The other day we looked at edible green Halloween treats. If you don’t want to hand out candy there are some affordable options you can choose from.

A word about baggies. If you go with non-edible Halloween treats, it’s way cheaper to buy in bulk and divvy items up. Some items don’t require baggies, but others will. If you need treat baggies I personally wouldn’t go out of my way to find biodegradable baggies. Not only do biodegradable baggies cost more but there’s a good chance they won’t biodegrade anyhow.

I’d go with something cheap like Halloween Cellophane Baggies (11¢ per bag) or you could look for recycled plastic baggies at your local grocery store. Mainly, I wouldn’t stress about baggies. If you stay clear of plastic bags, plastic wrap, paper towels and other disposables all year round, your footprint is going to be lower than normal anyhow. If you need Halloween treat bags try not to freak.

SAFETY NOTE: Not all non-edibles are appropriate for all ages of kiddos. Use smarts when handing out treats. Also, if you hand out a questionable treat, such as soap or play dough, I’d highly suggest you label the treat baggie so kids don’t attempt to eat the item.

Now about the goodies. It’s tough to find non-edible green Halloween treats for 50¢ or less, but it’s not impossible. Here are some options…

20¢ each – Usually I’m not on board with pencils for Halloween (boring!) BUT I found the most adorable Dr Seuss Lorax Project Pencils the other day. These are recycled and way cuter than most pencils.

25¢ each – Make-A-Jack-O’-Lantern Stickers

50¢ (or less) each – Earth Laughs in Flowers Mini Wildflower Seed Packets or sunflowers.

22¢ each – OUCH! skull & bones bandages

40¢ each – handmade glycerin Pumpkin Patch Halloween Soap.

About 20¢ each – Silly Bandz -  silicone rubber band bracelets that come in various shapes including basic, zoo animal, pet animal, dinosaur, sea creature, holiday, alphabet, princess, western and more. These bracelets pop on your wrist then, when taken off, pop back to their original shape.

Crayons are always good, although you will need treat bags, or they may break or get messy. Good Halloween crayons…

• 39¢ each – Crayon Rocks
• 45¢ each – Crazy Crayons Eco Stars (100% Recycled Crayons)
• 50¢ each -Recycled Crayon Rings

Under 50¢ each – Mary’s Natural Softdough Tub – Orange – create little balls of dough and place them in a treat bag. If you want to go less expensive, take an hour and make homemade organic play dough or homemade goop instead.

25¢ each – OWLoween Stickers

42¢ each – Halloween Cookie Cutters

31¢ each – GREEN PUMPKIN Halloween Pencil-top Erasers

9¢-18¢ each – Eco-minded Temporary Tattoos

Under 50¢ each – Buy a pack of Iron-on Cool Transfer Paper. Head to Family Fun and print out their Halloween T-shirt Iron-ons onto your transfer paper. Cut iron-ons into single sizes and hand out. It’d be nice to include some directions too – which you can easily type up on the computer. Find directions here (pdf). Really, for more fun, your child could draw a Halloween design, scan that into your computer, and print that out.

You don’t just have to hand out candy treats on Halloween. You can also pop cool non-edible goodies into treat bags. However, with just a little over a week left until Halloween, you’ll have to jump on the ball asap. Here are some ideas…

1. Crayon Rocks
2. Little pretty rocks, acorns, or other small nature items kids might enjoy
3. Xeko cards
4. Paper Milk postcards
5. Small packs of flower seeds (as low as $0.15 per kid) – or if you garden save your seeds all year and make up little packs yourself with recycled paper envelopes.
6. Recolored Halloween Crayons
7. Homemade organic play dough or homemade goop – for containers save up organic yogurt containers all year or if you’re short on time use recycled foil to wrap your dough in and put your goop in small treat baggies.
8. Temporary tattoos
9. Biodegradable confetti
10. Little cards of plantable paper
11. EcoBeads
12. Wooden tops
13. Mini Halloween Cookie Cutter Set about $0.44. per kid.

Green Halloween has many more fun treat ideas too if you’re looking to go the non-edible route.