Cheap Scares

Halloween Costumes on a Dime

By Tawra Kellam

You can really come up with some cute and clever ideas for costumes, even if you don't feel particularly creative. But don't wait until the night before Halloween to start your costumes. Look at the people and things around you and ask yourself how you can recreate it. Look at thrift stores and garage sales for costumes. Go ahead and buy the costume or piece of a costume if the price is right. You really can't go wrong spending 25 cents on a piece of costume. Even if it doesn't work you haven't lost much.

Costumes can be very simple and still make a big impact. For example, instead of the usual witch robes, drag out your elegant black dress and add a witch hat with a veil of spider webbing stretched over your face. Cover the spider web with plastic spiders. For a man, a nice suit and tie and a funny mask makes a good simple costume. For a couple: get a REALLY big sweatshirt, both of you get in it and be Siamese twins!

Here are some fun kid costumes:

For the body, use a green sleeper or sweat suit. Paint the child's face yellow, adding black spots to simulate seeds if you like. Make a flower to fit on the child's head out of felt, or glue sunflowers on a white hat. Use a white sweat suit or long white dress for the body. Make wings out of heavy white poster board and paint the edges gold. Attach tie straps to them that go around the shoulders. You can also shape a metal clothes hanger into a wing. Make two wings, hot glue fabric around them and add straps.

Want to see more?

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• Frighteningly Frugal Fun
• Homemade Costumes: An Inexpensive Tradition
• Talk about it!