7 Tips for Enjoying a Haunted House

photo credit: darkpatator

For many, it is a tradition to head to a haunted attraction sometime near Halloween. For us, the scare of going the a haunt is just part of the spooky season much the same as looking at lights is part of the Christmas one.

But haunts can be expensive. High-end attractions charge $20 or more per ticket and even “budget” haunts routinely charge $10 or more. This prices them higher than a trip to the movies and most nightclubs in terms of entertainment expense.

Yet, the way some people go through a haunt, they seem to sabotage their own chances of actually having a good time. They essentially throw away their ticket price and some then complain that the haunt was a waste of money.

If you don’t know how to go through a haunt, even the best attraction will be a waste of cash. As a serial haunt attendee, haunt actor and haunt operator, here are my tips for getting your money’s worth. Read more

Saving Money at Halloween

I was in Wal-Mart the other day (please don’t ask) and decided to take a look at their Halloween section. Though I usually don’t have high expectations of these “big box” retailers when it comes to Halloween, I feel obligated to check and, sometimes at least, they do have some interesting stuff.

My wife and I began to look through the costume section. As we get closer in to opening our haunt (we open Halloween night), we are realizing we need some outfits to go with our Asylum theme and a few sets of scrubs are high on the list.

In the Halloween section we saw a set of costume scrubs for sixteen dollars. While that may not sound like a bad deal and is actually very cheap for a Halloween costume, the problem is that just 100 feet away Wal-Mart had a collection of real scrubs for just ten dollars.

The problem didn’t end there. You could buy a fake plastic broom for eight dollars or go to the cleaning section and get a real one for three or four. Likewise, you could by a “costume” sword for about six dollars but “toy” ones in the toy section were just two or three.

Everything in the Halloween section is marked up to insane amounts just because the the price tag is in orange and black. This is a huge headache for parents, who are buying something their kids will wear exactly once, home haunters, who have tight budgets, and even professional haunted houses.

So if you want to survive Halloween without breaking the bank, here are a few ways to cut corners and avoid getting gouged this haunting season. Read more