizzlers, but Target has the mini Tootsie pops at $6.99/bag of 250. Who doesn't love a Tootsie pop?!

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

LOL, I love neccos, tootsie rolls, dum dums, fun size candy bars, and candy corn.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Just for fun - this link is to an article on the Top Ten Worst Halloween treats. Enjoy!

Uh, oh! Smarties and Dum-Dums made that list! [/QUOTE]


It also said that fun sized candy bars and Laffy Taffy were the worst, too. What's left?[/QUOTE]

I guess I am a bad giver then. I love Laffy Taffy and so do the kids and we also love Smartied and Dum-Dums!
I buy all different kinds of candy including chocolate. We love Halloween here!