Comments on: What are your budget-friendly costume ideas?

By: Martha Hudson

Martha Hudson — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:21:20 +0000

Actually, I get a kick out of dressing up myself. Every year, when my children were small, I would dress up as something scary..loved it ! My costume was usually just an over-sized pair of bib overalls, flannel shirt..scraggly old wig..and make-up to make my face look like a really old hag..oh, and my husbands old work boots ! Most of the time, my children…as they got older..would just pretend not to know me !

By: beth

beth — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:29:47 +0000

we love the thrift store, and of course we save every coustume we’ve ever used and recycle or trade them. after halloween i buy next years stuff on clearance, tatoos, nail polish, that sort of thing.
another thing i did when the kids were little, was go thru thier bags and take some candy to put away for thier xmas stockings.

By: Christy Christensen

Christy Christensen — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:49:08 +0000

You can do what I’m doing this year, convince your kids that they looked SO GREAT last year & recycle from the year before. Ok, so only one of my kids bought it but hey, that’s one less costume to purchase this year. Yea!

By: Jocelyn

Jocelyn — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:07:55 +0000

There are so many good ideas in the comments so far! We have a box of Halloween costumes that my Mom has passed on to us. We try to look for something that will work in there or borrow from friends and family. We also have several dance costumes and dress-ups. I guess it is time to get that box out and start deciding on this years costumes!

By: mary white

mary white — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:46:52 +0000

a good quick costume for anyone to use is to go as dirty laundry–cut (slice) an x in the bottom of an old laundry basket-the bigger the waist size the larger the x –fill with dirty socks, rags, old soiled clothes, an empty laundry soap bottle, empty stain remover, and clip some clothes pins to the side…easy
a good couple one is good witch/bad witch–works best with the fella being the good witch-use toile or stiff netting for a tutu make some wings use gold/siver star garland on the wire for a halo and a magic/wand.
another quick one is grocho–dark suit jacket- cigar-glasses with nose prop and a hat with black hair around the edges

By: Nikki

Nikki — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:56:00 +0000

I was always a person from a certain decade that my parents were alive for. I would just steal their old clothes and go out with a poodle skirt and sweater or something like that!

By: Marti

Marti — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:54:53 +0000

Go as a gypsy / fortune teller. We do this a lot. We dig out old long flowy skirts or look at the local thrift store for one. Add a fitted white t shirt, lots of necklaces, hoop earrings, a scarf around the head, dark eye makeup and voila!

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:33:14 +0000

The costume my two children loved was a pair of their grandfather’s overalls. He was a rather large man and they fit just perfectly one in each leg then they fastened them over there uneven shoulders and with a hat on each head. They got a ton of laughs that year. They said the only drawback was everyone that answered the door had to call for everyone in the house to view their costume and that slowed them down getting to the good candy before it was all gone.

By: Lauralee Hensley

Lauralee Hensley — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:28:41 +0000

A bumble bee: If your little one has yellow footed pajama’s, just add onto it with black duct tape strips. Cut out of white paper two wings and tape them on to the back. Add a headband that has two glued on taped on sticks for antenna’s, and glue black pom poms onto the ends of the sticks, or make aluminion foil balls and stick onto the sticks and spray paint black.
A Zebra: If your little one has white pajama’s or white jeans and a white turtle neck long sleeves shirt, just add onto it with black duct tape black stripes. Use a headband and tape or glue to it ears cut out of white cardstock or white or black felt. Attach to the behind portion of the costume a tail made out of cardstock, or cording, and glue some yarn at the end of the tail. You could attach this with a slip stitch or a safety pin.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:59:07 +0000

One of my favorite stories is the year we dressed my daughter as a ninja–she dressed in all black with a simple red belt and her shield was the top of a Mrs. Fields gift tin…it was adorable and a practical way to use everday items!