It’s now October and we all know what that means: Halloween! You can complain all you want about holidays starting early, but for the rest of us, it’s time to get started on some fall festivities. And nothing says Halloween like getting the crap scared out of you. So, without further ado, here are some cost-efficient ways you could make this spooky holiday season scarier than that insanely difficult assignment due tomorrow that you haven’t started yet.

Carving pumpkins

A twist to this classic fall activity is to carve your GPA into the pumpkin. If your GPA isn’t intimidating enough, consider carving your relationship status or the number of times you have taken a shower this month (I’m looking at you, EECS).

Decide on a Halloween costume

The trick to this is to integrate your costume into your regular style so no one can judge you for dressing up. Some tips for this would be to think of well-known characters from literature or television. For example, if you usually dress in slacks and button downs, consider dressing up as the Arthur fist meme. In addition, if you can’t find a character that matches your style, dress up as a meme! This way, you won’t have to worry about being judged, since everyone loves memes. Whatever you do, don’t dress up as a “slutty Pennywise” — cue eye roll.

Decorations

Instead of the traditional cobwebs and paper bats, adorn your walls with all the crumpled Sproul flyers you have stashed in the corner of your room. This new home decor will show that you’re in the Halloween spirit as well as being eco-friendly! For added flair, stick on those pieces of candy corn and Milk Duds that no one eats out of the large candy bags — they could double up as a snack for later, if you get hungry enough.

Make a Halloween-inspired playlist

The purpose of this may or may not be to annoy your roommates with “Monster Mash”’ all October. Add songs that remind you of Halloween when you were growing up! You may come across a cheerful memory that will make midterm season a little less dreary.

Tag your friends in jump-scare videos

We all have that one friend who is either super squeamish or easy to scare in general. To keep them on their toes, tag them in one or two jump-scare videos when they least expect it!

For many, Halloween is a monthlong celebration and, although it may seem like a childish endeavor, there are many ways in which we can appreciate the less comforting things about college life without gorging on candy.