[Sidnami]

I'm assuming that everyone on here is slightly obsess with Halloween and the decorations. We spend time, money and dignity (or lack of) on it. There tend to be a extra cost with that outside of those realms. Mine has been using one vacation week just to set up and take down my collections. I could use it to do something else or travel, but I like to have time to set up instead. At least I'm getting paid for it indirectly.

So what has your Halloween hobby costed you?

 

[Gym Whourlfeld]

Caution Possible "Soap Opera" ahead..

My two young Sons.
After working almost every day,being "On-Call"
almost 23/7 long hours for 15 years, doing work many others did not want to do, we were losing our house.
My wife said "Go for it!" when the house I have now came up for sale.
I begged others for financial help for many months .
We had plans for multiple uses for this house if we could get it , and give us all a place to live.
My plans were to have part of it be a "Haunted House" She was in total, enthusiastic agreement,.... until I told her we now had the money (a personal loan) and we had the house!
She looked kind of dejected? Said nothing to the contrary as to what ,if anything she was thinking or planning to do.
I rented a carpet cleaning machine, was using it here when she sent her Son down to tell me she was not going to be moving here.
She had just spent the last Five years with a phone up to head for numerous hours every day listening to two local women tell her how terrible their Husbands were and she had now joined that "Club",even though I was not at all acting as they were ,except for working long hours to try to support my family.and never having enough $$.
Somehow? SHE "Found" or borrowed enough money to rent a very nice house in the country? Skimming? She also could have been helped from a wealthy man she had known before we met? Who did leave her a big house ,a bank account and a bunch of antiques.($170,000 total value?)
She said "Satan" had helped me get the $ to buy my house, then she moved into the nice house , and it just happened to be owned by the Same nice elderly man who loaned me the $3,000 to buy this house? He was not "Satan".
With some Luck,a lot of long ,hard hours of creative work,using scrap wood and other junked items I was able to make this place work, I provided child support every week and eventually offered to do more than just weekly support,which she refused but then, she really didn't need it I guess either?
Before" it all hit the fan", i could spend every spare moment with our four boys, (Hers,mine, ours) which I did, playing catch,bike riding,just being together,we lived a block from the school we ate Lunch together, i coached the Small fry Baseball team, being with my kids. All that came to an abrupt end.
Funny thing was , the couple of times she had a part time job,she felt she could spend that money on her girlfriends even though we were eating Corn Meal and margarine twice a day.but that was "OK"...
I encouraged her to attend Jr. College. I rebuilt a car so she had something to drive to get there and back a 50mile round trip,only to have her one "girlfriend" make fun of me for it.
We got Divorced but her one "G.F. and her totally" terrible" Husband remained married up until recently and the other woman is still married to her" terrible" Husband? There were long periods of time when I could never speak to my wife because the phone receiver was up to her head all the time.Much more important than our kids or possibly cooking or cleaning any little thing.
She got enough education to become a Kindergarten helper,then went further (I guess?) to get a better position.
Maybe the reason for" our "downfall concerning one another was helped when she handed me some papers,"Here,fill these out!"
they were several pages, hundreds of psychological questions.from her Jr. College class in Child Psych.
I had always allowed her to think that she was "The Smart One",she needed this for her fragile ego?
When she returned those little test papers to her instructor and they went over my answers ,My wife began looking at me differently .
the instructor said:"WHO filled this out? Nobody can be like this,Passive --Aggressive,ying-yang; yadda-yadda-yadda!" (Whatever?)
She felt threatened because ,maybe,just maybe i wasn't as simple as I acted?
"Lift that ladder, pull that wrench, sweep that soot, lift that boiler,hand mix concrete ,run that heavy old Roto-rooter machine by myself....all at 5ft9-- 175 pounds working alone mostly.
Did I do the "Right Thing"? My options were very close to none. My now ex even got me a 3-day job working driving a tractor for a local Farmer,which i joyfully did,even though I have never liked the smell of hog defecation. It was "money"
I don't "Drink" Do Drugs.Smoke,never owned a "Boat on the River" or a Snow mobile or a Motorcycle,never been jailed Because i always murder all the witnesses! People assume those are "Buckies!"

 

[Sidnami]

Ouch. The worse I've had with my wife is she almost gets burnt out about that season due to my obsession. How do I make it up to her? Let her control most of the house for almost all the other holidays decoration. I blew it one year where I was so tired after taking the Halloween decor down, I didn't put much X-mas lights up. I had to make it up by getting better lights and spending more time and quality on putting them up from then on. Also I have to allow her to be a major decider on what our vacation is to be. This year it is the UP or else. A lot of negotiations went into this where I require the right to check out any interesting garage sales along the way and to use a car rental.

P.S. Make sure your life insurance is paid up before she sends you up on the roof to put up the lights.

 

[Grey Lady]

mmm, Gym wins

 

[Paint It Black]

It has cost us pretty much all of our storage space. But it isn't clutter; it is all useful stuff!

 

[22606]

mmm, Gym wins

I would say that you are far too optimistic, considering that winning

Thank you for a hell of a laugh, Sid. Definitely one of the funniest episodes.


Sanity, perhaps? Then again, that had been on the outs long before, I am sure

 

[xxScorpion64xx]

Storage space, 7 days of vacation,

 

[Scatterbrains]

I would say opportunity....
Lots and lots of time and money that could have been spent elsewhere. Throw in Christmas too and it's kind of ridiculous how much energy is wasted garnering attention from other folks. I get drivebys before Halloween, and my ToT count pales in comparison to others here, and other than my cul-de-sac, no one has a clue about the effort I put into Christmas.

Introspective threads like these get me to thinking about hanging up the decorating hat and getting on with my life

 

[Countess No]

I feel like I do spend too much time and money on haunting. I know I do.
I haven't had trauma like Mr. Whourfeld, yet.
I do think though that I do term my relationship with halloween an unhealthy obsession, isn't it always something?
A perusal of the internet shows that people are obsessed or center their life around exercise, crafting, organic eating, buying fine leather goods, jewelry, politics, you name it, they do it.
I love watching the show Intervention. It shows people who have drink or drug problems, to the point of losing their families. They financially ruin themselves and their loved ones many times.
I am really into halloween, and I am drawn to it like no other subject.
If I gave it up or stopped, would I replace it with another activity? Work myself into the ground? Watch netflix until I fuse into the couch?
I have cut back on Christmas decor, as two seasons of decorating so closely together is such a hassle. We do enough to make the house festive and call it good.
We are moving soon, and my haunting future is uncertain. I will let you all know if I give it up and find a new life if I get stuck in an apartment or a bad neighborhood with real monsters lurking and limiting my display.

 

[Sidnami]

I'll also have to agree about the storage space issue. Any place I get will require the garage to have a attic and I have to worry about weight because of it. I wish I had visitors based on the time and work I do, but not much luck. Plan B will be to make something visible in the backyard so people can see it from the street nearby.

 

[xxScorpion64xx]

What would solve my problem would be the lottery. I could offord all the storage I need and I would be on permanent vacation

 

[Deadview]

My Sanity !

 

[HalloGeekHalfrican]

I'm king of a noob right now (live at home, so parents don't really want all this Halloween stuff around all the time, which means I don't buy a lot). But what I do go overboard with are Halloween/Fall candles, lotions, soaps, and other small items I keep in my room. I can't help it, I love the smell!

 

[wdragon209]

I'm going to say storage, also. Our "garage" is filled (with not only Halloween, but other junk), and the closets are serving their purpose with clothes and shoes.

It's an obsession, though, that I wouldn't trade for anything in this world.

 

[DaveintheGrave]

My soul !

 

[ooojen]

Overdoing Halloween has bitten into my level of organization. For better or for worse, I tend to overdo a lot of things, and I have a wide range of interests. I used to only work on a manageable number of projects at a time, maybe a half dozen or so. Now I have far more than I can keep organized. More than most hobbies, creating Halloween decorations and props involves gathering odds and ends when they become available. ("I could make a _____ out of that!") So I grab things I find on deep sales and at thrift stores, and I hang onto scraps of molding or tin that I'd otherwise toss. It's getting to be a little too much. I spend too much time looking for things among all the other supplies I have on hand for later.

 

[spookydave]

too much money!! lol we spend around 1500-2000 a year on stuff that usually breaks the first time you use it,so this year im gonna try to build everything , that way it'll only cost me about 3 grand, haha jeez

 

[matrixmom]

Well, enough that this year nothing will be bought. College bills for son #1 is taking it all.......enough said.....and no party this year either.

 

[Pumpkin5]

If I wasn't spending all my extra cash and time on Halloween....I'm sure I would find something else for my obsession. I know people who have hobbies that spend just as much time and money on their hobby as I do on Halloween. So I prefer to call Halloween, my hobby, orange and black though it be.

 

[thenightmarefamily]

I'm one of the lucky ones, since my entire family including all my kids help to set or haunt up and they are all actors in it, i don't really lose time if anything it brings us closer together. I think maybe money and storage are my 2 main concerns. But then again, how many of us here don't have money and storage problems. I however don't think what i do is a problem, no one thinks twice about "normal" people maxing out all there credit cards for Christmas. I however don't drive myself into dept for Halloween, sure i spend a little more than i should, but i don't risk my families lively hood on a bunch of crappy junk that they will get tired of next week like the "norms" do. So, who has the real problem?