It’s that time of year again: eight-pound bags of "fun-size" candy fill whole aisles at the grocery store and houses in the neighborhood are sprouting plastic pumpkins, foam headstones and other ghoulish decor. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans are expected to spend more than $5 billion on Halloween costumes, candy and decorations this year. But there are ways to celebrate without doling out much cash for stuff that, well, generates a lot of waste as well.

Instead of spending $15, $20 or more on your child’s (or your own) Halloween costume, you can save both money and resources by creating your own. Dig through your closets or browse local resale shops and flea markets for vintage clothes that could make fun costumes. Or put out a request through your local Freecycle or craigslist for used costumes. You’re probably not the only person in your neighborhood to have a few costumes from Halloweens past buried in the back of your closet.

You can also hand out Halloween treats with an Earth-friendly, educational twist. Dog-Eared Publications, for example, sells $2.50 sticker books about endangered animals, forest creatures, marine mammals, sharks and wetlands, among others. Or use Halloween as an opportunity to help others by trick-or-treating for UNICEF or collecting old eyeglasses that can be recycled by Gift of Sight.

For eco-friendly ways to generate a Halloween atmosphere around the house, consider setting out a solar-powered gargoyle, or replacing your regular lightbulbs at home with spooky, mini orange- and black-colored compact fluorescent bulbs. Or charge up some small outdoor solar lanterns during the day, and place them in real or fake pumpkins or luminaria for a renewable ghostly glow at night.

When it comes to decorating your house for Halloween, think reused, recycled or natural whenever you can. HGTV offers a good assortment of homemade costume, pumpkin and decorating projects, but if you want to keep it simple, stick with natural Fall accents: locally-grown pumpkins, gourds or Indian corn, wreaths of colorful Fall leaves or mini-gourds, and beeswax or soy candles in Fall colors.

Finally, take the time in the weeks before to enjoy what nature’s best at in autumn: take a walk through a forest preserve to soak in the fall colors, pick your own apples or pumpkins from a local organic farmer, go for a hay ride or wander through a corn maze. Visit PickYourOwn.org to find the pumpkin patches closest to you.

Also on GO:

Five Super-Simple Steps to Green Trick-or-Treating