Saving Money-Halloween Costumes

Halloween is just around the corner.  Soon there will be goblins and ghosts, pirates and princesses running through the neighborhood banging on doors for the goods.  And of course, when they get home, mom is going to be stealing the chocolate.  Me anyway.

However, Halloween is the 2nd most expensive Holiday after Christmas.  You should be afraid.  Very afraid.  You've got the candy, the parties, the Halloween decorations and costumes.  All of those expenses can quickly add up leaving you looking and feeling distorted.  So here's a few things that we have used to save money on costumes.

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Costumes

- First check out what's in your house before you head out to store.  Is there something you can use at home and put together to make a costume.

This is actually family dress up night at our house but you get the idea.  Where would my husband get a last minute costume idea to be rocker?  (church vest, already stained jeans that we cut and ripped, chains, and shades)  There's usually something in the house you could use, repurpose, or that's already half destroyed that could be used to create a costume.

-Dress Up Clothes - Does your child wear dress up clothes?  My daughter has a container of them.  Some years, she'll just pull something out of her box and put it on for a Halloween event.  I'm lucky that she doesn't always care what she is.  Also, if you have younger children, keep the costumes from previous years and the kids will have a collection to choose from.

Old Uniforms- Cheerleading uniforms, soccer, any kind of sport or old group affiliation can be used as this years costume.  You can also throw them on in with the dress up clothes.

- Check out the Goodwill and Consignment Shops.  Both places will have costumes out and only for pennies on the dollar.  You may also find other Halloween accessories or decorations there as well.

I bought a green jumpsuit for $2 at the consignment shop, dug out some green fabric, and glued felt dots on for a turtle shell.  The shell is made like a back pack so he could wear the jumpsuit alone.  I already had everything else.

-Get creative- At our elementary school, the kids don't necessarily dress up for Halloween but they do a book character day.  Most of the time, it's something that I don't have and am not going to buy, especially if we've already settled on a regular costume for the Holiday.  Therefore I have to figure it out.

King Peter from the Chronicles of Narnia and Cate representing the book "A Bad Case of Stripes"

AJ's costume consisted of his pants from his Zorro costume (that I bought from the goodwill) paired with one of my white blouses (I didn't want it to be a perfect fit), and my dingy boots.  I folded a piece of fabric in half and cut a whole through the fold to slip his head into.  I cut a design in cardstock for the crown and covered cardboard in foil for the chest plate and sword.  His belt from the Zorro costume was used to hold the sword in place.  The only thing this cost me was the extra foil.

The Dollar Tree- The dollar tree usually has a lot of accessories that could be used to dress up an old costume or accent it.

-Buy Halloween costumes and decorations after Halloween for the next year.  I will usually wait until the items drop to about 75 percent off before I buy anything.

Bought from Walmart for $5 after sale.  Just check to make sure all the pieces are in the bag, if they're not, you might be able to get them for a lower price.

Check out Pinterest.  There are so many ideas on there for everything, including these Halloween treats we made.

 

This Halloween the kids have decided that they want to a skeleton (Aj) and a cat (Cate).  I have no idea what Caleb is going to be.  Both both AJ and Cate's ideas consist of wearing mostly black so that should be easy to accomplish.