Easy Low Budget Halloween Costumes

Have you overextended yourself on summer vacation? Scary! Do you want to dress yourself or your kids for Halloween on a tight budget? Remember Grandma's classic ghost costume with a hole to put your head through, and two holes for the eyes to peek out of? Here are some cheap and easy costume ideas.

Many make use of items you may already have around your home! Vintage stores, thrift shops and discount or dollar stores can also offer great bargains for Halloween!

Remember -- if you are taking your kids or sending them out in chilly weather, you're going to want a bigger costume to accommodate clothing underneath!

Be a Clown or Hobo!

It's easy and economical for you or your child to be a clown for Halloween. All you need is bright clothing that doesn't match! If you don't already have some old clothes that fit the bill, hit the Goodwill or Salvation Army stores. Use floppy, sloppy big clothing that doesn't fit. You can add belts, gloves,mistied necktie, suspenders. Get a cheap wig or decorate an old hat,add some creative makeup, and there you go -- you're a clown!

You can change a few things around in the above get-up and be a hobo. You would want to add some black makeup for beard stubble. Fill a pillowcase with old rags, tie it to a stick, and sling it over the shoulder -- voila! The hobo's knapsack!

The Mummy

Here is a great variation on the ghost costume, using a sheet. You will need a sheet, black lipstick, dark eyeshadow and white face powder and makeup. You can substitute gauze for a sheet if you wish.

The easy instructions are to rip the sheet into shreds, and wrap up the entire body in strips. Then tie the strip ends so they don't fall off. Put the white makeup on first, then the powder. Apply the lipstick, and then creatively place the eyeshadow to create a ghoulish expression. You're all set to scare the daylights out of the neighbors!

Fifties Teenager

This one's easier to find for girls. You'll probably need to hit the thrift or vintage stores. A poodle skirt is preferable, but any old full or pleated skirt will do. It should hit below the knees. You can usually find horn-rimmed glasses frames. Find a short button-up sweater, saddle shoes and knee-high socks. You can also roll the socks down. Curl the hair, put it in a hair band or a pony tail, and now you have your fifties girl!

Be a Nerd:

Big glasses, pants pulled up high or too-short highwater pants, pocket protector full of pens,goofy buttoned shirt. Give him a dictionary to carry. Grease back the hair, and there you have your nerd. If you remember Urkel, you probably get the idea!

Ninja

It's very easy to create a Ninja! You just need black tights or sweatpants and a black longsleeved shirt. You can make Ninja knives, swords, and stars out of cut out cardboard covered with aluminum foil. You can purchase an inexpensive mask or simply cut one out of black scrap material.

Angel

An angel costume is about as simple as you can get! Use a white nightie or a sheet for the angel dress. Then make a halo out of foil fashioned into a circle, and wings cut out of cardboard and painted, colored, or covered with white material or glued-on cotton. Sandals or slippers on the feet!

Logger

I dressed up as a logger one year when my daddy actually did work in the woods! Just get a big flannel shirt, overalls or black work pants, and work gloves. You can also fashion an ax out of cut out cardboard and aluminum foil.

The "Everything" Drawer

Most of us have at least one drawer in the kitchen designed "everything." These are all the miscellaneous doohickeys and utensils that won't fit in any of the other drawers and organizers. Take some of these out of the drawer and attach them to a sheet, some old sweatshirts and sweatpants or other old clothing. Top it all off with a colander on your head.

Devil

All that's needed are a red shirt and tights or stretch pants. For the cape, dye an old sheet red or make a cape out of red remnant material. You can usually find inexpensive headband horns and plastic pitchfork at discount stores. However, you can make your horns and pitchfork out of posterboard or cardboard.

Bunny

White sleeper pajamas or a white sweatsuit starts off a great bunny costume! Just add a tail made of yarn or cotton balls. For the ears, you can find very inexpensive headband ears at a thrift store or costume shop. You can make them yourself with a little fabric over bent wire hangers.

Skeleton

The skeleton is still a popular spooky choice for Halloween, and it's simple to become one! Get tight black shirt or leotard and tights, and use white tape to fashion the bones and ribcage. Paint the face with white makeup, and blacken around the eyes for that haunting skeletal look!

Jack-In-The-Box

You'll need a large cardboard box, held in place with suspenders. Wear a stocking cap, and fasten Slinkies onto the box for arms. Use markers, crayons, or paint to make your box bright and colorful.

Bat

For the bat body, you can use pretty much any black outfit, but hoodie sweatshirt and sweatpants work best and are nice and warm.Bat wings can be fashioned from the frames of old black umbrellas. Cut the material away from the frame. Patch any holes with duct tape. Then fold the umbrella circle in half and use safety pins to fasten it to the back of the shirt. Then tape elastic hair ties to the tips of the wings and put them around the bat's wrists. Bat ears can be fashioned with black felt around pipe cleaners. Use double-sided tape to tape the ears to the sweatshirt hood.

If you use your imagination, you may be able to see your own budget costume in your mind's eye to make the scariest or cutest Halloween costume ever!