Make your own garb. If you aren’t any good at sewing, you can always “repurpose” funky clothes you find at a consignment store or yard sale. I have lots of vaguely Pagan-looking clothes that I’ve picked up for a dollar or two. You can also take something simple, like a white shirt, and decorate it with Pagan symbols to turn it into something more witchy.
Use a pretty plate or bowl instead of a fancy candleholder. Inexpensive glass and pottery often works quite well, as long as it is fire-safe.
If you want a special chalice for Cakes and Ale but don’t want to invest in a pewter or silver one, go to the dollar store and get a glass goblet. You can make it special by tying ribbons around the stem or decorating it using glass markers.
Instead of a pricey, store-bought athame, take a walk in the woods and find just the right piece of wood. (This works for wands as well.) If it is large enough, you can carve runes or symbols onto it, or you can tie ribbons, leather, crystals, beads, or feathers to it, if you happen to have some lying around. If you don’t want to go to even that much trouble, just use your finger to point with. Since the main purpose of an athame is to direct energy, a finger or your hand will work just as well as a physical athame in most circumstances.
If you need a Book of Shadows, you can use a notebook or a 3-ring binder. Cover it with cloth or fancy paper, or decorate it with Craft symbols. Even better, create a special cover by gluing on leaves and other natural objects.
You can spend a lot of money on premade spell candles that are anointed with magickal oils, carved with arcane symbols, and consecrated for magickal use. Or you can do all those things yourself and spend the money you save on ingredients to make your own magickal oils—that way you can anoint a whole lot more candles down the line.
As you can imagine, I’m a big fan of buying books. By all means, feel free to buy the ones I’ve written! On the other hand, even I don’t buy every book I ever want to read. (Almost, but not quite. We talked about priorities, and books are one of mine.) You can get books from the library for free (although it can often be hard to find Pagan books there) or go to one of the many online book swapping sites. One of my coven mates has actually found quite a few Pagan books at yard sales over the years. You can also share books with your Pagan friends, although I wouldn’t do that with anything you can’t stand to not get back.
Most of us use votives or tapers for quarter candles. Votives tend to be fairly cheap, and you don’t need anything fancier. But if you want to save your money (or can’t burn candles wherever you are, be it a hotel room or a dorm room), you can substitute symbols for earth, air, fire, and water—try using a rock, a feather, a picture or drawing of a flame, and a seashell.
Statues of specific gods and goddesses can be truly beautiful … and truly expensive. If you follow a particular deity, try using something that symbolizes them, like a cat for Bast, or an antler for Herne.
Feeding a Crowd
When you are a Solitary witch, you can easily control what you do and don’t spend money on. But when you practice with others, things can be a little trickier.
A better choice is to have your feasts be “pot luck.” Everyone who will be attending is instructed to bring a dish to pass.
A perfect example of this is the post-ritual feast. I have been to—and in my earlier days as a high priestess, hosted—any number of rituals where the person hosting the event cooked up a huge feast single-handedly. If you’re someone who likes to cook for your friends, this can be a lot of fun. It can also be a tremendous amount of work and darned expensive. If you have a large coven, or hold open rituals that might draw twenty or thirty people or more, it can easily break the monthly food budget.
A better choice is to have your feasts be “pot luck.” Everyone who will be attending is instructed to bring a dish to pass. If you are really organized, or are in a smaller group like a Blue Moon Circle, it can be a good idea to check ahead of time to see what people are bringing; that way you don’t end up with three loaves of bread and no vegetables.
There have been times in the past when there were circle members who we knew had little or no extra money. These folks were usually given the most inexpensive options: potatoes, rice, or pasta, for instance. My book has an entire section devoted to recipes that will feed a crowd for under ten dollars, and almost all of them are dishes we have made and enjoyed.
Some items, like the potatoes and pasta above, are almost always pretty cheap. But you can also save money by planning your feast around seasonal foods (a good Pagan tradition anyway), since produce that is in season is usually considerably cheaper than that which isn’t. Asparagus, for instance, is a pricey treat most of the year—except in spring, when it is readily available. Buying locally grown food can often save you money, too, especially if you have a farmers’ market near you. And you’re supporting local farmers, which I’m sure the Goddess thinks is a good idea.
Of course, if you have a garden, using fruits and vegetables you have grown yourself is not only a cheaper option, but it has the added benefit of sharing all that
