Cheap Halloween Costume Ideas

 

Here are some ideas that you might like to consider for some FUN but CHEAP costumes. Remember it is good if the costume is large so it can go over warm clothes since it may be cold Halloween night.

Ghost: Just cut holes in an old sheet. Draw on some chains, spider web, etc. with a permanent marker for an eerie effect.

Angel: Use a sheet like for the ghost, spray it lightly with some clear spray paint and toss glitter on it before the paint has a chance to dry. Make a halo and the wings out of clothes hangers covered with aluminum foil.

Boy Nerd: Too small pants, shirt buttoned up wrong, hair slicked back, old pair of glasses with tape, white socks, dress shoes, BIG book to carry under arm.

Girl Nerd:  Below the knees length skirt, white buttoned shirt with collar, button up sweater or outdated clothing with white or mismatched socks and dress or tennis shoes. Wear big glasses and neatly combed or pulled back hair and carry a cute handbag or purse that could double as a candy collecting bag. Mini Pearl?

Bum or Hobo: Old ragged clothes, dad's garden or old work clothes are great, old hat, use watercolor paint or old coffee grounds to put beard on.

Clown: Use mismatched oversized or too small clothes,  wear large shoes – wear own shoes inside for a good fit. To escape the cost of a wig, make a hat from construction paper or use an old one, decorate it outlandishly with flowers, pins, etc...

Tourist: loud clothes, camera, hat, maps sticking out of every pocket, sunglasses, fanny pack and lei around neck.

Princess: An old slip, hem and take up enough to fit the little girl. You can get sparkley netting at a discount store for between 75 cents and $1 a yard. 2 or 3 yards attached to the bottom half of the slip will make a billowy skirt. Use a long length of it doubled and wrap around the shoulders, clasp it with a pretty pin. Old jewelry and makeup add the finishing touch.

Soldier or hunter: Camouflage clothing - just piece together whatever combination you want, apply some paint to the face. Carry a canteen, compass and backpack.

Rock/Music Star: Torn, sparkly or shiny clothes, spike hair using hair spray. Make jewelry with safety pins, clip on earrings, the dog's collar :)....paint face with makeup... or buy some spray on hair coloring.

Hippie: old clothes & sandals. Tie Dye your own shirt by using some old fabric paint that would not squeeze out of the bottle good, cut the top off and mix it with water and dip the shirt in or draw symbols on it with a permanent marker. Top off the outfit with a bandanna, some beaded jewelry and sunglasses.

Ninja: Black clothes, baggy stretch pants work great, just like ninja clothes. Make a ninja mask out of a small scrap of black cloth. Make weapons out of cardboard and color and cover with aluminum foil - Ninja stars & knife. Use long stick or old broom handle for a bo, take two paper towel rolls, connect with piece of twine, cover them with black construction paper and you have num-chucks.

 

Table Set with Food: Cut a hole in a piece of cardboard to go over the head. Cut a hole in a tablecloth (plastic is OK} and staple it onto the cardboard. Add play or plastic dishes, cups, utensils and food.

 

Playing Cards: Simply choose which playing you wish to be and draw the front on one poster board and the back on the other. Put holes in the tops and sides for the nylon cord straps for the shoulders and ties for the sides in case it's breezy. Wear them just like sandwich boards they used to use for walking advertisements. This is great because older children can pretty much make the costume themselves as it is mostly drawing and coloring and tying cord.

Bunch of Grapes:

v     18-20 small purple/or green balloons

v     18-20 safety pins

v     1 small brown paper bag

v     1 birthday party hat - pointy one

v     1 piece of green felt

v     1 piece of green ribbon

Wear purple or green shirt and pants. Blow up all the balloons to fit on you as the grapes. Pin on using safety pins. Using the paper bag, tape to under edges of hat and twist the top to resemble the stem. Cut leaves from the felt and staple onto the green ribbon and tie around the neck. You may also paint your face purple or green or draw a few grapes on the cheeks.

Apple: Wear red shirt and pants and buy two sheets of red poster board. Cut out 2 large apple shapes with a bite taken out for the front & back. Connect with ribbon and hang over shoulders. Cut out a red band to fit around the top of head and use green construction paper to attach a "leaf" to the top.

Christmas presents! Use boxes you have around the house or from the local store, cut out holes for the head and arms. Wrap the boxes with leftover wrapping paper; wear sweats the same color as the wrapping paper, put some ribbons in the hair and voila'! A Halloween costume that only takes a few minutes to make and costs virtually nothing!

 

Purple People Eater: Dress in purple sweats, gel hair so it stands up in a "horn" and draw an "eye" in the middle of forehead with make-up. Top it off with a necklace made of a plastic fork, knife and spoon tie on a shoelace around the neck.

 

Sweat suit Dog or Cat: Start with an old black, brown or white sweatshirt and pants, add a black, white or brown tail (or roll one sock up and stuff into final sock to stiffen and pin or baste on as tail) and ears you can make from an old sweater. Put dots on with fabric paint and make a tag out of cardboard. You can make any animal depending on what color sweat suit you use.

 

Little Pig: Take a pink or peach sweat outfit and stuff it with whatever...clothes, pillows, bags etc. Then put on a vest and create a nose from paper tube and paper. Create ears from paper too and attach them to a hair band or some sort of ribbon. Another idea that is easier for the ears is to use a hat and just add ears to the hat.

 

Dragon or Dinosaur: Green shirt and pants with a large green banana clip or pointed party hat (or two) in hair for horns. Stitch and stuff a long green felt zig zag of scales and pinned from neck to hem of shirt and dragging down to floor. You could stuff a knee sock of pair of tights and pin on as a tail.

 

Pumpkin: Orange sweat shirt and pants with a green baseball hat (wear backwards) or a green scarf/bow tied in hair. Tie a rolled towel around tummy under shirt to round out the pumpkin and pin black felt triangles to shirt front to make a jack-o-lantern face.

Your Favorite Book: Take a large box that covers you from shoulders to knees and paint the front and back to look just like your favorite book. Even something like the Boy Scout manual could be fun and then add the scarf and hat if you have them.

 

Bug costume:

Materials:

Twist the pipe cleaners onto the headband and twirl the ends to look like tentacles. Stuff the socks and stitch two to each side of the bodysuit by hand. When dressed, the tights will be the last pair of black legs. For added pizzazz and visibility, use reflective fabric paints to decorate the bodysuit. For some fun movement, you might want to string the added legs together and tie them to the wrists.

 

Static Cling: Wear a regular outfit, inside out is good! Using safety pins, attach socks and dryer sheets all over your clothes. Simple. Easy. Frugal. Funny as heck!

 

Mummy: Start with an old sheet rubbed in dirt and mud. Tear into strips and wrap around body. Wear a pair of long underwear underneath. Paint hair and face. Smear black under eyes. To secure the sheet strips use clear or white medical tape.

 

Greek goddess: Use an old sheet, cut or tied to fit at an angle with some silk flowers, and cheap rubber thongs, and some gold cording. Spray paint the thongs and silk flowers with gold spray paint (.99 Krylon). Add some brass bracelets on the arms. Tie the cording around the thongs and tie the rest around the white toga. Add a gold flower wreath around the head and put on thick dark eye make-up.

 

Slumber Party: Flannel pj's or robe and slippers. Carry a coffee mug and tuck a newspaper or pillow or blanket under the arm to complete the ensemble.

 

Lego: Get a box, cut holes for arms and head, invert six butter dishes and hot glue them on the front in two rows of three. Paint the whole thing red, dress in red sweats.

 

Fisherperson: String some rope from a pole. You can make some fish pretty easily out of paper, cardboard, material or foam craft. You could even "stuff" them with some fluffy cotton. Glue on some little eyes on from the craft department, and then hang them from the string of the fishing pole. Take a floppy hat and pin on some bobbers, plastic worms, plastic bugs and some lures (minus the hooks) to it. Add some rubber boots and overalls with a plain T-shirt.

 

Gypsies: peasant blouses, lots of jewelry, head scarf (or hat for a man), dramatic make-up, brightly colored skirt (pants) and dark simple shoes.

 

Mimes: long sleeved, red & white striped shirt, black pants, black shoes, white gloves and face paint.

 

 

 

Sea Urchin: old Army pants, a green shirt, tear a variety of colors of green material in strips, and either tie the strips on or attach them with safety pins. Smear green make-up on the face and arms, spike hair or even add in green or blue hair dye.

 

Energizer Bunny: If you don’t have one, borrow a huge Tupperware cake holder for a drum, and use rope to wrap around your neck & attach to the drum. Drumsticks can be two unsharpened pencils with two wooden beads glued to the ends. Either purchase or make bunny ears and wear pink shirt and pants and dark sunglasses.

 

Skeleton: Wear black sweat suit and white gloves. Cut bones out of white contact paper, peel the back paper off and just stick them on. Paint faces white and black.

 

Three Blind Mice: Get some old gray sweats, baseball caps and sew long tails on the sweatpants. Glue a couple of ears on each cap and wear plastic sunglasses. If you do any hiking, you can use your staff for a "cane."

 

Parrot: Start with a bright colored sweatshirt and sew or hot glue on "feathers" from a local hobby shop.

 

Snowman: Wear a white ‘stuffed’ sweatshirt & pants. Paint the face white, put some black around eyes & paint the nose orange. Wear mittens & a matching knit hat. For "coal" buttons cut circles of sticky backed black felt that could be removed easily after Halloween.

 

Pun ideas: Think of a saying and dress as it literally. Example: wear trench coat & dark glasses and a sign that says "bless you" and you are a "blessing in disguise". Wear a poster board with a wad of gum, piece of fur, a hand, etc. and let people figure out that you are a "forest of trees" (gum tree, fir tree, palm tree ) These costumes are for people who enjoy having others guess, and are patient enough to explain over and over.

 

WICKED WITCH: Use a black choir robe or old black dress. Add green makeup to face and hands.
WOLFMAN: Slash up old clothes to wear. Get some fake brown fur and cut it up and glue it on hands and neck.

QUASIMODO: Cut up burlap to make simple tunic or use old bathrobe. Add padding or tie a pillow to back and walk hunched over. Wear old work boots and large gloves.

GORILLA: Use an old black fur coat as a base. Cut up black upholstery for accents. Use black gloves for hands.

COUNT DRACULA: Make a cape out of one square yard of black satin. Find an old black suit and wear a vest. Pick up some fangs for teeth.

SPACE ALIENS: Wear turtle neck sweater with tight pants. Glue sequins and felt designs on with Elmer's glue. Paint face & hair green or blue.

DEVIL: Wear red clothes and red body paint on face and hands.  Make red or black cape from material.

CREATURE FROM THE LAGOON: Wear green leotards & shirt or a wet suit and green body paint. Add some long thin strips of material to hair and body to look like seaweed.

FRANKENSTEIN: Use an old dark coat and black pants. Slash up the coat with a razor blade and slap red paint on it. Use green face paint and add stitches along neck and face.

ROBOT: Wrap yourself with tinfoil. Get an old set of coveralls and spray them silver.  Cover something that fits on your head with tinfoil for as a hat.