..to ask for help with planning a frugal Halloween party for seven teenagers? HELP!

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Shamelessly posting for traffic. Sorry. Not sorry .

Reluctantly agreed to host Halloween party for seven fourteen year olds - six female and one platonic male friend that's "one of girls".

I don't get paid until after this party has gone due to four weekly rather than monthly pay and I'm not mature enough to plan ahead to anticipate stuff like this.

I am creative in the sense that I don't mind making or creating things (used to do props for an am dram company) but money is pretty pretty tight I'm utterly brassic

I have cardboard, paint, paper and a few bits from last Halloween but none of it is very good!

Can anyone share any ideas about how you can have a fantastic frugal Halloween party that won't be sneered at by seven teenagers?

DD refused to ask friends to bring stuff as that looks "desperate" as I originally thought if X brings this and Y brings that then that will all add up to help share the financial load. No such luck.

A few parents have said no movies unless they are 12/PG but I wasn't planning on sticking them in front of Nightmare on Elm Street and leaving them to it! Was thinking maybe party games or they will just stay on their phones... Surely?

Please help! Ideas for decorations, games, recipes anything that won't cost very much but will look good.

I'll give anything a go if it's worth a try!

TIA

Get a plastic waste paper bin . Make red jelly in it, (used more water so it’s soft) mix in sweets , plastic toys (dried mealworms if you can afford them) and get kids to dip hands in to retrieve. Value sohaghetti with Tom ketchup and hide sweet at bottom have to retrieve with mouth with hands behind baby . Same for plate of flour. Mine also love simple games such as blow football using malteasers and straws. Value loo roll and sellotape , two teams , prize for best mummmy bride. Have fun!!

Great ideas here which are putting me to shame. I had a few teens here last year (billed as get together not party). I put up a few Poundland decs which I use every year, gave them a pumpkin each to carve and left them to it, which they were v happy with. They did spooky make up on each other, ate a load of sweets (which they all brought) and watched something scary-ish on Netflix.

Ok - my first piece of advice is look on scouting and guiding websites there will be LOADS of cheap/free ideas there

Off the top of my head -

Apple bobbing - as apples are pretty cheap, eating party rings or ring donuts off hung string - no hands for both you could add blindfolds for the donuts

Pin the horns on the "devil" - but make the "devils" caricatures of your guests

Free - make a Spotify (or other similar service) playlist of cheesy Halloween themed songs that have a specific dance to them and teach them the dances/make up dances - time warp, monster mash, thriller (tho must admit I'm not a Michael Jackson fan but desperate times...), ghostbusters, highway to hell, psycho killer, sympathy for the devil, paint it black...

In fact there's probably Halloween playlists available

Dare bowl (but make sure they're reasonable/not too stupid)

Halloween based charades - Halloween films/books/tv shows/songs to be acted out. Teens start off going 🙄 at charades but once they get going they love it!

@JuneOsborne I don't think alcohol to underage kids is a good suggestion!

Who am I - give everyone a sticker on their back when they arrive with a Halloween character (dracula, Frankenstein etc) then get them to guess who their own character is and answer yes/no as the others try to guess theirs. If you can stretch to some cheap ring donuts, tie a longish string through the middle of them and tie on the washing line. Eat without using hands- person who eats the most before it falls to the floor is the winner. Balloon pop- pack or two of balloons preblown up and a few chairs. In pairs one person sits on a chair with a balloon in their lap, partner has to sit on knee and bounce to pop the balloon without using hands, swap places after each balloon. Winning pair is the ones who pop the most. Monster faces- place an a4 sheet of thick paper or card over your face and draw a scary face using a felt pen. If you can get hold a bag of those teeny small marshmallows you can have great fun doing relay races with those, straws and a couple of bowls. If you don’t have a huge budget I would ask the other kids to at least contribute some sweets that can be handed out as prizes, I don’t think it’s tight or unreasonable, especially if you are providing the other food.

These ideas are genius! I love the idea of hay bales and bonfire too! Thanks so much. The meringue ghosts look really cute I just did a quick Google search for these. I'll ask DD if she wants cringey games or prefers the more leave them to it style. Please keep throwing ideas at me I am going to grab pen and paper in a minute and start making notes! Thank you so much to everyone who has left ideas!

Op on a tangent a bit but honestly I was on a VERY tight budget raising dd and often had to do the "cheap and cheerful" thing, eg her birthday is a few weeks after Xmas which made things very tight at times yet the parties/events/gifts she remembers most fondly are the ones where I had to be creative due to lack of funds!

The dance idea I gave came from a dance themed/80's birthday party I once did for her and her friends. The "gang" loved it inc her own "honorary one of the girls" male friend who turned up in leg warmers and deeley boppers! We had a great laugh!

Said male friend recently called me - pissed - celebrating his 21st to say thanks for that party which was 7 years earlier! also to say the thanks for the card and gift we'd sent him (dd is living away now studying)

Honestly kids remember the fun and the love, they don't remember it was cos you were skint! For the most part (dd is aware we had it tight but that's not her over riding memory thankfully?

Use plastic gloves with diluting juice and make punch a punch bowl with floating hands

Obviously put them in the freezer

Scottish traditional Halloween games.
Bobbing for apples.
There’s one where you get people to stick their finger in what they think is Nelson’s eye, but it's actually an orange.
There’s one where you have to eat mashed potato in front of a mirror and the effigy of your future spouse rises up (you have to have people prepared). There must be others.
Or is this really lame for 14-year-olds?

If you have a big table, they're probably a good age for beer pong (obviously with soft drinks). Decorate your ping-pong ball as an eyeball to fit the theme.

One that might be good for this age group is to play assassin (call it whatever makes sense or choose a Halloween theme, could work as zombies or witches and toads, or anything really)

To start the game you choose one person to be the assassin, they then spend the evening trying to ‘kill’ everyone without being caught. Usually it’s done by winking at them. Although the method of ‘death’ could be anything like having to slip a piece of paper with a Halloween picture or a small toy or putting a Halloween sticker on someone.

Here’s a site with some variations www.thesprucecrafts.com/wink-murder-murder-handshake-412177

It’s a game that can last for awhile so the entertainment factor can be high.

Here’s a good site with clue ideas for a DIY escape room. Could easily be converted to Halloween theme: teachingideas.ca/2020/05/17/escape-room-2/

Make fudge as a party activity. It’s delicious and not expensive from scratch. You will need a large heavy bottom pan and a candy thermometer.

I love Halloween parties - couple of things that have gone down well:-

Sour worm sweets in jelly in (poundshop) shot glasses. Or a big jelly and some plastic bug/spiders (Asda) - have been using the same ones for about 7 years.

New cat litter tray (pound shop) box of basics/smart price rice crispies. Make some fudge (easy online recipe) then shape or pipe into cat poo shapes. Place on top of rice crispies litter. Teenage equivalent of apple bobbing when they have to get the cat poo of the litter box with hands behind their back

Look up horror film sound effects on Spotify or you tube. A creaky door, scream or cackling laugh is great fun whilst playing a quick game or murder in the dark or a ghost hunt (in the dark of course). All the better if you can arrange a neighbour or friend to 'surprise' them.

Other than that a horror film, pizzas and snacks. If looking for a silly Halloween film Netflix had Hubie Halloween last year which was good fun

Have fun