It’s that time of year again, Halloween is right around the corner, but what’s traditionally been a fun and spooky holiday has turned into an increasingly expensive one for parents.
“I just hope it gets better over time and hope the cost of inflation doesn’t prevent a lot of families from cutting back on the holiday cause you know, we’re trying to have a good time and hope to keep doing that,” said Jordan Cochrane, a consumer.
According to a new survey from Nextdoor Canada, 88 per cent of Canadians expect to keep Halloween spending below $100. But Winnipeg families CityNews spoke to have gone way beyond that.
“Probably $150, probably more….” said Talia Gross, a consumer. “I was actually surprised, yeah. Well, this is my first kid, so I’ve never bought Halloween costumes before. And so I bought for my niece and nephew as well and was a little shocked at the total.”
Laci Dingwall, another consumer said, “Like $300 plus probably. I love Halloween though. They have Halloween costumes for school and they have Halloween for Halloween, so that’s probably too much.”
Cochrane has five kids. He says on average he pays over $450 a year on Halloween costumes alone, and after an afternoon of shopping, he’s already nearing that total.
“$354 dollars. I got myself a cyborg mask, I got my daughter a Woody costume, and a Scream knife and my son a t-rex costume and whatever that guy is,” said Cochrane.
But Halloween isn’t just keeping up with the trends and getting your kid their new signature ‘triple t’ costume, it’s all about the candy.
“Well our subdivision gets hit hard. We probably get around 300 kids so between 150-250 [dollars] probably,” said Dingwall.
But for Gross, it’s her sons first Halloween, and like so many other families, she’s decided to go a different direction this year when it comes to trick-or treaters.
“I actually bought last year and we decided not to because, we didn’t get too many kids in the area. And we did spend quite a bit on candy last year as well,” said Gross.
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