Thread: How much have you spent on yard haunts?

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How much money does it take to make a good haunt?

Depends on what you make yourself and how many prebuilt mfg props you buy. Plus, it's an ongoing thing so there is no set amount when you can say Ok, I'm done. The question really is too vague and too many variables to answer. If you're asking how much I spend, I would say about 100-200 per year, but I build everything myself and I am soooooo cheap!

I think you'll find the number of answers will be limited only by the number of folks you ask.

It's all in what you want to do and how you do it I suppose.


Last year I spent maybe $100. This year I'm already in for ~$500. You just go little by little and do what you can.

Well lets see.. Since this is year 1 of the home haunt I am expecting my costs to be higher since i am building / buying items that i know will stand up for years to come. So far i think i have a couple hundred accounted for so I am expecting this year to run me $500 + .. not to mention what i spent end of season last year during the November 1st sales

The simple answer?

Too much. And yet, never enough.

Wow is that a loaded question...Depends are you married and want to stay that way???

Like most of the folks here I add a liitle more each year...However if you change themes then it can get more expensive. The best cost saver I have found is make a list of some of the props you want to create, and start collecting free materials when you see them throughout the year. Then all you have to do is purchase small needed items like masks, hats, skulls, skeletons etc. The worst thing you can do is wait till halloween is almost there and start impulse buying....Yup I am guilty of that one too. I have stuff in storage bins I still have yet to use.

Lighting and Sound add alot to a haunt and maybe the most impotant and the maybe the most overlooked.

You also have to consider how to protect your stuff from theft and vandalism...I use a graveyard fence all the way around the perimeter of my yard, and it adds lots of detail too!!!

There are lots of props here to take a look at or you can go to the halloween project sites.
http://www.hauntproject.com/
http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info/

Good Luck :-)

I would have to agree with UnOrthodOx "Too much. And yet, never enough."

I agree there are a lot of variables involved to answer your question... If its your first year and you only want to have a couple of static props the the cost will be lets say low. But take into account that the first year you will be buying things that you will use for years to come like spot lights, extension cords, perhaps some sound. If you want to have a pneumatic prop then you may need to buy a compressor so there's a bigger expense. I think most of us started with a couple of simple props adding more each year and moving from static to motorized to penumatic, computer controlled etc.

I save most of my receipts but I have never gone back and added them up (ignorance is bilss)

Each year I spend less than 500.00. I say this year will be less, the closer you get to Halloween the more things I add, or have to replace...

More than a mortgage payment but less than a tank of gas...Hope this clears it up for ya