Monday, November 2, 2009

Halloween Costumes You Can Make Cheap at Home: Outfits that Won't Make Your Wallet Scream

progressive insurance girl

With the economy still tanking for most people, buying Halloween costumes for this year's trick-or-treating is out of the question, so making costumes on the cheap (at at home) are in demand. Many are turning to the internet to find ideas for cheap Halloween costumes and there are plenty of websites to accommodate the need. And not only are the Halloween costumes cheap to make, but most of the costumes are extremely simple to construct as well, which means you can make them yourself at home.

The easiest costume for guys is dressing like a girl, clothing optional, depending how the mom or sister feels about someone wearing their clothes. But you don't need the clothes. Just make-up. Some mascara, eye-liner, rouge, and lipstick -- and voila! -- you are a girl, a pretty boy, a drag queen, or an 80s hair band singer.

At Ask Coupon Sherpa, there is a list of 50 cheap Halloween costume ideas on their blog, complete with instructions on the necessary items for constructing the outfit. The very first one is recognizable Progressive Insurance Flo, that annoying woman in white in the television commercial ads. All that is required for her costume is a white shirt, white apron, name tag and a headband. Be sure to offer the head of the household a good discount on their insurance premium when they drop that Reese's cup into your candy bag.

There is also the Bernie Madoff costume, where you where a business suit (get it at a Goodwill or borrow dad's) and stuff your pockets with fake cash.

Little Red Riding Hood only requires lots of red, but most importantly a red cap and hood. As noted by Coupon Sherpa, this can be innocent or sexy.

The cheap and punny make-it-at-home approach: A cereal killer Halloween costume demands only a couple of boxes of cereal attached to one's clothing with knives jutting from them. One could go as the famous rapper 50 Cent by simply taping a couple of quarters to one's shirt. And you could become a Buccaneer by attaching a dollar to each ear (get it?: buck-an-ear).

Michael Jackson, which is the favorite celebrity costume this year according to the National Retail Federation, is also cheap and easy to make, and Ask Coupon Sherpa has the necessary items list to make it and 43 other cheap costumes for Halloween, including several more pun-inspired ones.

Over at the Suddenly Frugal Blog, Leah Ingram outlines three cheap costumes for small children, including a bunch of grapes, Tiger Lily (from "Peter Pan"), and a bathing baby (which requires a wagon decorated in white tissue to simulate a bath tub).

Bliss Tree has a list of ten simple and cheap Halloween costume ideas. There's the traditional ghost costume, along with ideas on how to dress as an alien, a pea in a pod, and a dog, cat, or mouse. This site has a cheap princess costume. Princesses topped the National Retail Federation's list of Halloween costumes for children for the fifth straight year. Vampires of all kinds topped the overall list.

One particularly inventive idea comes from Andy Comer at The Monitor, who suggests men wrapping themselves in ribbon with a bow and attaching a big card that says, "From God." That makes them god's gift to women.

And those are just a few cheap Halloween costumes found on the web in less than five minutes of searching. Many lists will include the same types of costumes or variations on the same themes. And if you need gore for your costume this year, Ask Coupon Sherpa also has recipes for making fake blood and fake wounds for price that won't kill you.