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Keep Your Halloween Costumes Within Your Budget
October 2, 2007, 2:50 pm
How to celebrate Halloween without overspending.
Halloween is coming up, and that means your children are going to need costumes for trick-or-treating. So you take your kids down to the costume rental shop and spend thirty or forty dollars on an outfit you don’t even get to keep, right? Or you could spend even more by purchasing the costume and all the accessories.
Sure, Halloween’s a lot of fun for kids, and even for adults if you have a costume party to go to. But that doesn’t mean you have to go broke to enjoy yourself. Here are some fun ideas you can try out using cheap materials and items around the house.
Dress them up in your old clothes. Most people have items in their closet that will never be back in style. A few stitches here and there in that old suit and you can dress a little boy up as a businessman (an old briefcase and a hat add a perfect touch here!) Or, if you have an old bridesmaid dress in the back closet, dress your little girl up as a princess or homecoming queen. Make sure that you take these clothes in, though, otherwise your young one may trip over the hems and come home with a skinned knee.
The mummy returns. If you have an old, white bed sheet that you never use anymore, tear it into four-inch strips and wrap your little trick-or-treater up as the Mummy. Some black and brown shoe polish will make those bandages look like they’ve just come out of an ancient Egyptian tomb.
Two heads are better than one. If you have two small children of approximately the same age, take one of your old jackets or sport coats and put it over both of them at the same time. Your kids can walk side-by-side wearing the same coat, although you should give them each a separate bag so they don’t have to split the candy.
Costume Sharing. Certainly, there’s someone you know or work with who has kids approximately the same age. Try trading costumes with them from year to year. This is especially effective if the kids don’t really know each other and especially if they don’t Trick-or-Treat together.
Use a lot of make-up. You can either use your own make-up or purchase some pretty inexpensively. But, in either case, get creative. Most children, if their face is made up to look really neat, as a clown or an animal for example, will overlook the makeshift nature of their costume.
Adults who need a Halloween costume also have plenty of options. You can use an old uniform you may have had at a previous job, if it’s something fun and recognizable. Adults also have the option of taking regular clothes and wearing them in fun and creative ways.
For example, you can put a suit and tie on backwards, and wear a wig so the back covers your face. Leave a little space to see through, though, you want to look like you’re walking backwards not tripping all over the place. Or, you can go to an army surplus store and get what you need to dress like a commando. Or, you can use regular clothes with a little make-up, wig or fake beard to dress up as your favorite celebrity.
The important thing is to have a lot of fun, and making your own costume is a lot more fun than renting or buying one.
About Springboard Nonprofit Consumer Credit Management
Springboard is a nonprofit credit education and financial counseling organization founded in 1974. The agency offers personal financial education and assistance with money, credit and debt management through confidential counseling. Springboard is accredited by the Council on Accreditation, signifying high standards for agency governance, fiscal integrity, counselor certification and service delivery policies. The agency provides pre-bankruptcy counseling and debtor education as mandated by the bankruptcy reform law. Springboard is a HUD approved housing counseling agency and a member of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, a national organization of nonprofit credit counseling agencies. The agency has several locations in California and offers face-to-face and nationwide phone counseling services. For more information on Springboard, call 1-800 WISE PLAN (1-800-947-3752) ext. 7750 or visit their web site at www.credit.org.
