3 Clever Ways Parents Curb Halloween Candy Consumption

Looking for tricks to curb your kid’s candy consumption in the wake of Halloween?

I browsed anonymous FamZoo transaction data containing the keyword “candy” from the 30 days following Halloween last year. Here are 3 clever candy compensation schemes I found fellow FamZoo parents using:

1. Parent buyback program. Offer to buy your kid’s excess Halloween candy. You could buy everything beyond a certain limit. Or you could buy specific items — like things they shouldn’t eat, or can’t eat, or things that are your personal favorites.

   Kids can issue money requests to negotiate their buyback terms. Parents can approve the request at a price above, at, or below the child’s bid, or just decline the request altogether.

   The biggest payout I noticed in the data was $40 — cha-ching!

   So, what are you going to do with all the extra candy? You could save it for future birthday party favors, foist it on your office mates, or donate it — after eating all your favorites first, of course. 😉

2. Sibling sales. If one kid has an unusually large haul, allow that kid to sell off the excess to the other kids.

   Kids can issue transfer requests to negotiate their deals. Since you must approve the requests, you can monitor for price gouging and intervene when necessary.

3. Paid candy duty. Preempt candy collection by older kids altogether by paying them to stay home and hand out candy at your door instead of trick-or-treating themselves.

   Eyeballing candy duty transactions, it looks like the going rate is about $30 or so.

Too expensive you say? Think of it this way: you can pay your kid a little bit now, or pay your dentist a lot more later.