by Beks
Each year, my brother throws a Halloween party. It’s always a small fun gathering of close friends playing silly games and passing out candy to the neighborhood kids. Hence my dilemma…
I’ve never been one to purchase a costume for Halloween. #1 – They are too expensive and more importantly #2 – they never seem to have enough fabric for my taste. I prefer my…um… lady parts to be properly covered and Halloween costumes at the stores generally… uh… make ladies look like prostitutes.
In the past, I’ve thrown together costumes by combining my wardrobe and a few cheap items.
The year the film 300 was released, I made a toga from off-white fabric on the clearance rack.
One year, I was a kickboxer. I was training in a boxing gym so I wore my kickboxing shorts, a tank top, and my hand wraps. I blacked out a tooth for good measure.
When my mom and I took cooking classes that required uniforms, I went as a professional baker.
I’m not the most creative person.
This year, I’m all out of ideas. I could go as a frumpy, harried, broke mom – but I’d prefer to at least have to change my clothes.
Share your good adult (and kid) costume ideas. Let’s help each other save some money on costumes!
Beks is a full-time government employee who enjoys blogging late into the night after her four kids have gone to sleep. She’s been married to Chris, her college sweetheart, for 15 years. In 2017, after 3 long years working the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, they paid off more than $70K and became debt free. When she’s not working or blogging, she’s exploring the great outdoors.
Wigs!! One year I bought a $10 wig, slapped on my gym clothes, and went as Anna Kournikova. My friend went as Enrique Iglesias & we were a huge hit at the Halloween party.
My husband and I were a referee and a penalty flag. He wore black pants he already owned and we bought a second hand ref shirt (also cheap on amazon), I bought a $3 yellow rain poncho with hood at the grocery store and wore it hood up, and he kept his arm around me all night to indicate I was the penalty flag in his pocket. It was cheap and fun!
I don’t know if you could modify our halloween costumes into adult versions, but my kids costumes will all be homemade this year. They are: a robot, a cowgirl and a red bird. The robot will require some silver spraypaint and a few large boxes, oh, and a length of dryer vent hose for arms. The cowgirl requires a cowboy hat, a red bandana, two braids, a pair of jeans and a jean jacket… simple! The red bird is more complicated, but some red fleece, red felt and a red feather boa from the dollar store should come together to make a cute bird.
If there’s not too much political tension in the crowd, put on some khakis, a polo shirt, and a cheap visor hat. Glue some nickels and quarters to the brim of the visor. Grab a golf club. Go as (Bob) Hope and change.
The weekend before we were going parachuting for the first (and as it turned out) last time, I went as the one whose chute didn’t open – ragged clothes with leaves and twigs sticking out, mud on my jeans, lots of bandages and fake blood, crutches, and a backpack with white material trailing out. My daughter did that last year.
Zombies are big this year – I think you can pretty much do that with makeup and acting…
my husband and i each spet $8 on sleves that we will wear with black t shirts, boots and jeans. we didnt want to spend the money either. one year i reused an old police costume, borrowed an ins hat from a friend. my husband put a box of marijuana on his back and went as an illegal immigrant. he is mexican and we got a lotof laughs that year…
You can dress all in blue and then tape bunches of cotton balls to you to look like clouds and then you carry around a spray bottle and when people ask you what you are, you sray them and tell them you are partly cloudy with a chance of rain 🙂
I have also dressed all in pink and tied a shoe to a head band on top of my head and went as bubble gum stuck to a shoe…
I like the cheap creative costumes anyways 🙂
No ideas here…love the original post and the great ideas. We usually don’t go out for Halloween but I’m going to note these for future use! Thanks!
You could go as Sookie from True Blood. BLond wig, white t shirt, apron and your choice of bottoms. For good measure you could put two red nail polish dots on your neck.
A couple years ago a friend of mine went as someone caought in a wind storm. From looking at her all of her clothing was pinned in a way that looked wind swept and her hair was spray funky too.
You cold put on a pink sweatsuit and tie a shoe on your head and go as the gum on the bottom of a shoe.
Good luck with your costume ideas!
Hi,
You could go as a biggest looser contestant:) Oversized t-shirt and lots of pillows under. Print out the Biggest looser logo and pin it to a red t-shirt. a sweat band and sweat pants. I was this costume when I was 8 month pregnant..people thought it was really funny.
You could also go as a tent (if you have cheap tent you don’t mind to make a hole for your head).
You could also go as a kiss rocker – lot’s of face paint and a black wig.
Or a clock work orange person.
hope this helps!
You can pin Smarties candies on your own jeans and go as smarty pants, or wear all black and attach empty cups and wrappers and go as a movie theater floor!
I refuse to be uncomfortable because of a costume, so on several occasions I’ve gone to parties as a road. Wear a black top and skirt. Using pieces of white medical tape, make a dotted line from your neck down to your skirt’s hemline. Get someone to do your back too if you feel ambitious. Then I make little road signs which I attach to my shirt and skirt with safety pins on the inside of my clothes (Stop, one way, slow down for curves, no U turn etc.) I even kept the little signs for several years and reused them. BTW – take the tape off at the end of the evening so you don’t risk leaving any sticky residue on your clothes.
It’s an election year… I don’t know how political commentary would go over at your brother’s shindig, but thrifting either a single-color pantsuit a la Hilary Clinton or finding that perfect Michelle Bachmann outfit would go far (or you could go cross-dressing style and pick from the myriad of male politicians currently in the spotlight). Plus, then you could Google things they’ve said and use them as one-liners all night.
paint a cardboard box brown or black. Put it on so that it’s at waist height with you in the middle. Duct tape down a magazine and a cup and put a lampshade on your head. You are ONE NIGHT STAND. Get it?
Option #1
You could wear all white and write things on labels that say “your baby is so cute”, “i have to wash my hair tonight”, etc. This is the Little White Lie costume
Option #2
Purchase inexpensive “hello my name is stickers” and write funny names on them (ala bart simpson) like “Ben Dover”, “Al Coholic”, “Hugh Jass” (http://www.snpp.com/guides/moe_calls.html). This is the Identity Crisis costume
(I LOVE PUNNY COSTUMES) I have way more ideas if you are interested.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/06/living/halloween-diy-rs/index.html
CNN to the rescue 😛
I’m always surprised at what I can pull off when I have to come up with a costume. Last year my daughter had a halloween party and I didn’t have a costume yet. I pulled off a pretty good Dorthy from the wizard of oz, complete with a basket and little dog.
Babies’ costumes are much cheaper, and now that you have your most adorable son, dress him up instead. That excuses you from costumes until he can talk and voice his embarassment — a few years?
Last year, my oldest went as a cinnamon toast crunch square…cardboard, a little textured spray paint and glitter for cinnamon and sugar, a bright red felt tounge, and a giant styrofoam ball cut in half for the googly eyes! Everyone loved his costume, and I think the entire thing cost about $10 bucks!
Awesome comments! LOVE the “partly cloudy with a chance of rain” by kyla! My 3 year old just might be wearing that!