Skeletons, skulls and vampires are all welcome at my house for Halloween. Zombies, screaming headstones and mummy dogs with huge bloodshot eyes also are invited.

I’d even like to have a life-size version of Jason from the “Friday the 13th” movies greeting trick-or-treaters at my front door.

But what I would like to have and what I can afford to have can make decorating for my favorite holiday tricky. That “Friday the 13th” fright boy costs more than $200, and that’s enough to scare me off.

So, this year I decided to challenge myself to decorate my tiny house for Halloween on a $20 budget. My goal was to get items for both the outside and the inside, to find things that wouldn’t take up a lot of storage space (with no basement, I don’t have a lot of storage) and to purchase stuff that my dogs wouldn’t destroy (my favorite animated witch didn’t survive the jaws of my chocolate lab mix a few Halloweens ago). One more requirement was that nothing be cutesy. I like creepy and spooky for Halloween.

So, my friend Shela Gibson and I visited several stores in St. Joseph in search of Halloween decorating bargains. We stopped at Kmart, Wal-Mart, Spirit Halloween Store, Goodwill, Hy-Vee, Target, Walgreens, CVS Pharmacy and Big Lots. And while each store had some great items, the big three for bargains turned out to be Walgreens, Wal-Mart and CVS.

Walgreens

Both Shela and I were surprised to find a treasure trove of Halloween items at a pharmacy. We spent a lot of time at the Walgreens on Frederick Avenue, most of it pushing all the “try me” buttons on the animated decorations.

After play time was over, we found a spider web, complete with spider, for $1.99, a six-pack of ghost stakes for $1.99 and window clings with creepy-looking skulls for two for $3. With a coupon, the window clings were even cheaper — coming to about $1 for both.

Wal-Mart

Who doesn’t expect a bargain at Wal-Mart? While Wal-Mart’s Halloween selection doesn’t seem as extensive as last year, we did find some good buys. We got a spiderweb wooden yard stake for $2 and an off-white pumpkin that glows red when plugged in for $6. If you squint, the pumpkin looks somewhat like Jack Skellington from Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

CVS Pharmacy

Pharmacies are now on my radar when searching for holiday decorations. At CVS, we again played with all the animated decorations (you just know the employees hate people like Shela and me). Vampire fans, we found a porcelain Dracula’s castle with the count inside for $5.99. The castle lights up (changing color) and blinks.

Lifestyles reporter Cathy Woolridge can be reached at cathyw@npgco.com