Part of being a blogger is putting yourself out there. Well folks, this time I am *really* sticking my neck out. Here’s how it’s going to work:
You describe a low-budget Halloween costume in a comment.
On Halloween I dress up as the cheapest, most bizarre costume you’ve suggested. I promise I won’t stay in for the night but beg for candy door-to-door or go to a party where people can laugh at me!
Leave your comment by October 25 to be considered (gives me a week to put the costume together).
So fire away! What’s a low cost costume that you’d like to see me dress up as?
UPDATE: Reader Georgie made this fabulous suggestion – and she followed up with a pic! As soon as I get my photo uploads working, I’m going to share it.
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.
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
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!
OMG – I love it! I happen to be a big recycler so I would get a big kick out of decorating myself with trash, I mean, recycling!
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.
Fun idea, Georgie. Definitely send me a picture. I’ll post it on the blog!
What I did one year when I was married was to take four large pieces of cardboard, painted them white (you can also cover it with white paper) and make them into playing cards, King & Queen (no picture, just a large heart or diamond in the center of the card), then the K or Q in the corners (like regular cards).
Wore them like sandwich boards (cloth straps over the shoulders. Two paper crowns, make ’em as fancy or plain as you want, maybe make sceptres (wrap chopsticks with paper or foil, etc). Wear something under the boards that ‘could’ be royal dress (plain colored long dress or blouse and long skirt for a woman, solid color shirt & pants for a man.
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!
Not as cheap as two pieces of cardboard, but:
1) One year, living in Atlanta, I was the “Good Witch of the South” (who was never in the story). Two rolls of mylar iridescent cellophane, cut into pieces and hand-gathered on to clear packing tape made a full, princess-ish skirt and top with several layers. I tied some fake magnolia flowers around my waist. (remember, the good witch of the SOUTH!). A prize-winner.
2) 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.
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.
As a kid my mom covered a box with foil, put me inside, black tights/top and I was the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz. Since I work at a school and need to dress up for the school parade, I kept my son’s high school graduation robe and mortar board and am a graduate each year….costume is free since we had to purchase it at his high school! Find a recent grad and ask them to donate it to you!
Make a sign saying “Happy Halloween” or better yet “Trick or Treat”, put handles on the back and go as a sign twirler. You could wear a rainbow clown wig like the guy on my corner, but you really don’t need any special clothes. Did you know there are sign twirler competitions?
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!
I guess these are ideas for next year…
My friend forgot about a Halloween costume for her son one year, so improvised with what was around the house: a big cardboard box and a plastic grass skirt. Holes were cut in the box for head and arms, and the grass was taped around the outside middle or it. Son went as a “Box from Hawaii”. Weird, but he was happy enough and got a good amount of candy!
This year saw a group of about 10 girls wearing brightly-colored t-shirts in various colors. THey ran along yelling “skittles!” It worked, and was cute.