My take on Georgie's "bunch of grapes" costume.
Suggest a fabulous and frugal costume idea for me to dress up as and the winning costume – as chosen by reader votes – is what I will dress up as on Halloween. I’ll even post a picture of me in costume - no matter how wacky!
Some of last year’s best ideas…
Lisa says “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 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.”
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.”
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 costume ideas 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 starts 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!”
September 29th, 2010 at 5:58 am
How about wrapping a sheet around you and you will have a toga. Cheap and easy!
September 29th, 2010 at 9:11 am
how about a black trash bag, attach individual cereal boxes insert plastic knifes.
your a cereal killer…..
September 29th, 2010 at 9:36 am
A few I’ve done:
Wrap yourself creatively in Aluminum foil and go as a Leftover. (this is better on a child, not as much foil is used)
Get an old laundry basket, cut the bottom out. Use bathrobe waistbands or long scarves for straps, wear a simple t-shirt and pin clean assorted clothes in abundance to the shirt. A bra or other “embarrassing” article of clothing over the head adds humor, an empty bottle of detergent or softener completes the look.
When my kids were small, I would use a sweat shirt and sweat pants as the base and glue or fabric paint them to create the costume. They’d be warm while trick-or-treating and look great!
Costumes I created: Starfish – reddish brown sweats, brown to beige and some white fabric paint. On the back I made bumps. Lots of them. On the front, I did the fringey stuff. I made a pointy hat and textured it the same way.
Red Sweats, some fur and black Naugahyde easily convert to a Santa suit, add a store bought hat (use extra fur to sew or glue in a beard that hangs below the chin and your good to go!
Last one, similar to the grapes: My friend got different colored balloons, some clear plastic sheeting (not too thin). She stapled the sheeting by folding the ends toward the middle. Then stapled the sides. She then cut a hole in the middle and left that open.
Then she blew up the balloons and filled the “bag” she’d made.- both sides. She wore monotone tights and a body leotard and put her head through the hold in the middle, allowing the ‘bag’ to drape in the front and back of her. Then we did a few staples along the side to hold it together there. She was a bag of Jelly Beans!
September 29th, 2010 at 9:39 am
Go to the nearest thrift store, the place is full of costume ideas!
1. 80′s Prom Queen, get a prom dress, do your hair like you would have in the 80′s – big, lots of bright make up and big jewelry. (which you can find at the jewelry counter at the thrift store) If you can find a crown either at the thrift store or a dollar store it would be perfect.
2. Nerd – go over to the mens section, get a dorky looking shirt and khaki pants that are too big for you, grab some suspenders, thick lensed glasses (wrap tape around the nose part), pocket protector, calculator, math books and put your clothes on as nerdy looking as possible, shirt tucked in, zipper on pants left open, pants pulled up high and you have to play nerdy too. Plus brush your hair to the side or wear it as you wouldnt normally.
3. Tourist – find a tropical shirt, khacki shorts, wear long socks pulled up over calves, get a big straw sun hat, wear a camera around neck, map in shirt pocket & sunglasses.
4. Surgeon – you can normally find scrubs in the thrift store. you can dress it up with other medical accessories either from the thrift store or a toy store (cheaper than buying real medical supplies) Wear with sneakers and youre set.
5. Beggar/Hobo – Find clothes you wont mind ripping a bit. Use safety pins to hold the ripped parts together. Use real dirt or dark make up to dirty the clothes. Find a wig at the thrift store that looks “dirty”. Look for something you can use as a hobo bag, like an old broom then find a cloth to make a bag at the end of the stick.Be sure to make your face dirty and use a black out crayon to black out some of your teeth.
Those are some ideas, I love going to the thrift store to get my sons costumes, its way cheaper than buying a bagged costume thats way overpriced.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:06 am
@Elizabeth What great ideas! I’ve never heard of a Starfish costume. The jelly bean ideas sounds fun and very easy to pull off.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:07 am
@Sandy N I really like your Tourist costume idea. I think it would get a lot of laughs. At a party or going door to door, you could ask others for directions. Ha!
September 29th, 2010 at 10:14 am
The problem with Thrift store costumes in most towns is that you need to be thinking about them in July…once September rolls around, most stores anticipate the rush and raise their prices. They also roll out the stuff they’ve been keeping under wraps just for the Halloween Rush.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Bargain Babe, all you need is the green beret for your “stem” and that costume would be complete!
The other option with a similar costume is to do different colored balloons with brown pants – and then you’re going as a pile of M&Ms.
September 29th, 2010 at 11:55 am
My friends and I once went as the Scooby Doo gang: Shaggy, Freddie, Daphne and Velma. We were able to find most everything we needed for our costumes at thrift stores, including Scooby (a stuffed animal that we carried with us). Basically you just need a white shirt and blue pants for Freddie, green shirt and brown pants for Shaggy, tall boots and a 60s style dress (purple if possible) for Daphne and glasses, an orange turtleneck, red-orange skirt and orange knee socks for Velma (the most difficult costume of the group, IMO).
We went to 2 or 3 haunted houses in costume that night, and everybody immediately knew who we were supposed to be and loved it! We heard “you meddling kids” from several different people. LOL!
September 29th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
One year, I was the MSN Butterfly. I got a light blue hooded sweatshirt and matching light blue sweatpants. I made the colored wings (red, yellow, blue, green) out of construction paper and took a headband and made little antennae.
Another year, I went as a Christmas Tree. I made the branches out of construction paper and safety pinned them onto a green shirt and brown pants. I used shoeboxes to make Presents which I wore over my shoes and I made a star that I put on top of my head. I had colored flashing lights and tinsel that I wrapped around me. I used stickers that I stuck to the green construction paper for ornaments.
September 29th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Go as a Freudian slip. Take an old full slip and write Freudian slips on it.
September 29th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Oh, the Freudian slip reminded me of one I’ve seen: On a wine tasting bus trip for halloween: He came wearing a white t-shirt and carried a black sharpie. He waved to us constantly and insisted we sign his shirt before boarding. He was a “Signed Waver” LOL
September 29th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Sorry, but the picture above, with the girl covered in the green balloons, only looks like one of those Carnival dart games, where you pop the balloons and get prizes. She really needs to add vines/greenery to the neckline, in order to help it look more like grapes. Just my honest opinion.
I am planning to be Cruella Deville, so I just need to find a few fabric remnants, and get some cheap make-up (a la Big Lots store), a cheap wig or hair color spray and I am set to go.
September 29th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
At my sons request he wanted to be a “black eyed pea” last year. I am not to crafty so I had him a large white “P” printed on a black t-shirt ($6) and got some black face paint ($1) to go around one of his eyes. Everyone had a fit when I took him trick or treating. It was a huge hit! I wouldn’t see why it wouldn’t work for an adult as well. Good luck, there’s lots of great ideas so far!
September 29th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
This year, my husband and I are going to wear all black and write “They” on our shirts and dress as “They” from the Chevy Commercial from earlier this year. If you’ve seen the commercial, you’ll know what I am talking about. The Annoucer says, “They” say….
September 29th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
@Jessica Your black eyed pea costume is quite clever! I love it. What is your son going to be this year?
September 29th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
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September 30th, 2010 at 8:33 am
[...] poured in for Halloween costumes as part of this year’s contest. Suggest a frugal costume and the best idea (as voted by [...]
October 1st, 2010 at 7:43 am
All the ideas are great. I love the one to be dress as doctor, i will check out the store today!
For more ideas check:
coolest-homemade-costumes.com
I specially like the section for couples.
October 3rd, 2010 at 7:40 pm
One year in college (eons ago), I went as a bright idea.
Being a student, I was (still am) frugal (not a student) so household items were the way to go (still are!)
So I simply took a light bulb, colored it yellow, attached it to a head band and won every contest that night.
So how many students did it take to change a light bulb? In this case, just one, well, won!
Another year I went as a storm cloud.
I bought bags and bags of cotton (cheap!) glued them on to a T-shirt (that I didn’t care about) and cut out a bolt of lightening from yellow oak tag.
October 3rd, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Christine:
That girl in the picture is the Bargain Babe!
Maybe you can make all our costumes
October 5th, 2010 at 7:30 am
It has been awhile that I have read blogs with this kind of content — interesting and talks about something I can relate to. Many thanks. I’ll be checking out regularly.
October 5th, 2010 at 8:54 am
I had a friend who went as static cling.
She safety-pinned pieces of fabric, (clean) rags, and yes, even some delicates to a plain jogging suit, and viola, instant hit.
Two years ago I went as autumn.
I went to Michael’s (a craft store) and purchased plastic leaves, individual ones, and ones sold attached to faux branches.
I bought a dark brown plain dress off e-bay ($15.00) and safety-pinned the leaves to the dress.
I took a “bough” and a “fall.”
Safety pins are great for homemade costumes.
October 6th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Greenman suit – begreenman.com/purchase.html , cheapest I’ve seen that doesn’t ship from overseas. I saw that they are having a 2 day sale in a few days.
This costume will get you ALOT of attention and creep people out.
October 12th, 2010 at 10:54 am
The Green Man suit @ http://begreenman.com/ is now on sale – $39. Definitely the cheapest its ever been. I saw some sell for $400, when supply was really low in 2008.