The best time to buy decorations

This past Halloween, my kids started complaining that our house was the "lamest on the block" because we didn't have any decorations out. They weren't wrong. I have a really hard time ponying up to buy decorations for Halloween. We got by on a homemade ghost my son made out of a beach ball and a white sheet, but by the end of the month it was destroyed and had to be thrown away, so I figured we'd be right back where we started next year. UNTIL...

A fateful trip to Goodwill in November proved to be the best stop I could have made to stock up. All the Halloween decor was being sold for 90% off, just to get it out of there. They were practically begging people to take it. To be honest, I wouldn't have even CONSIDERED paying $15 for a corrugated metal ghost cutout, but at $1.50, it actually started to look pretty cute.

So here we have it - what would have been $55 of spooky lawn decor came home with me for $5.50. Assuming I can remember where I store it for the next 11 months, our lawn is going to be lit next Halloween.