If you get trick-or-treaters:

Nothing says you have to hand out candy.

And nothing says the candy has to be in Halloween wrappers.

​

Last year, I made a bad Facebook Marketplace purchase. I bought a big bag of puzzle books, thinking there'd be a bunch of sudoku in there for my parents. There was not. It was nearly exclusively word searches and crosswords.

I took them to my brother's house to give out at Halloween. He gave me such grief, was certain the kids were going to hate them. But the kids LOVED them! He (gracefully) ate his words. And I had forty-ish puzzle books out of my house without having to go out of my way to do it, as well as not spending money on Halloween candy.

I'm trying to use up beauty products, so tonight I used a sugar scrub mask that I had bought three of when they were on clearance.

I hate this mask. The scrub kept falling off my face. So the other two packages? Will go in the treat bucket.

I routinely buy a bag of candy but then only eat a few pieces b/c that's all I really wanted. Clearing out the candy draw into the treat bucket.

​

If you have things in your house that are: 1) prepackaged, 2) within date, and 3) kid appropriate -- consider handing them out at Halloween.

​