Easy And Creative Ways To Save Money On Your Kids’ Halloween Costumes

With specialty shops and online costume boutiques charging upwards of $100 for a Halloween costume, and even household stores like Wal-mart and Target charging in the $20-$50 range, with multiple kids you can easily start to feel the pain of spending so mighty on an outfit your kid will wear once and then discard. However, Halloween shopping does not have to be so expensive or painful. If you take the easy steps listed below and look at Halloween shopping as an adventure, then you can save broad bucks while getting some extra quality time to spend with your kids. Let them know that you expect them to be on board with your plans to save money for Halloween and then give them choices between affordable options so they feel a personal connection with the costume choice. You may already know what your kids’ costumes this year will be, but try to keep your options open. If you have no idea where to start, read my articles on simple boy and girl DIY Halloween costumes here. Then follow the easy steps below to save money on Halloween costume shopping:

If You Plan To Make a Costume…

Making a costume is easily the best plan to save money on your Halloween costume. If you make your child’s costume you can control the cost of materials and accessories, rather than be at the whim of retailers. Here are some suggestions to win you started.

1. Use Recyclable Supplies

Help out the environment while at the same time saving money on your kids’ Halloween costumes. Use things that would otherwise be thrown away or supplies that will cost less energy to consume than would be necessary for a mass-marketed Halloween costume. Use obsolete cardboard boxes for supplies to make a robot costume, a Spongebob costume, or an advertising board for a business. Use multiple boxes to create a car or fire truck costume. Use cylindrical tubes from old carpet store containers and paint your child’s favorite soft drink design on it in order to make him a Coke can costume. Use trash bags for older children’s capes, ghost attire, or fashion runway model. Use toilet paper for a mummy costume.

2. Recycle In Your Own House

Use as many supplies from around your enjoy house as possible to save the most amount of money. Use existing jeans, boots, and hat for a cowgirl costume. Use a kitchen apron and chef’s hat for a chef’s costume. Use a circular cardboard pallet, apron, and a beret for a painter’s costume. Dress your child in his own camouflage pants, a green top, and boots for a military or hunter costume. Glam up some of your children’s existing clothes with glitter or sequins to give them that extra shine for a celebrity costume. Consume toy nets or fishing nets for wigs or skirts. Try to score creative ways to make ordinary household items look extraordinary.

3. Repurpose Items

Try to think of items around your house in a new contrivance. Honest because your lacy curtains are hanging up in your living room does not mean that they can not be used as a skirt for your daughter’s costume. White sheets can be arranged as togas or robes. Tablecloths can be temporarily tacked onto the bottom of simple dresses to make them coordinate with the costume idea or era. Also repurpose adult clothing for a child’s costume. Employ your husband’s old football jersey and spare collectible helmet for your son’s football costume. Regain out your (or your mom’s) old bellbottoms from the 70′s and tie dye shirt for your daughter’s hippy costume. Or lend your child your overalls for the beginnings of a farmer costume. Use old trousers or an outdated suit and some green food coloring for a Frankenstein costume. To establish on purchasing costume makeup, try out this recipe for monster makeup which uses supplies you probably already have at home.

4. Use Matching Costumes

If you have multiple children, assume dressing them in matching or opposing costumes, for example a king and queen, Alice in Wonderland and the Queen of Hearts, Batman and Catwoman, or Bonnie and Clyde. If your children are in matching, handmade costumes the theme will be much stronger than if they were dressed in different themes. This may also put you more money if you are using the same type of materials as you won’t have any extra leftover materials or waste if the children are in color coordinated costumes.

5. Go Through the Costume Box

If you have children that worship to play dress up, odds are that you have enough materials to set together a costume. During one particularly difficult year, I just did not have enough funds to purchase Halloween costumes for my kids. So I went through my daughter’s play things and paired up various pieces like a blue skirt, dress, and overlay with somewhat matching shoes, crown, and plastic necklace. I felt guilty that I didn’t go out and buy her a new outfit, but interestingly enough when we went to a church Halloween function that night, she won for best costume! So with just a shrimp bit of creativity, you can make your child’s dress up clothes a functioning Halloween costume.

6. Expend a Pattern

If you have access to a sewing machine and some basic sewing skills, your local craft store like Hobby Lobby or Hancock Fabrics has a plethora of Halloween costume ideas and patterns. Even after you buy the material, if you stick to simple prints and fabrics, you will spend much less than you would if you purchased the costume itself.

7. Take Up the Art of Yardsaling

If you are not a current yardsaler, now is the time to start. Many people today are scrapped for cash and are selling their old belongings for mere fractions of the unique cost. Although it is like searching for treasure, you can find all kinds of things for your child’s Halloween costume like ready to wear costumes, clothing that you can tailor into a costume, shoes, accessories, various fabrics and household goods, and old makeup. For your best options, go to multifamily yard sales where items are combined from multiple households, giving you a better chance of finding what you are looking for. Also try yard sales that are in a small more upscale area as these neighborhoods tend to give you better prices (since they are just trying to bag rid of stuff rather than survive off of the proceeds) and better quality items that have seldom been used.

8. Try Non-Traditional Spots

Flea markets, antique malls, and charity donation sites all form stout places to find unique finds for your kids’ Halloween costumes. Some places will have previously ancient costumes in good condition since a child only wore the costume one time. These costumes may be very similar to what are in the stores this year. Or you may be able to find a basic costume that you can glam up to give it more character. Find versatile capes or robes if you want to keep your options open. You may find these as costume capes, graduation gowns, or even nightgowns. These can be used for a variety of costumes including Super Heroes, prince and princess costumes, vampires, witches, and so on. Search your local Goodwill or Salvation Army site for period pieces or an older looking dress for a witch or vampire suit. Goodwill has recently come into the 21st century and now has its enjoy online auction site so you can order from anywhere and have the item shipped if you go to www.shopgoodwill.com . Also try church bazaars which typically have an abundance of extra clothes and are common around tumble time. You may luck into finding cheap clothing that you can refurbish into a fantastic costume or a completed costume that you can expend.

9. Try Non-Traditional Costumes

Just because your local stores are selling the typical Batman, witch, and vampire costumes does not mean that your child has to dress in a typical costume. Mediate of unique costume ideas that you can inexpensively recreate. Your child can be anything that you can think of: a dancer, a share of nature, a flower, a celebrity, a historical figure, a costume from a certain era like the 50′s or 60′s, a musician, a household product, or basically anything else you can think of. Then deem of creative and affordable ways to create the costume. A flower can be constructed out of a green leotard, tights, and a handmade face crown of colorful petals. An Abraham Lincoln costume can be created out of a long black coat, top hat, and cane. You can make your son a “Jack of Hearts” card by having him dress in white sweats as you stencil in some heart designs and put a name tag on him that says Jack for a completed costume. If you don’t limit yourself to costumes that you can see at the store, you will have limitless possibilities.

10. Re-holiday It

As stated above, your child can have any costume that you would like. There’s no reason why you can’t raid your existing supply of other holiday decorations. For example, put your son in your red boxer shorts with kisses on them from last Valentine’s Day and he can be Cupid. Place a Christmas tree skirt or green material around your daughter like a poncho and decorate her with Christmas tree decorations for her own special Christmas tree costume. Use some tumble decorations to create an Indian costume or a pastel colored dress with bunny ears for your daughter’s Easter bunny costume. Utilize the supplies that you already have in order to create this festive costume.

11. Hand-Me-Downs

It’s easy enough to have your 8 year old dress up as what your 10 year old wore a couple of years ago. However, to make the costume really unique, just recycle the key pieces that you need and refurbish the rest. You can use the cape from your 10 year old’s vampire costume for your 8 year old’s magician costume. Alternatively, the trench coat that your 15 year old wore to be The Crow a few years ago can now be customary for a portion of your now 15 year old’s Twilight’s Edward Cullen costume. Use your son’s old Star Wars costume to help create a new Masked Ranger costume. Envision the old costume in unusual ways to create a unique acquire.

12. Buy in Bulk

Like many things in life, if you buy a bunch of items at one time, it is often cheaper by the unit than if you grasp a little container of the item. Get together with your friends and resolve on similar themes for all of your children’s Halloween costumes. Then head to your local bulk warehouse like Sam’s Club or Costco. Buy everything you need for the costumes and split the bill evenly. You can buy items like craft supplies, pipe cleaners, paints, cotton balls, and so on. Then have a decorating party where you all get together to construct your children’s costumes. This map you can save money by splitting the cost of bulk supplies, while calm having a good time with your friends.

13. Reach Out to Other Crafters

The Internet is a spacious source of information and you can easily connect with other crafters or view homemade costumes through several sites. Talk to other crafters through message boards or join or create your own group through Yahoo Groups or Google Groups. Browse ads for free items through FreeCycle because you never know what will pop up or if you will be able to regain a free costume on the place. Be clear to view existing pictures of homemade (and store-bought) costumes on the web. Also try my favorite crafting site, thriftyfun, which has a wide assortment of reader-submitted ideas for easy crafting. One posting even gives a plethora of ideas and instructions on creating a wide array of costumes, including ninja, tourist, clown, rock star, skeleton, the Engergizer bunny, and so on.

If You Plan to Buy Your Halloween Costume…

1. Shop Early

If your kids’ costumes are already set for this year, reflect going to the store on November 1 and picking them out a costume for next year. Like most store holiday supplies, after the holiday sales will usually be about 50% off. Fair remember to plan for growth and buy the costumes in the size you think your kids will be in by next year. If this isn’t an option, still shop early for the biggest selection before all the costumes are ransacked.

2. Shop Online

I know, I know, this is against what I said at the beginning. However, if you know that you are going to hold a costume from a particular store, check online for their inventory of costumes. Although most stores will only carry a small portion of costumes in their store, their online inventory is much vaster, like Target’s claim of more than 500 costumes on their site. If you shop online, you can avoid the high traffic in the costume area as well as those impulse buys for unnecessary accessories like fake eyelashes, glitter spray, and wigs. You can also find hundreds of Halloween costumes for less than $20 on this linked site.

3. Shop In a Different Department

You may be able to win what you are looking for in a store, but fair in a different region of the store. A princess dress at Wal-mart may cost you $30 in the Halloween section, but just $15 in the dress up area. You can find similar leotards in the dancewear section, instead of the Halloween row. You can occupy sporting attire in the sporting goods dwelling to dress your child in an athlete’s costume for less than buying a costume. You may even be able to shop in the apparel fraction in order to coordinate a costume yourself.

4. Ebay It

Ebay has an assortment of Halloween costumes available now and you can expect an increase of supply as Halloween approaches. Usually cheaper than retail, Ebay costumes range from witch costumes to pirate costumes to furry animal costumes. They even have adult costumes. If you know what type of costume you are looking for impartial type in “cowboy costume” in the search field and then you can narrow down the size. If you’re not sure which costume you are looking for fair type in “girl costume” or “boy costume.” An assortment of costumes will pop up, including Halloween costumes, dress up costumes, handmade costumes, and reenactment costumes. Search through the results to find one that works for you. Again, check different categories for even more, and possibly cheaper, results. Try dancewear for leotards and tutus and toys for an accessory sword or wand. You can also search through the clothing categories or look at affordable pageant dresses. Even if you can’t find what you are looking for in the true size, think about how you can use a different article for a costume; for example, you can spend a small woman’s chemise for a girl’s corset top of her costume.

5. Begin Simple

Just because you are buying the costume does not mean that you have to settle for its overall look. If you find an inexpensive costume, but you don’t feel like it is explain enough, purchase the costume anyway and then add some of your personal style to it. This year I purchased my daughter’s witch’s costume for $6 at a local discount store. Although I will accessorize it, this was a great get and one that I couldn’t even match on Ebay (believe me, I looked). Then I glued some scraps of fabric to the bottom of the dress, added an old cape, and some cheap accessories from a discount store like her leggings, hat, and a scarf to tie around her dress. I also picked up a $1 tassle at a flea market which had a cross on top and the tassle on the bottom. The cross will be made into a necklace to give her a pendant and the bottom fraction will be attached to a painted dowel rod which will be her broom. Now my daughter has a truly unique costume. Even if some other child is wearing the same dress in her costume, my daughter’s costume has been altered so much that it will look like a completely different costume.

6. Share a Costume

If you have a end friend or relative with kids around the same age, you can set up a “costume schedule” where each of you pays half for the costume and then gets a certain time frame to wear the costume. If your child is going out the Saturday of Halloween and your friend’s child is going out on the day before Halloween on Friday, this would work out perfectly and each of your children would be able to wear the costume for the whole day. If you and your friend have plans to go out on the same day, one of your children can wear the costume early in the afternoon and the other can wear it at nighttime when they go to a Halloween party. This way both of your children will wear a new costume, you’ll save 50% off of each costume, and you can limit the amount of hours you spend on Halloween outings (which you and I both know get stupid after a couple of hours anyway).

7. Organize a Swap

If you have a circle of friends with children around the same age, get together to swap costumes. Gather whatever left over costumes you have in your kids’ closets and train your friends do the same. Then have a meetup where everyone gets a certain number of costumes from the other attendees. If you don’t know too many people locally, broaden your swap circle search. Although the supply is small correct now, there is a site that is set up to swap items called Shetrades. With more traffic, this could be a very successful endeavor. You can also try other swap sites like craigslist, swap-it-now, and swapthing that you can visit to try to find your children’s Halloween costumes this year.

To Accessorize…

1. Go Through the Toy Box

Even if you don’t have full costumes in your child’s rooms, odds are that there are plenty of toys in your kids’ rooms that can at least help accessorize them. For example, you can use your child’s toy tool set and have him dress as a carpenter. For his cop costume, you can have him add his gun and badge to the costume. Some Easy Bake dish wear can help accent your child’s famous cook (like Rachel Ray or Barefoot Contessa) costume. Have your son bring along his toy bow and arrow to add to his Indian costume.

2. Don’t Discount the Discount Stores

Although the overall designs are probably less elaborate than more expensive options, many discount stores have costumes and accessories for cheap. Try your local everything’s a dollar store for costume jewelry, hats, leggings, under cape clothes, glitter, knight’s plastic armor and shield, and fake weapons.

Following these steps, with a little bit of creativity and luck, you will be able to find what you are looking for at a cheaper notice. Then you can sit back, indulge in your Halloween festivities, and enjoy the extra money you saved!

Written by: Samantha Kemp