TORONTO, Oct. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- What goes bump in the night? Halloween budget woes! Money issues are what's haunting Canadians, brought on by the high cost of all the tricks and treats of the season. In fact, 80 per cent of Canadians agree that Halloween has become increasingly expensive, according to a recent survey from digital offers site RetailMeNot.ca. Despite budget concerns, Halloween is still a tradition the majority of Canadians (68 per cent) enjoy celebrating.

"According to our survey, only six per cent of Canadians use coupons or promo codes to find deals for items like costumes, which can be expensive," says Kristen Nelson, a savings spokesperson for RetailMeNot, Inc. "Don't let budget concerns scare you away from participating in Halloween festivities. Savvy Canadians can search online for deals and coupons to maximize their budgets this year for every aspect of their Halloween spending, tricks and treats alike."

Speaking of candy, beware Halloween hoarders! Only half of respondents plan to give out candy to trick-or-treaters this year, but 56 per cent plan to buy candy for themselves! One in four respondents also admit to having taken Halloween candy from a child. Women are slightly more guilty of this than men, with 46 per cent of women admitting to putting their hands in a kid's cookie jar, compared to 35 per cent of men.

While Halloween is perceived to be increasing in costs, 45 per cent of those surveyed feel that costumes are shrinking in size, so that extra money must not be going toward extra fabric or more extravagant outfits.

Additionally, Halloween isn't just for kids—Canadian adults join in on the fun, too, with almost one in three (32 per cent) respondents planning to attend a party that involves alcohol. When it comes to costume selections, Canadians appear quite conservative, with 30 per cent of respondents opting for a spooky costume, 27 per cent going the iconic route and only 12 per cent preferring to dress in a sexy costume.

Other survey findings:

• Spooked by costs?: Half of Canadians plan to buy a costume, while 23 per cent plan to make their costume. Only 6 per cent purchase their costume online;
• Millennials spend more: On average, Canadians 18 to 34 anticipate spending $75 this Halloween, the highest of all age groups in Canada, with $25 of that going toward their costume;
• Albertans are best in show: 47 per cent of Albertans believe that pet owners spend more on their pet's costume than their own;
• Teenage woes: Canadians are most likely to stop trick-or-treating between the ages of 12 and 14 years old;
• Pumpkin patch: Thirty-two per cent of Canadians plan to carve a pumpkin this year.

RetailMeNot.ca regularly conducts consumer behaviour surveys to examine the spending habits of Canadians.

Facebook: Facebook.com/RetailmenotCanada
Twitter: @retailmenotca

About the Canadian survey:

From October 1 to October 2, 2014, an online survey was conducted among 1,010 randomly selected Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to education, age, gender and region (and in Quebec, language) census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of Canada. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

About RetailMeNot, Inc.
RetailMeNot, Inc. (http://www.retailmenot.com/corp/) operates the world's largest marketplace for digital offers. The company enables consumers across the globe to find hundreds of thousands of digital offers from their favorite retailers and brands. During the 12 months ended June 30, 2014, RetailMeNot, Inc. experienced more than 625 million visits to its websites. In 2013, RetailMeNot estimates $3.5 billion in its paid retailer sales were attributable to consumer traffic from digital offers in its marketplace. Its mobile apps have been downloaded over 18.5 million times. The RetailMeNot, Inc. portfolio includes RetailMeNot.com, the largest digital offer marketplace in the United States; RetailMeNot.ca in Canada; VoucherCodes.co.uk, the largest digital offers marketplace in the United Kingdom; Deals.com in Germany; Actiepagina.nl, a leading digital offers site in the Netherlands; Bons-de-Reduction.com and Ma-Reduc.com, leading digital offers sites in France; Poulpeo.com, a leading digital offers site with cash back in France; and Deals2Buy.com, a leading digital offers site in North America. RetailMeNot, Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol "SALE." Investors interested in learning more about the company can visit http://investor.retailmenot.com.

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact:

Rachael Collier
Citizen Relations
416 306 6641 office
416 995 1432 mobile
rachael.collier@citizenrelations.com

Kristen Nelson
RetailMeNot, Inc.
+1 832 398 5792 mobile
knelson@rmn.com

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