Spray your hair so it stands straight up in the air. Use safety pins to attach socks, underwear and dryer sheets to yourself. Gross as this costume might be, I think it's a winner. Attach a stuffed animal or rubber chicken from the party store to the shirt. Paint a white dotted line down the middle of the clothes (think: road). Gather the black clothes you don't wear anymore for a very funny, albeit gross, costume. Silly, right? And that's what will make you so unique. Go ahead and gel up your hair and slick it back. With black eyeliner, draw numbers on your face, including appropriately located clock hands that start from your nose. Paint your whole face with white grease paint. Carry a watering can to hold your treats. Wear brown clothes so you'll look like a terra cotta pot. Staple enough plant material to cover the cap. Get a shower cap or swim cap and a plastic plant with tons of small leaves. Fill the bag only half full, so you can move easily and, with any luck, sit down. Blow them up to about 80% (less likely to break), and write 'M' on each of them with a black marker. For M&Ms, take multicolor round balloons and choose ones that match M&M colors. Fill it with multicolor blown-up balloons for jellybeans. Cut two holes in the bottom for your legs and two arm holes near the bag's opening. To get your creative juices flowing, here are a few ideas for cheap Halloween costumes you can put together quickly: BAG OF CANDY Protecting your budget is far more important than winning first place in the costume contest. Use what you have already to make costumes that take minutes, not hours.

But here's the problem: We wait too long - much longer than needed to make elaborate costumes ourselves, leaving the only option to buy them.Įven If you didn't get started weeks ago making costumes, it's not too late to go cheap. It is compelling to see what everyone else is doing. I blame a lot of this on Pinterest and Instagram. And this is where the budget can quickly fall apart. These days, people dress their pets, newborns, kids and themselves. Check the dollar store where you can stretch your decoration dollars until they scream! COSTUMESĪccording to my family, dressing up is the best part of Halloween. Halloween decor can quickly rip the heart out of a budget.

I cannot even imagine the time and money required to put on their annual spooky show.īe careful if you find yourself somewhere between that and my two-pumpkins-on-the-porch choice of decor. There's one house in my community where the owners start months ahead getting their front lawn display ready. Halloween is a really big deal for many folks, and I get it.

Adopt a guilt-free attitude that when it's gone, it's gone. Dollar stores are rife with knockoff lollipops and nondescript candy. Think of that before you drop the big bucks on candy.īuy what you can pay with cash, period. It's the fun of getting treats and guessing the final weight of a kid's haul that matters, not the quality of its contents. Here's the cold, hard, sugary truth: Most of it ends up in the trash. Between our sons and now our grandsons, I've been on the receiving end of trick-or-treat bags for many years. CANDYĮven if your neighborhood attracts busloads of kids, that doesn't mean filling their bags with gourmet chocolate is up to you. I know we can do so much better this year if we stop, think and then find ways to keep all the fun while doing Halloween on a budget.

Christmas blow up decorations