How Much Candy You Actually Need To Buy For Halloween

Neighborhoods across the country will soon be teeming with hordes of eerie silhouettes skulking from house to house at dusk in search of one thing: treats. The reason we eat candy on Halloween is probably lost on these youngsters, but they are determined to take home a haul that will live on in their memories for years. If you don't want to be on the receiving end of a trick from these pretenders, you need to figure out how much candy to buy for Halloween.

You could just play it safe and fill your pantry with loads of sweets before the big night (there's always the option of freezing leftover Halloween candy for later or adding them to baked goods). However, if you want to be budget-conscious, you'll need to break out a calculator and an equation courtesy of Shipt.

The first thing to consider is how many hours you plan to be handing out treats. Take that number and multiply it by how many haunting figures you expect to come to the door each hour. Then multiply that by the generosity factor — how many pieces you plan to give each spooky young one. Divide this sum by 75 (the average total of fun-size candies per bag), and you have the number of bags you need to purchase ... almost. Let's face it: those pint-sized ghosts and ghouls aren't the only ones that will raid the stash, and accounting for how much candy will disappear before Halloween is crucial to the equation.

When determining how much candy to buy for Halloween, take a moment for some candid introspection — how many sweets will be consumed before October 31? Consider how many folks you live with, times how many days the confections will be calling your name, and multiply that by how many pieces you all plan to have each day. As an example, if you are going to get your goodies five days before All Hallows' Eve, you have two other people living with you, and you all speculate that you will eat three pieces of candy per day, you come to 45.

Now figure in the previous equation. Let's say you plan on giving treats out for four hours, and you expect an average of 20 costumed kids knocking on the door every hour. Because you are feeling generous, each person will receive three pieces of candy. This gets you a sum of 240. Now add the 45 sweets to be consumed beforehand, and you land at 285. Divided by 75, this equals 3.8 bags (round up to four to be on the safe side).

One last thing to consider is the weather. If the forecast calls for rain, take your final sum and divide it by 1.5. This puts you at 190, so three bags should safely get you through the night. Now, you just need to figure out which treats are most likely to please the tricksters who are coming to the door.