Readers have already shared a ton of great ideas for the frugal Halloween costume contest.
Lisa has a costume that makes money:
Get a large trash bag, cut holes in for legs and arms, then fill out around you with assorted bottles, cans, etc. and go as a Recyclable. Then you can cash in the costume for $$ – very bargain babish!
Lynda has a veggie suggestion:
I went to a party one year where a woman wore a long orange dress, and tied several piece of fern to her head…said she was a carrot!
A friend who was pregnant wore an old girl scouts uniform with a sign: It’s the Boy Scouts who are supposed to be prepared. Got a lot of laughs. Whatever you choose, have fun!
Georgie is super resourceful:
Put a pair of green tights and top on and blow up green balloons and go as a bunch of grapes, we did it for the whole family last year, cheap as chips. I will email you a photo. (above)
Hilary says go incognito:
I had an old fake christmas tree, and I reworked the branches to hang from my body I was inside the tree. Battery-powered lights, ornaments, the whole bit, and they couldn’t figure out who it was.
Debra’s costumes are especially clever:
My mother was the original cheapskate for Halloween. My brother and I had 2 choices – ghost or “hobo.” We either had to wear the sheet with eye holes or dad’s old clothes with fireplace ash on our face. Good times.
Now my husband and I usually dress up with topical themes. A few years ago, when I was 7 months pregnant, we went as pregnant Britney and K-Fed. All we needed was a wife-beater for him and some bare feet, Cheetos and a Red Bull for me.
Although if you really want to be cheap, once I forgot to wear a costume to a costume party, so I told everyone I was dressed as apathy.
Meital has a sweet idea:
Everyone’s name in my family start with an M. One year, the 6 of us in my family dressed up as the M&M’s. The 4 kids were different colored M&M’s and my parents were the M&M package. It was very cute!
Missed the rules? You describe a low-budget Halloween costume in a comment. On Halloween I dress up as the cheapest, most bizarre costume you’ve suggested. With pictures of the winning costume, of course!
So what frugal costume do you want me to dress up as?
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:26 am
One year I was in the drugstore, acutely aware I hadn’t bought anything for my daughter to wear for Halloween — and to my horror, a couple of aisles away was a bunch of CHRISTMAS decorations!
(This was about 18 years ago, before Christmas started in late August.)
In a fit of perverse inspiration, I bought a small package of holiday paper. Cut eyeholes in a sheet. Glued strips of wrapping paper here and there. She went to the party as….
(wait for it)
…..the Ghost of Christmas Present
Another year, I somehow came into possession of one of those razor gloves from the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” movies. I glued gold-wrapped chocolate coins to the glove and went as Freddy Krugerrand.
Finally: A friend of mine swears she’ll one day wear a tweed jacket with elbow patches over a “University of Dutch Harbor” T-shirt, and carry a brier pipe and a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary. She will be….a literary Aleutian.
(Yeah, that one IS a bit of a stretch. Made me laugh, though.)
October 2nd, 2009 at 3:50 pm
One of the kids at our local school has an ingenious mom… he came one year as “Cousin It”, using nothing but cheap hula skirts (color = light brown) tied at different levels all down his body, looking in the end like shoe-length “hair”. To cover up the tie on top of his head, he wore an old hat (Cousin It at a Baseball game?), and then, to denote where his eyes were, he put on his favorite sunglasses. Fun and inexpensive!
October 4th, 2009 at 1:51 am
One time my wife cut a hole for the head and two for her arms in a large industrial black trash bag, tied a rope around her waist and went as a Bag Lady.
Everyone loved it.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
These are all such awesome ideas! I especially love the grapes (and the fact that George is man enough to wear tights!). At a loss to come up with anything as clever, I once put on my fanciest dress, shoes and a pearl necklace. When people commented on my lack of costume, I’d reply, “I DRESSED UP for Halloween!”
October 6th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Two words for you: Zombie Nurse
Scrubs, (provided by your sister) and all of your makeup at once on your eyes and then smudge it as much as possible. Paper nurses cap you can make yourself.
It’s fun to be scary on Halloween!!!
love,
your NY sis
October 9th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Two years ago, I wore a dead-on Jacqueline Onassis-style ‘do and oversize dark sunglasses, borrowed some pearls and, beneath a tailored suit jacket, wore a giant pumpkin face that I’d cut from one of those cheap plastic lawn bags. My Jackie O. Lantern was a hit everywhere it went that year and cost me a grand total of $8 for the drugstore sunglasses and pumpkin bag!
October 9th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
My hairdresser gave me this one. No cost, clever and my personal favorite: comfortable. Using some safety pins, pin one or two socks, a pair of undies and any other small cloth items you can think of, to various places on your clothing. You are now “Static Cling”!
October 10th, 2009 at 6:18 am
In my college/post college days when money was always tight, I thought of some great costumes using my warped sense of humor. (1) Similar to Kathy’s static cling, I dressed, head to toe, in black and stuck string, crumpled tissues and other light weight items on me and went at “dryer lint”. (2) Again, I dressed in black. Then I cut the cereal names from their boxes and pinned them to my body. My only other prop was a cleaver with fake blood on it. I was a ‘cereal’ killer. (3) I bought a cheap, yellow sweatsuit from Kmart, laid it on my driveway and then sprayed black spray paint on a section of my car’s spare tire. I then rolled the tire over the front of the sweatshirt top and then on the pants. Voila! Speed bump. (4) I borrowed a white lab coat from my friends mom and made dental tools from aluminum foil. I placed the tools in the breast pocket along with a few packs of Dentine gum. I was the 5th dentist – the one that didn’t recommend Trident. When people asked what I was, I handed out a piece of Dentine as I explained the costume. It was a big hit.
October 12th, 2009 at 11:11 am
I had a very sarcastic friend in college, many years ago, and she dressed in a green t-shirt and jeans. On the left side near her heart in black marker she wrote the letters NV. When asked what her costume was she replied: I’m green with envy.