Will Lipovsky

Offers.com recently released the results of its Halloween survey conducted via Google Consumer Surveys. One of the most interesting things to glean from the survey was its reporting of the top Halloween costumes of 2015. This is great for if you’re looking for inspiration or you want to avoid being the third Chewbacca in the room. The following is a list given to us by the recent survey by Offers.com:

It appears many Halloween goers this year have been reading our website! DIY is a very popular option for Halloween costumes. Or some people are going even further with their cost savings by either not wearing a costume or wearing one they already own. It seems like the Halloween costumes this year will all have a common theme: thirfy! Many media outlets think millennials are bad with money but that’s not what we’re seeing:

Respondents age 18-24 had the following to say about Halloween costumes:

• I’m not wearing a Halloween costume (41%)
• I will make my costume (20%)
• I will buy my costume at a physical store (17%)
• I will buy my costume online (13%)
• I will wear a costume I already own (9%)

The most popular costumes for adults older than age 24 are as follows:

• Star Wars characters (not surprising with Episode VII being released December 18th)
• Superhero characters
• Batman/Batwoman
• Funny character

These are the most popular Halloween costumes for kids:

• Avengers characters
• Cinderella
• Minions
• Star Wars characters
• Frozen characters

According to eBay, the best selling children’s costumes in September of 2015 were as follows (they trend fairly close to the Offers.com survey):

• Star Wars
• Batman
• Frozen
• Witch
• Minion
• Spider-Man
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Minnie and Mickey Mouse
• Power Rangers

These were the best-selling adult themed costumes:

• Batman
• Frozen
• Alice in Wonderland
• Star Wars
• French Maid
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Wonder Woman
• Minnie Mouse
• Men Superhero Costumes
• Spider-Man

Halloween costumes tend to look like a recap of what’s trending across pop culture to the year. It’s almost like a finale where you can pick which movie, TV show, event which caught your interest.

Tips for Saving Money on Halloween Costumes:

1. Don’t commit to a costume too early. You may find building your own light saber to be a herculean task. Maybe you’d like to play Captain Hook from Pan instead of Luke Skywalker. Although a robe would be easy to acquire…
2. Network. See if you can’t mix and match costumes from past years with your friends. Chances are they aren’t doing anything with their leftover fake hand.
3. Look around at what you already have on hand. You may have enough to build a Halloween costume without acquiring anything new. It’s 2015 so that means you could be Marty from back to the future. His costume wouldn’t take too much putting together!
4. If you’re going to buy new items, buy stuff you can wear even after Halloween. Sweatshirts, robes, scarves, makeup can all be used after the day.
5. Consider making costumes in bulk. If saving money isn’t your thing, think about creating your own t-shirts or creating crazy costumes to sell to other people. You’ll go from worrying about saving money to having the opportunity to make money. Then you can spend your earnings on Halloween candy! Or save it up. Better save it up.

 

Halloween is a tricky holiday to know if a business will be open. Some business are closed. Some are open as if the holiday isn’t happening. Some businesses are only open around Halloween like those popup stores you see come to the mall each fall… or haunted houses. This holiday is a tricky one for knowing store hours. This is especially true since Halloween falls on a Saturday in 2015.

With that said, Wells Fargo will actually be keeping regular hours on Halloween. For most branches, this means the branch will close at 1 p.m. Remember that online banking and ATMs have no hours. This means if you need extra candy money, there are still plenty of ways to get the cash. If you definitely need cash on these days, check the Wells Fargo ATM and Bank Locator. It shows all banks which have Saturday hours, Drive up ATMs, 24-hour ATMs, notary services, stamp sales, and foreign currency exchange. This is a great way of finding a bank without driving over there first. That takes too much time and costs too much money. Note: If you want cheap Halloween candy, take your new wad of cash and head to Sam’s Club or Costco. They are both open on Halloween.

Most banks don’t change hours for Halloween. Most bank and credit unions only have lobby hours in the morning anyway. There is a lot of business typically done on Halloween so why close? The fun doesn’t start until later in the day anyway.

Wells Fargo does observe many holidays. The following is the Wells Fargo holiday schedule for 2015:

Jan 1st – Thursday – New Year’s Day
Jan 19 – Monday – Martin Luther King Day
April 5 – Sunday – Easter
May 25 – Monday – Memorial Day
Jul 4 – Saturday – Independence Day
Sep 7 – Monday – Labor Day
Nov 11 – Wednesday – Veterans Day
Nov 26 – Thursday – Thanksgiving
YES, Wells Fargo will be open on Black Friday
Dec 24 – Thursday – Closes early (check individual branch for time) Christmas Eve
Dec 25 – Friday – Christmas Day
Dec 31 – Thursday – Closes early (check individual branch for time) New Year’s Eve

Most banks aren’t open on Saturday afternoons. This is mainly because banks make money when lending out large sums of money. Most of these deals happen during the week. It’s because these types of deals happen with either other businesses or with home buyers who must work with other businesses to get funding. That is why banks are only open during hours which are convenient to other businesses. Although you and I may want to bank on Halloween, very, very few businesses will be making deals and signing checks on this day. Yes, this does inconvenience many people but the big shots are not inconvenienced by this. Know that banks make their money with loans and overdraft fees. Loans are done during normal business hours and overdraft fees don’t need a branch open. Those take care of themselves. Also, to keep good employees, Wells Fargo and other banks need to give them stable hours. Few people enjoy working evenings and weekends. Crime also goes up during these times, so having the bank locked up is a good precaution.

 

 

Witches, black cats and a full moon – what’s more Halloween that that? Will we be seeing a perfect trifecta at Halloween this year?

There’s a lot of moon folklore. Farmers believe corn planted under a waning moon grows slower but yields larger ears. Some believe babies born a day after a full moon enjoy great success and endurance in life. Seeing a new moon in your dreams promises a happy marriage and increased wealth. A full moon is considered unlucky if it falls on a Sunday but lucky if it falls on a Monday.

A full moon occurs every 29.5 days – the duration of one complete lunar cycle. For 2015, there is no full moon on Halloween. The nearest full moon to that date is October 27th. The following full moon is November 25th. There is no full moon for Halloween 2015. That would probably be pretty overwhelming for some people. Halloween is already on a Saturday. This means crime will probably be up for this Halloween. A full moon would make it worse. Or would it?

Is it simply an urban legend which states that crime, hospital visits and the like rise when there’s a full moon?

In 2003, Bloomberg reported that “Car accidents occur 14 percent more often on average during a full moon than a new moon, according to a study of 3 million car policies by the U.K.’s Churchill Insurance Group Plc.”

Psychologist Ivan Kelly, a well-known researcher in Canada, doesn’t believe the full moon has any effect on human beings. He thinks it’s completely ludicrous and said so in the following statement he gave to National Geographic: “The studies are not consistent. For every positive study, there is a negative study. Journalists pay too much attention to finding sensational news or news that will support interesting results. Hence [they] ignore the findings of studies and tend to prefer stories or anecdotes from policemen or nurses.”

Famous psychiatrist Glenn Wilson has this to say about the full moon cycle, “There is good reason to believe that people’s personalities do change around the time of the full moon, not because of any astronomical force, but because it creates the optimum lighting conditions for feeling carefree and mischievous.”

However, science does not deter the many who celebrate full moons. There are websites all over the internet about setting up your own full moon ritual.

Some yogis ‘swallow the moon’ by using the moon’s energy to retain their youthfulness. It’s called, ‘Drinking in the moon.” You can read more about it here.

Instead of breathing in the moon’s power, some people believe in drinking in the power. Using the drink method, fill a glass with water and leave it outside. In the morning, the water and you will have harnessed the properties of the moon. Read more here.

Some people go a step further and make moon wishes. The idea here is to write down your goals but align them with the moon’s energy. You’re to think in 2-week and 6-month cycles, as the moon does. A new moon means you should make a new goal. A full moon means you should be finishing what you started 2 weeks ago.