7 Halloween Hacks You Don't Want to Miss

Halloween is coming – and so are the scary costs of joining the fun! Yes, all that spookiness comes with a frightening price tag: The average American will spend $169 on Halloween costs this year.

Ready to save big? Read on for 7 awesome Halloween hacks.

1. Is that real ketchup?

Make your own fake blood with this quickie recipe:

• 4 cups corn syrup
• Red food coloring
• Blue food coloring

Pour the syrup into a large bowl and start adding the red food coloring a few drops at a time. Stir with a whisk until you reach your desired consistency. To darken, add a few drops of blue food coloring while continuing to stir.

2. Whose hand is floating in the punch bowl?

For a super-scary addition to your Halloween party, fill a rubber glove with water and seal it shut. Stick it in the freezer and soon you’ll have an iced severed hand to drop into the punch bowl and freak your guests out.

3. Stick ’em up!

This Halloween, go as a stick person! Dress in black from head to toe. Use white masking tape to add lines to your legs, arms and torso. Put some lines in the back, too. For a full-body costume, take a paper plate and paint it black. Use your tape to draw a stick-face on the plate and glue a Popsicle stick onto the bottom so you can hold it up.

4. Is that a witch sticking out of your plant?

Take two pool noodles and stuff them into a pair of striped leggings. Top it off with black witchy-looking shoes and you have yourself a pair of witch legs! Stick them upside down in a plant, or make them look like they’re coming out of your garbage can.

5. Would you like some spiders with that?

Have fun with a cheap bag of plastic spiders. Stick them in your ice cube tray for floating critters; drop them inside your soap dispenser or scatter them inside the popcorn bowl.

6. Did you really just kill a box of cereal?

Looking for a funny-scary costume you can make yourself? Go as a serial killer! Err … a cereal killer, that is. Take an old white T-shirt and decorate it to look like your favorite cereal box. Then, take a dress-up dagger and carefully cut off its tip. Glue the blunted dagger to the middle of your cereal box. Then use your fake blood to add splatters and drippings all over your shirt.

7. Anyone care for some fresh worms?

Drip a bit of black food coloring into boiling pasta and it will instantly turn your dinner into a dark, gross-looking creation. Drain your pasta as usual and then bring it out to the table, asking if anyone would like some delicious hot worms for dinner.