The scariest part of Halloween this year? The candy prices.

The economy has come for Tami Adolphson’s Halloween candy bowl.

Prices are so high this year that she considered turning off the porch light at her home near Salt Lake City and ignoring the doorbell. Adolphson, 63, and her husband, Lee, 68, closed down their trucking company and retired last year. The household budget is tight.

“We’re finding it harder to justify big prices even for the extremely satisfying ritual of handing out candy to kids,” she said. “We are not going to dip into savings for Halloween candy.”

But she couldn’t stand missing out. “I just can’t turn off the lights on these children,” she said. So last week she went to Costco and spent $21.39 on a bag of 90 mixed chocolate bars.

“We just won’t eat out one time this month,” she said. “It’s worth it to keep the tradition.”

Anyone who has been to the grocery store recently has noticed higher prices. The cost of vegetables has jumped by 6% since last year. Beef is up by about 9%. But the price of Halloween candy — particularly chocolate — is even scarier.

One recent analysis of the prices of 17 popular Halloween candy varieties showed a 15% jump from last year. The average price of a 100-piece bag is $16.96, up a staggering 71% since 2021, according to FinanceBuzz, a digital media company. Google searches for “cheap Halloween candy bulk” and “where to buy cheap Halloween candy” are up more than 5,000% year-over-year, said Megan Stoner, a spokesperson for the company.

“The prices have gotten completely out of hand,” said Renni Turpin, 30. This is her first Halloween in a new neighborhood in Charlotte, N.C., and she wants to make a good impression. “No one wants to be the ‘raisin house,’” she said.

She would like to be the king-size candy bar house, but she works at a school and recently purchased her home. Even buying slightly less expensive candy, she figures she’ll spend about $100, or what she might spend on a week’s worth of groceries.

Some buyers are cutting candy bowls with small bags of salty snacks, temporary tattoos, Play-Doh, and low-cost trinkets they can buy in bulk.

And then there is the classic method for stretching a small candy budget: Limit how many pieces a child (or rowdy teenager) can take.

Already, Halloween candy sales for the month ending Oct. 17 were down 6% compared with the same period last year, according to NielsenIQ, a market research firm.

Some people are abandoning the classic chocolate offerings. A climate-driven global cacao supply crisis sent prices to record highs in 2025, and companies began formulating their chocolate with less expensive ingredients and selling smaller packages of candy for more money. A bag of Reese’s miniatures that weighed 17.6 ounces last year weighs 15.8 ounces now and costs $1.50 more, according to analysts at web research company Apify.

Luckily, Sour Patch Kids, Skittles, and Nerd Gummy Clusters are less expensive and climbing in popularity among younger generations, who are turning away from chocolate in favor of candies with texture and sour or tangy flavors, said Sally Lyon Wyatt, an executive vice president for consumer goods and food service insights at Mintel, a market research firm.

“People will celebrate Halloween, but they’re going to use different tactics to do it,” she said. “Candy might be part of it, but maybe not as much as it had been in the past. There’s just going to be a bit more creativity.”

Cynthia Thomasset, who lives in Shillington, Berks County, Pa., will likely supplement her candy stash with school supplies and stickers. She plans to have plenty on hand because her suburban neighborhood draws children from a nearby area that is one of the poorest in Pennsylvania.

But there will be no leftovers. “Usually I panic and go buy more right before,” she said, “but this year I am going to give out what I have, and that’s it.”

Some households are getting even more creative. “I’ve switched to passing out ramen,” said Angie Vasey, a teacher who lives in Round Lake, Ill. The packets of instant soup were on sale this year for 10 cents apiece.

Traditionalists remain, including those dedicated to making Halloween as special as they can with the ultimate prize: full-size candy bars.

Mitch Collins, 71, bought a mix of 270 Snickers, KitKats, and other chocolate and packages of Skittles and Starbursts to hand out in his neighborhood in Oakdale, Calif.

“As a child, one time I received a full-size bar on Halloween,” he said. “I remember it to this day and want to share that joy with the kids that come to our home.”

He shelled out $269 at Costco.

“Yeah, it costs a lot,” he said, “but their joy is worth it.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.