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Buy your kid’s halloween candy

in: Holidays & Special Occasions

Our sly neighbor Mary offered her three boys cold, hard cash in exchange for the remainder of their Halloween stashes (the stuff left after all the Reese’s and other primo candies were eaten).

They jumped at the chance to pad their piggy banks. Best nine bucks Mary’s spent in a while.

More: Halloween hacks

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About Asha Dornfest

Asha Dornfest is a writer, parent, and insistent optimist living in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of PARENT HACKS, co-author of MINIMALIST PARENTING, and co-host of the Edit Your Life podcast.

Comments

  1. Heather says

    November 2, 2006 at 7:20 pm

    This is what my dad did for our kids. hey have food allergies so cannot enjoy most of their candy but my dad is a high school teacher and gives his helpers “treats” all the time. He fiured we could kill two birds with one stone. He will pay them instea of going out and buying candy, and they get money to buy something they really want. Sounds like a deal to me.

  2. hedra says

    November 3, 2006 at 8:22 am

    We do this just to not have Halloween candy still hanging around at Christmas (or easter, or …). My kids don’t go through it very fast, and I can’t have it (allergies), and DH likes the same ones the kids do… so the second-choice items would be around forever.

    Both the older kids (9 and 5 yrs old) were all hot to sort out their candy right away when they got home – and wanted me to pay them off immediately for the ones they didn’t want. They didn’t even ask to swap out the candy they dislike (or can’t have) for ‘safe’ candy, this time. Just hand over the cash, mom. Thanks!

  3. Christina says

    August 3, 2007 at 7:23 pm

    This is a great idea. My kids never eat all of their candy, and I usually end up throwing away bags of candy. I’ll try this and maybe get rid of the candy sooner.

  4. Michelle says

    October 16, 2007 at 8:20 am

    We buy the candy on Halloween night. It goes something like this:
    Keep 10 pieces – get $20.00
    Keep 15 pieces – get $10.00
    Keep 20 pieces – get $5.00
    Keep more than 20 – get nothing

    We also get so many trick or treaters that when they come home if we are out of candy and more kids come to the door they go through their stash and pull out all the don’t care for or can’t have due to fillings and we re-give it out.

    The candy that we buy goes to my friends office. She’s an advisor to college students so there is no shortage of consumers.

  5. Michael says

    October 16, 2008 at 1:45 pm

    We “buy” candy back for a book or a toy, depending on what we “want” them to have. They keep 5 fieces and “sell” the rest to us – this year it is a small lego set.

  6. Gulnar says

    November 1, 2011 at 9:28 am

    I just had a talk with my four year old about me buying half of his candies and donating that money to UNICEF Trick or Treat so that kids who not as fortunate as he is can have clean water and food to eat. His face lit up as he liked the idea of doing something good instead of eating all the junk food that is not good for his body. We are planning to execute the decision this evening when he comes back from daycare.

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About the Author

Asha Dornfest is an author, optimist, and mom of two. She started the Parent Hacks blog in 2005, and turned it into a book in 2016. More about Asha »

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