Halloween is big business these days. Stores carry a huge variety of Halloween decor, and if you wanted to, you could spend lots of cash on decorating your home for Halloween.

But you don’t have to. There are plenty of ways to decorate for the season without spending a dime. I found lots of ideas for free Halloween crafts on Pinterest – click on the links below to find the full directions.

1. Jar-full of Eyes: If you have a glass vase or a clean empty jar (from pasta sauce, jarred salsa, etc.) and some ping pong balls, you have everything you need to create a ghoulish craft to adorn your Halloween mantle. Just draw on the ping pong balls with some markers to make them look like eyes, throw them in the vase or jar, and you have a cheap DIY Halloween decoration for your home.

2. DIY Scarecrows: Scarecrows are a traditional autumn fixture. You could easily purchase a scarecrow, but it would be much more cost effective to make your own. To make a scarecrow, all you need is some old clothes, fabric scraps and markers, an old pillowcase for your scarecrow’s head, a hat, newspaper or fabric scraps for stuffing your scarecrow, and safety pins to fasten your scarecrow.

3. Fall-Themed Candles: All you need for this Halloween craft are acorns (from a tree in your backyard or local park), clean empty jars and votive candles. Fill your jars with acorns, nestle your candles in them, and you have beautiful luminaries for cool autumn nights.

4. Candy Corn Banner: If you have paper plates, orange and yellow paints (or some orange and yellow magic markers) and some string or twine, you can make The Pin Junkie’s cute candy corn garland. I am a candy corn fan myself, so I have to make some of these delicious-looking garlands for my home!

5. Halloween Monsters: With leftover paper plates and paper cups, paper scraps or streamers and some markers, you and your kids can make a slew of creepy monsters to usher in the Halloween season. Some of my favorites are a monstrous Halloween door, a mason jar Frankenstein and paper cup spiders.

My home isn’t festooned yet for Halloween, but hopefully with the help of my kids this upcoming weekend, our home will be looking quite festive soon!