Frugal Costume Ideas

There are lots of costumes you can make from old clothes. Try a hippie, if you have torn jeans , a vest, lots of love beads, a scarf for a belt.
A tramp, out of whatever ragged things you can devise, use a broomstick and a bag of "something" on a stick so it looks hobo-ish.
A farmer, jeans, plaid shirt, straw hat or cap.
A maid, dress, apron, tray with dishes on it,
Cowboy, if you have the appropriate hat, and boots are a bonus, otherwise jeans, shirt, vest, hanky around neck, maybe a hobby horse

Ask your kids for ideas, if they are school age. My son once dressed up as the "chensopater". I didn't know what that was (a word he made up) , but we used things we had, big hat, cape, ragged pants and shirt, he put together the costume and was thrilled.

Just a reminder that face paint is always better than a mask for trick or treating (unless you are the Lone Ranger, he has to have a mask! LOL)

I made my g-daughter into a" Bag of Groceries" I used a store's brown bag, cut out the bottom and slit the bag up the back to wrap around her. I didn't do arm holes as the bag hung below the arms and stayed on by hot gluing an old fabric belt cut to size for shoulder straps. Then I filled it with "products", like cutting out the fronts of boxed items (different sizes) and layering them every which way around the body of the bag and glued them together in batches. I found smaller items to glue up and down the straps (empty Jello boxes, pet food treat containers, a toothpaste box, etc). I took a ketchup bottle, cleaned it and inserted a piece of red construction paper to give it color and put the bottle into the body of the bag). Then I paper-clipped a bunch of coupons to the front of the bag along with a long register receipt that was dangling out. Her head was covered with a white knit cap and an empty bag of sugar placed upside down on her head. Cut the flaps to lay flat for using bobby pins to hold it in place. (Just wear something neutral underneath). Everyone loved her costume! Carrying one of those recycled totes from the store for getting treats completes the outfit. This outfit cost was ZERO, too :D---a little imagination goes a long way!

Go on line and find, copy to a word doc, and print out local statutes. Or, get an old law book and cut out the pages.

Safety pin them to a suit and you have a "law suit".

Blow up some round, purple balloons and put them on your all in one jammies, preferably green. You are a cluster of grapes! You have to leave the back open or plan to stand all night!

The last one isn't too tasteful, but cheap.
Get some little cereal boxes, cut the front and backs out, and glue or safety pin them to your clothes. Glue mini-wheats, cereal rings, and drizzle blood from both the boxes and the cereal, and you have become a "cereal killer". It's fun to see if people can figure out what you are.

It's almost always easy to throw together a cheap pirate costume. A long sleeve shirt with flappy arms, a bandanna for your head, an old cloth you can cut up and wear around your waste as a sah (I used an old reddish pillow case cut in half), a pair of sweats for pants (helps if you can cut the bottoms of the legs off in a kind of weavy patter WVW) and finish off with an eye patch.