Frugal Halloween Candy for Trick-or-Treaters
by Katy on October 28, 2025 · 13 comments
My husband and I are lucky to get lots of trick-or-treaters, which is fantastic as I love the creativity and sugar fueled enthusiasm. Of course, those treats don’t come free. Back in the heyday of couponing, I’d match store sales with double coupons for almost free candy, but those days are sadly long gone.
I switched over to buying Hi-Chew candy a couple years ago, as A. they’re cheap at Costco, B. the kids really like them, and C. They don’t appeal to my 57-year-old palate, so I’m 0.0% tempted to break into them.
My plan this year was to repeat this plan, as there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel, but I stopped into Dollar Tree, ostensibly for reading glasses and came across a shopping cart filled with Takis, priced at 25¢ apiece. I know that middle schoolers love these spicy snacks, so I grabbed all 23 of them. Again, not appealing to me, but I’m not their target audience. Total spent — $5.75.
Afterwards I stopped into my favorite dented vegetable store (Everyday Deals on S.E. 82nd Avenue) and came across this huge box of random candy, priced at $2/lb. My eye landed on multiple mesh bags of gelt (chocolate coins) so I sorted through the box to find as many as possible. Total spent — $5.48 on maybe 25 bags.
Lastly I drove to Costco, where I picked up a single bag of Hi-Chew candy, which set me back $6.99. Exactly the same price as last year!
Mind you, these stores were all in a row and I was going to Costco either way. Plus I got to skip lunch as the free Costco samples were popping off!
Total cost for everything was $18.22, which I consider a win considering the variety of what I’ll be handing out. I keep reading online about how tariffs are effecting the price of candy, so I feel extra relieved to have spent under twenty bucks.
How are candy prices in your area?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Thats an excellent selection you ended up with and the kids will love the variety. Most people seem to buy the same two variety packs from Costco (and I get why, it’s a great price!) and then it’s the same candy being given away at every house. It’s nice to mix it up, and especially for a good price.
We get a ton of trick or treaters as well. We also get the hi-chews and large boxes of blow pops and airheads (from Costco business center) which all seem to go over very well. My husband did also buy a box of Reese peanut butter cups from Costco, which he’s been steadily eating every night… A bit of a frugal fail there!
Candy is expensive for us. We are empty-nesters, and when our two kids were little and trick-or-treated, they got a ton of candy in the neighborhood. But we live on a cul-de-sac and people tend to forget we’re here. So we always got very few trick-or-treaters. This year I swore off Halloween and buying expensive candy. But I caved because 1) I love Halloween and 2) I wanted to put out my few Halloween porch decorations. So I spent $10 on two bags of Snickers and M&Ms.
Chocolate prices are up significantly, and bags have shrink-flated here. Less chocolate in the assortment packages as well.
I ordered Halloween pencils and tiny notebooks last year and plan to give them away for years until they are gone. I like the little kids the best and they usually come early in the evening, so I don’t have my light on for long, if anyone comes at all.
I also like to watch for bagged candy, often weeks or even months before Halloween. My daughter watches for me, too. She works in a shopping center that has a “dented vegetable” store in it and often comes across close-out candy. A month or so ago she found bags of Payday bars for $1.88 for a bag of 16. She bought up 6 bags. Earlier I had come across snack size bags of dried cranberries for 10 cents and I stocked up on those with Halloween and the winter holidays in mind. I’ve already started baking with them, as well as a little snacking. Those are my Halloween treats and I won’t mind at all if I have some leftovers.
Candy is very expensive here it’s shockingly expensive actually if you go to the regular grocery store. For 125 pieces of the tiniest bite of candy is $29.99. Ridiculous. We went to Costco and bought two boxes of full-size candy bars. I’m not even sure how much they cost anymore but it was very reasonable and I will never not do that. Nothing beats what we did last year though my husband was able to find for $3.49 a giant bucket of Reese‘s peanut butter cups, hundreds of them, and we purchased four buckets. We were able to give handfuls of the stuff out to all the kids, and he brought the rest with him to work, which made all of those people very happy.
I found the assorted fun size candy in the “Halloween” decorated /marketed bags to be pricey….but, as a frugal gal I always look outside the trick or treat bag so to speak — if you just buy the regular everyday bags of fun sized candies on sale, it’s a decent deal, especially when checking drugstore sales and combine with coupons! And, I have noticed more and more that small bags of salty snacks (chips, pretzels, etc) are now the new go to Halloween treat – so you are right on trend with the bargain Taki’s Katy!
This year I spent about $10 at Aldi on a big bag of 68 Tootsie Pops. These were a request from our adorable neighbor girls. Last year was our first Halloween in this house and we spent closer to $20 and had 25 kids. That was lower than normal here, but the weather was crappy and may have affected turnout. Luckily my husband and I don’t like Tootsie Pops so no temptation there.
The past few years I’ve bought the 90 ounce bags of chocolate variety candy at Costco. This year it was more than the $20 it was in previous years except it was “on sale” for just under $20 the last time I was in there. I have not opened the bags yet but know I’ll be sampling to the Reese’s and the peanut m & ms by Friday morning.
We went to sam’s club and saw that a 40-pack of ghoulaid (koolaid’s juice box branded for halloween) was $7. So we got two of those. And likely I’ll pick up something extra just in case we get more than 80 this year. we get cash back on the sam’s club purchases, so figure it’s not a bad investment!
I’m scheduled to work on Halloween, so I will block off my porch but have a sign telling the “spooks” to go to my church’s Trunk or Treat, right around the corner.
However, this and every year, I collect bit by bit, samples of candy. My bank has buckets of candy out for the customers and every time I go in to make a deposit, etc., I grab a few pieces. Some fast food and pizza places give you some pieces of peppermint with your check. I take those home. And so on….
I may pop one or two pieces of candy in my mouth, but the rest go into my candy bucket in the cupboard. At Halloween, this becomes my treats, and if there are any left over, they’re used for Christmas or whatever.
I donated my cache + a bag I bought at Ollie’s Outlet (using my 10% off coupon, when I got other items last summer) to the church Trunk or Treat.
On Nov. 1, I may grab some big bags of half-off candy (or even better, 75% or 90% off) and store them for next October if they are Halloween-themed, or use ’em on other occasions if they’re not. I also do this for post-Christmas sales, using the non-holiday themed items for whenever and whatever, providing the discount is high enough.
Per the Tightwad Gazette, I used to buy red- and green-covered Hershey’s Kisses post Yuletide season and separate them. The reds were used for Valentine’s and the greens for St. Patrick’s Day. However, in recent years, it appears that the stores and Hershey’s are on to us, and I’m not finding the good deals on this product anymore. So that’s gone by the wayside.
When Mom and Grandma were alive, I’d get chocolates on sale after Valentine’s, the ones that were NOT in heart-shaped boxes, and give them on Mother’s Day.
This is also a good hack for perfume, cologne, fancy toiletries and such — non-perishable stuff that goes on sale after Christmas, Valentine’s, and/or graduation/Mother’s Day (or Father’s Day, for men’s cologne) — and use them for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
Other good places to get free candies during the year are job fairs, health fairs, home and garden shows, county or state fairs, exhibitions, senior citizen fairs, tables at malls or stores where they’re giving out literature, etc. (One caveat: If you actually want to make a good impression and get hired when you attend a job fair, be discreet and don’t take too much from any one booth.) I recently attended a senior fair and grabbed handfuls of candy, along with other freebies — shopping bags, notepads, calendars, magnets, jar openers, pens, cups, etc. Of course, I feigned interest in each business — they don’t have to know their brochures were put in the recycling bin once I hit home.
I just finished my stash of “valentines” themed Hershey kisses in August! I stocked up on 3 bags when they were on clearance for a dollar!! Chocolate is chocolate – I don’t care about the wrapping…though these were wrapped in cute Peanuts theme and did make me smile! I’ll be restocking my stash on Saturday with some Halloween themed chocolate!
We have never had trick or treaters, so we donate to the backpack program at the area kids schools. This year I got 2 cases of Swedish fish in theater size boxes for $7 ea. I also picked up mac & cheese, meat sticks and Protein bars.
I did find 2 buckets of Reeses mini cups to hand out at the church’s barn party. We have a hay bale maze where we set up fun activities where they win candy prizes.