Budget Saving Costumes

Growing up, we never bought costumes for Halloween.  Either we pulled stuff from the closet and “created” a character or else my mother made us a costume – which was much rarer as the years past and she focused on her career.  I don’t know if it is because of my background or because of the lack of money, but I usually can’t bring myself to buy costumes for the kids.

If you want to go all out, but you don’t want to break your bank, here are some ideas for easy and inexpensive costumes.

1.      A hobbit.  It helps that my son has a head of hair that is curly and full.  For the rest of the costume, I tacked up some of his black pants, put him in a white casual shirt with a black vest on top.  For the feet, we glued some faux fur from a stuffed lion to the top of his feet.  He chose to be Frodo, so we topped off the outfit with a chain necklace holding a gold ring.

2.      Medusa.  It doesn’t really matter what you wear – I used a long bit of green material that I wrapped like a toga – the magic of this costume is in the hair.  First we braided bits of my hair and then we teased it all to stand out and up.  Along each of the braids we attached plastic snakes.

3.      Zorro.  This is a simple one.  All you need is a black cape, a black hat, a black material mask, and a sword.

4.      If you can sew – at all – then you can really get outside the box.  My kids LOVE the Veggie Tales.  I found a pattern for a tomato and just added the face to make it “Bob.”  With that same basic pattern in mind (all the veggies are really shapeless) I created a “Larryboy” and an “Archibald.”

Making a great costume can be something that you do as a family.  There is plenty of time to raid the closets and see what you can throw together.  Try to think of creations that can’t be bought in the store.  Soon your kids won’t be focused on going out to beg candy from strangers.  October will be about creating their own characters – which will stretch their imagination while saving your wallet.