Halloween spend is up to $114.45 so every trick could be a money-saving treat

By Kyle James, Reporter

• Average Halloween spend is hitting a record $114.45 per person in 2025 (NRF).
• Candy target: 12 per fun-sizewait until the week before Halloween and mix chocolate + gummies to hit the mark.
• Post-Halloween power buy window: Nov 13Spirit costumes typically drop 25% 50%, and dcor at many stores hits up to 75% off.

Halloween gets expensive fast. After you buy candy, costumes, food for a party, maybe a decoration for the yard, it can easily blow your monthly budget. According to the National Retail Federation, the average per-person spending for 2025 is set to reach a record high of $114.45. But with a little strategy, you can easily lower that number without being the house that hands out raisins.

Candy: chase the 12 per fun-size rule

When it comes to getting ready for trick-or-treaters, I shoot for only buying candy when it hits the 12 per fun-size piece. Thats my line in the sand.

The secret? Wait until the week before Halloween to buy. This is when retailers start to clear out their candy supply at a discount. Stores that typically hit this mark include Walmart, drugstores like CVS and Walgreens, and even your local grocery stores get close when you use a BOGO offer or digital coupon.

How I do it:

Check unit price, not the bag price. A 65-count bag for $15 is 23 each. No good. Wait for that bag to drop below $10 (and it will), then youre getting close to the 12 mark.

Mix one chocolate bag + one gummy/lollipop bag. Gummies and lollipops are a lot cheaper than chocolate, up to 40%. So be sure to buy some of each and mix them together and avoid paying chocolate prices for every piece.

Split with a neighbor so nobody overbuys. This way you wont be stuck eating 87 fun-size Snickers come November 2.

Costumes: build a $25 look that doesnt look cheap

Store costumes are expensive, especially when you visit places like Spirit Halloween where its easy to drop $50 for a costume youll wear once.

Instead, consider grabbing one anchor piece at a thrift store (black dress, army jacket, blazer, trench coat, denim overalls) and finish it with Dollar Tree accessories.

When you do it right, youre looking at a thrift anchor ($8$12), two dollar-store accessories ($2.50$5), face paint ($3$5), and one prop ($5). Done.

Here are some of my favorite repeatable builds using the anchor piece method:

An 80s rocker: thrifted leather/pleather jacket + eyeliner + hairspray + rock band tee.

Cowboy/cowgirl: thrifted plaid shirt + thrifted belt + bandana + cardboard belt buckle.

Ghost but make it funny: thrifted trench coat + white sheet + sunglasses.

Rosie the Riveter: thrifted chambray shirt + red bandana + rolled jeans.

Bob Ross: thrifted denim/chambray shirt + curly wig (or tousled hair) + DIY palette (cardboard with paint blobs) + paintbrush.

Tourist: loud shirt/Hawaiian + shorts + socks-with-sandals + sunglasses + printed map or camera-on-lanyard.

Decor: dupe the look, not the price

When it comes to Halloween dcor that wont break the bank, you can easily get the Pinterest vibe with three big moves. Focus on these instead of buying a bunch of little budget busters that will leave you wanting more.

Heres my 3-piece formula thatll get your home in the spirit for less.

1. One large focal item by the front door: could be a tall DIY porch sign or a thrifted lantern filled with dollar-store faux webs and a puck light.

2. Lighting: swap out your porch clear bulbs to orange or use warm-white string lights you already own and wind them through branches or a nearby railing.

3. Texture: drop a $10 straw bale by the door, set two pumpkins on top, then add movement with a few strips of black fabric (or trash-bag ribbons) tied to the twine that holds the bale together. Then let the strips hang free and flutter in the breeze.

Pro Tip: Buy your pumpkins at a produce stand or farmers market toward closing or ask for the ugly bin. Youll score a markdown on the surface-scuffed pumpkins that carve just fine.

Party on $40: board + bowl + one bake

Having a son that was born on Halloween, my wife and I have hosted our fair share of budget-friendly parties on the 31st. We always focused on a simple and colorful food spread that feels themed without 12 separate recipes.

Heres what to focus on:

Snack board: Heres where you get creative and think of as many orange, black, and white foods as you can. Think cheddar cubes, carrot sticks, black licorice bites, Oreos, pretzels, and marshmallows. Then place them on a snack board in stripes or whatever charcuterie pattern you can come up with. You end up with a simple, budget-friendly food display that fits the mood.

Big punch of bowl: A 2-ingredient sherbet punch (orange sherbet + lemon-lime soda) with floating gummy worms will be a hit. If you want to go the extra step, buy a small piece of dry ice from the grocery store and put in the bowl to get the witchs brew steam effect.

One bake: Try your hand at mummy dogs which are hot dogs wrapped with crescent dough with two mustard eyes. Or a graveyard brownie slab which is simply box brownies, crushed cookies or frosting for dirt, then topped with Milano tombstones cookies.

Stretch the budget with a post-Halloween power buy list

Did you pass on a Halloween decoration or costume this year because of sticker shock? If so, November 13rd is the time to buy Halloween items at a deep discount and store until next October.

Items to consider:

LED string lights and net lights. You can find great clearance deals on Halloween specific lights at Walmart, Target, and even drugstores. Often up to 75% off the original retail price.

Costumes for less. Most pop-up Spirit Halloween stores close 2-3 days after Halloween, providing a great chance to save on next years costume. Typically, costumes are 25% off on November 1st, then drop to 50% off on the 2nd and 3rd. Decorations usually start at 50% off and stay there until they close their doors on the 3rd.

Yard stakes, extension cords, timers. Not fun things per say, but theyre the things you kick yourself for paying full price later.

Face paint and costume makeup. Keep in mind that its the same stuff youll need for school plays or spirit week. So, buy it at a big discount before youre stuck paying full-price down the road.

Storage: Grab one black and orange storage bin, label it Halloween, and force yourself to fit everything in that one bin next year. Okay, maybe youll need two, but hey no worries, theyre pretty cheap in early November.

Experts explain how processing, antioxidants, and daily habits influence the health benefits of each drink

• Both tea and coffee deliver beneficial plant compounds especially polyphenols that may help with inflammation, stress, and general wellness.

• Researchers spotlight differences in antioxidant levels, processing effects (especially for black tea and dark roast coffee), and cautions around additives.

• The winner depends on context: your drink choice, timing, and what you mix into your cup make a big difference.

If youve ever been asked whether coffee or tea is healthier, youre not alone this age-old rivalry sparks plenty of debate at cafs, kitchen tables, and wellness circles.

At UNLV, two nutrition scientists, Arpita Basu and Samantha Coogan, recently took a closer look at this matchup.

Their goal? To demystify the benefits and trade-offs of each drink, and help everyday people better understand how both can contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

Coffee and tea as beverages have a lot of benefits, particularly from the polyphenol side, Basu said in a news release. The polyphenols are the most abundant type of plant-derived compounds, and they are widely present in teas and coffee beans.

How the experts compared them

Rather than declaring a clear winner, Basu and Coogan emphasize that both coffee and tea bring valuable compounds to the table especially polyphenols, a class of plant-derived substances known for antioxidant and stress-modulating properties.

They examined how processing affects those compounds. For instance, black tea undergoes oxidation and fermentation, which reduces antioxidant levels compared to green tea. On the coffee side, they explored how roasting levels influence antioxidant content, noting that lighter roasts tend to retain more of these compounds than dark roasts.

They also considered real-world drinking habits: when during the day people drink these beverages, how much sugar or creamer they add, and how those extras might interfere with the potential health benefits.

In their discussion, they factored in known risks too like how teas tannins can reduce iron absorption (a concern for people with anemia) and how caffeine late in the day may disrupt sleep or impact cardiovascular health.

The results

Heres where things get interesting: theres no one-size-fits-all better beverage. Instead, drink choice depends on your body, habits, and how you drink it.

• Tea (especially green): Because its less processed, green tea retains more antioxidants. Basus own research suggests that drinking about four cups daily may help reduce cholesterol, body weight, and cardiovascular risk especially for those predisposed to type 2 diabetes. That said, the tannins may inhibit iron absorption when consumed with meals, which matters for people dealing with iron deficiency.

• Coffee: Even though roasting can diminish some antioxidants, coffee still delivers plenty of beneficial compounds, especially if consumed in moderation and without excessive additives. Coogan recommends drinking water before your first sip (since coffee is mildly diuretic) and avoiding caffeine too close to bedtime.

• The additive factor: According to Basu and Coogan, sugar, heavy creams, and flavor syrups can undermine many of the positive compounds in both beverages.
  

Theres this perception that coffee is bad for you compared to tea, Coogan said in the news release. A lot of people say that when theyre sick or theyre trying to lose weight, they replace coffee with tea. But you can still get the same benefits if you switch to black coffee.

For me, coffee is more of a ritual, and I think its like that for a lot of people. As a dietitian, even if its just placebo giving you that little dopamine hit to satisfy your craving, I say go for it. But if you drink it with a lot of added sugar, make sure you drink it with protein-rich foods and/or healthy fats.

New research explores how gut bacteria and mood might be linked

• The latest review evidence shows the gut and brain communicate in complex, two-way ways, making it hard to know which comes first.

• Experiments in animals, changes in psychiatric drug effects, and small human trials (with diet, probiotics, or transplants) suggest gut microbes can affect mood and anxiety.

• Authors stress we still cant claim the gut causes mental illness in people but the connection is promising enough to pursue bigger, longer studies.

You may have heard the phrase gut feeling, but now scientists are looking at whether our gut biology really does influence whats going on in our heads.

However, an important question remains: does a changed gut lead to mental health shifts, or do mental health issues lead to a changed gut or both? To tackle that, researchers from the University of South Australia put together a detailed review of all the current evidence.

The gutbrain connection is one of the most exciting frontiers in mental health research, researcher Srinivas Kamath said in a news release. We already know that the trillions of microbes in our digestive system talk to the brain through chemical and neural pathways, affecting our mood, stress levels and even cognition.

But the big question is whether changes in gut bacteria actually drive mental illness or mirror whats happening elsewhere in the body.

The study

Rather than doing a new experiment, the team conducted a review article. In this kind of work, researchers gather, compare, and critically analyze many prior experiments and studies to look for patterns, gaps, and directions for future work.

They organized the evidence into three conceptual possibilities:

1. Causative role gut changes drive mental health changes.

2. Correlative role gut and brain changes are linked but both result from something else.

3. Bidirectional role the gut and brain influence each other in a feedback loop.
   

To make this case, they reviewed:

• Animal and lab experiments manipulating microbial populations

• Human observational studies associating gut profiles with psychiatric disorders

• Early human interventions (diet, probiotics, fecal microbiota transplants)

They also examined how psychiatric drugs may themselves alter gut microbes, complicating cause-and-effect interpretations.

They paid close attention to the mechanistic pathways meaning, how microbes might affect brain health: through metabolites (microbial byproducts), immune system signaling, or via nerve and hormonal pathways.

The results

From the review, several compelling findings emerged:

• In animal models, shifting gut microbiomes can lead to changes in brain chemistry, stress behavior, and anxiety or depressionlike symptoms.

• In people with mood or psychiatric disorders like depression or schizophrenia, disrupted or altered gut microbial patterns are often observed.

• Some small human trials using probiotics, dietary interventions, or fecal microbial transplants have produced mood or anxiety improvements in certain participants.

• Its also striking that many psychiatric medications appear to influence gut microbes, which itself supports the idea of a gut-brain link.
  

However, the authors are careful to warn against overselling. Because many studies are small, short-term, or observe associations rather than manipulate cause and effect, the findings cant say that altering your gut will reliably cure or prevent mental illness.

To move forward, the researchers call for larger, more diverse, longer-term clinical trials. They also emphasize tracking how gut changes evolve over time and accounting for differences in diet, environment, culture, and baseline gut communities.

By unlocking the guts role in mental health, we can develop practical, scalable tools for prevention and care, giving clinicians and patients new options to manage wellbeing, researcher Dr. Paul Joyce said in the release. Mental health doesnt start and end in the brain. Its a whole-body issue and the gut may be the missing piece of the puzzle.

Company faces scrutiny over marketing claims

By Truman Lewis of ConsumerAffairs

• Home services marketplace Angi agrees to resolve allegations it misled customers about background checks and contractor vetting.

• Settlement includes restitution, revised disclosures, and enhanced consumer transparency measures.

• Regulators cite Angis responsibility to correct claims that could mislead homeowners seeking verified professionals.

Home services platform Angi, formerly known as Angies List, has reached a settlement with regulators to resolve claims it misled consumers about how it screens and recommends contractors.

Officials said the company overstated the extent to which contractors were vetted and background-checked before being promoted on the site.

Investigators found that some consumers were led to believe Angi conducted comprehensive criminal and professional checks when, in many cases, those reviews were limited or delegated to third parties.

Settlement terms and consumer relief

Under the agreement, Angi will pay restitution to affected consumers, revise its advertising and disclosure language, and establish clearer guidelines to distinguish paid listings from organic recommendations.

Regulators said the company has also committed to ongoing compliance monitoring to ensure transparency in its contractor referral system.

The company did not admit wrongdoing but said it was pleased to put the matter behind it and remains committed to helping homeowners connect with qualified professionals.

Consumer advocates urge caution

Consumer advocates said the case underscores the importance of verifying contractor credentials independently, even when using well-known platforms.

Consumers should never assume a listing equals a background check, said one watchdog group. Its always worth asking for proof of licensing and insurance.

What consumers can do

• Ask for verification: Request written proof of contractor licensing and insurance.

• Check references: Speak directly with past clients before hiring.

• Review the fine print: Read disclosure sections on referral platforms to understand what screening actually occurs.

Teslas self-driving promise hits another legal wall this time in Australia

• Thousands of Tesla owners in Australia have joined a class action over allegedly false claims about the companys Full Self-Driving technology.

• The case adds to a growing list of global lawsuits accusing Tesla of overstating the capabilities of its driver-assistance systems.

• Regulators and courts worldwide are scrutinizing Teslas Autopilot and FSD marketing amid safety and transparency concerns.

Tesla is facing new legal pressure as thousands of Australian owners join a class action lawsuit accusing the automaker of misleading marketing about its Full Self-Driving (FSD) system.

The suit alleges Tesla exaggerated the capabilities of its advanced driver assistance systemsAutopilot and Full Self-Drivingby suggesting they could eventually enable fully autonomous operation.

Law firm Shine Lawyers, which represents affected drivers, told News Corp Australia that thousands of Australians have signed on, claiming Tesla misrepresented the vehicles safety and features.

Hardware limitations at the core of global challenges

At issue is Teslas Hardware 3 (HW3) computer, introduced in 2019, which CEO Elon Musk has since admitted is not capable of unsupervised self-driving.

Tesla claimed in 2016 that all vehicles produced from that point forward would have all the hardware for full self-driving. Musk later promised retrofits for earlier buyersbut no widespread upgrade or software fix has materialized.

Courts have already allowed similar class actions to proceed in the United States, and a comparable lawsuit was filed in China earlier this year.

What the Australian lawsuit seeks

The Australian class action covers Model 3 and Model Y owners who bought or leased their cars between May 2021 and February 2025. Plaintiffs are seeking financial compensation for what they say were misleading claims about self-driving performance and safety.

Tesla made promises about their vehicles safety, performance and features such as their Full Self-Driving, but we have found a lot of these promises are falling flat, said Rebecca Jancauskas, a director at the firm leading the case.

Consumer advocates say the lawsuits highlight the risks of over-promising emerging technology. While Tesla markets FSD as a cutting-edge feature, regulators have warned that drivers must remain fully engaged behind the wheel.

Even owners who did not purchase the FSD package could see their vehicles value affected if promised capabilities never arrive.

What consumers can do

• Verify claims: Review official documentation and fine print before purchasing software upgrades or optional packages.

• Stay alert: Advanced systems like Autopilot and FSD still require driver supervision.

• Document issues: Keep records of all service visits and software updates in case of future claims or settlements.