By Dkw144
For most thrift stores or stores like "Savers", the proceeds go to a charity like the American Red Cross, for example. Being thrifty to me, doesn't mean "cheap" as some family members have called me, it means saving money that I can use elsewhere!
By Terri
By BrookesMommy
Check your local dollar stores for accessories you can use to make your costume. For example, this year my niece will be a lady bug. Target has lady bug wings for a dollar. She'll wear black sweat pants with a red sweatshirt top with little black duct tape circles stuck to it. My daughter got a pair of fairy wings for a dollar at Target. We're planning on pairing this up with a dollar tiara, leotards and a body suit. I guess she's going to be some type of fairy ballerina/princess with this one. (I don't sound too sure, do I?)
By Kidseatfree
By Tanja from Malta
I also do the garage sale circuit frequently, and buy costumes in excellent condition for next to nothing. I put the larger sizes aside in a trunk for future use. In the winter, my brother's little kids also wear the warm fuzzy costumes for dress up on a daily basis! (This also works with Christmas decorations too!)
By Janet
By Christine
By Tigger1971
By Tigger1971
A red sweatsuit can morph into a ladybug using a similar process and so on. If you can use the costume as regular clothing it really costs you nothing as children have to have clothes to wear no matter what. Let your imagination go and you will be surprised at what you can come up with. You might even create a front loading washing machine out of a large box that would hang from the shoulders of an older child with straps. Cut a circle from heavy clear plastic, cut a larger circle from cardboard and paint it silver. Poke a few holes in the box BEFORE attaching the 2 circles, and stick a few articles of clothing in so that they stick out a bit.
Glue the plastic onto the back of the silver circle and glue both onto the front of the box. Voila, a washing machine with a few items spilling out of it.
The one thing that all of these costumes have in common is that the main thing required to make them is imagination - NOT MONEY. If you include your child in making them you have created a real TREASURE - a happy childhood memory. Cherish them, they grow so fast. God bless, Shari
By Sharon
By Gina
One year she thought that she was too old to dress up, but at the last minute, wanted a costume so she could compete in the costume contest. I was at work and had very limited resources. What we ended up doing was using my eye pencil to draw a circle around her eye, and then we took a piece of construction paper and punched 2 holes in it and threaded yarn through it so that she could wear it around her neck. I then took a magic marker and put a large letter "P" on her sign -- she was a Black Eyed Pea! She won 2nd place in the contest, for an idea that we came up with and executed in about 10 minutes!
Another year, she was "White Trash". We took a clear trash bag and filled it with crumpled white papers and cardboard and then labeled it "White Trash" and tied it around her neck.
You're only limited by your own creativity and imagination!
By Bailegirl
Feel free to post your ideas below!
By Teri (Guest Post)
10/11/2008
Living in the midwest, Halloween night was usually chilly, so I always started with sweats. Grey hoodie w/ felt ears and a grey tail, snap a mousetrap on the tail - MOUSE! Black sweats with 4 extra black fabric legs under the arms, run strong black thread from arm to arm - SPIDER. Black pants, white shirt, red felt to make a vest on the front of the shirt, sew a parrot to the shoulder, black patch, and a plastic sword - PIRATE! Black sweats, black fabric cape, white face makeup, and fangs - DRACULA. Sweats are a great base to build on! And can be worn the rest of the winter for play clothes too!
By Kim (Guest Post)
10/08/2008
Geisha: One year when we needed to create something quickly my step daughter was a geisha in an oversized satin robe with a piece of cloth tied around her waist and pajama pants. We used kabob skewers with painted ends in her hair and slippers on her feet. My skin is lighter than hers so my powder foundation, eye liner and red lipstick completed her costume. She LOVED it much more than the costume that her mom had purchased but not sent and it was all stuff we had on hand!
Cheetah: Another year it was too cold for my daughter's planned costume so she wore a cheetah print coat and we painted her face with white face paint around her eyes and mouth and eyeliner and eyeshadow spots. She wore black pants and cat ears that I had purchased the year before after halloween for less than a dollar.
Kitty: We made use of those same bargain ears a different halloween when my step-daughter expressed an interest in dressing up for school. She wore a black and multicolored glittery sweater, black skirt, black tights, black gloves, and her dad's black socks over her tennis shoes. We gave her "cat eyes" with eye liner and used eye shadow all over her face to make her a glittery kitty. She was about 7 I think and was very happy to report that one boy in her class especially liked her costume.
Toga: Going greek is always easy and cheap too. Safety pins a white sheet and some ivy and you are the deity of your choice. We used goldish eye shadow all over our face for a special glow and I always chose to be Hera.
Ghost: Be a ghost, I know corny, but sometimes hotels have lightly stained white sheets that they keep on hand and will give you if you ask. The smallest stain prevents use and you would have to cut the edges for little ones anyway. Also you can often find solid colored sheets at thrift stores pink, blue, orange, or red and you are a "pac man ghost"
This year I picked up thrift store costumes. Our children always pick what they want to be unless there is a last minute problem and then I usually come up with 2 choices and let them pick. I take what they want to be and make the costume or buy inexpensive pieces. It is so much more fun it they choose and so much less expensive when I assemble. "Cheap" store costumes are about $15, but times 5 it isnt so cheap anymore. They are much more unique this way too.
By
10/03/2008
Not a tip, just a comment. I used to do costumes for various community theaters so I have some elaborate stuff I've managed to put together on a dime in my life. My 5 kids always felt that they could rely upon me for some pretty slick Halloween costumes,etc., but I swear, the best costume EVER that I ever helped to create was for my son when he was 3 or 4 years old.
He trick or treated that year with total confidence that he WAS a Pirate, because he was wearing his Pirate underwear beneath his ordinary street clothes!!!
My point is, it's not how fancy or creative or expensive the costume is. Costuming is illusion, and play acting.
I've done a lot of fancier stuff over the years for my 5 kids, but this one stands out in my mind because it'a a reminder of how it's too easy to get carried away on the unimportant stuff (but very fun if you have time, resources and inclination to do),
I has no cash, and he designed his own costume. I simply facilitated his ideas the best I could. That turned out to be pirate undewear he already owned, and it wound up to be great fun for us all. But I didn't have much worries at the time onhow I stacked up against other parents.
And later (in junior high) when he won the best contest at school for something he'd created out of his imagination at the last minue, no money, and no help from me, well, I guess that helped my parental pride better than any official Pira
So I agree with the posters who've mentioned using imagination over all. Really, a "Black-eyed Pea" costume of ink and construction paper? Love it~L
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