By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist
October 23, 2009, 6:30AM
To solve it, I asked readers to shares ideas for homemade costumes that are extremely cheap to put together. Two weeks ago I shared the first batch of ideas. Here are even more. I’m seriously considering the last one.
Anyone could do Kathy’s idea. “My hairdresser gave me this one,” Kathy said. “No cost, clever and my personal favorite — comfortable. Using some safety pins, pin one or two socks, a pair of undies and any other small cloth items you can think of, to various places on your clothing. You are now static cling!”
Liz has four winning ideas. I especially like the second. “In my college/post-college days when money was always tight, I thought of some great costumes using my warped sense of humor. First, similar to Kathy’s static cling, I dressed, head to toe, in black and stuck string, crumpled tissues and other light-weight items on me and went as dryer lint.
“Second. Again, I dressed in black. Then I cut the cereal names from their boxes and pinned them to my body. My only other prop was a cleaver with fake blood on it. I was a ‘cereal’ killer.
“Third. I bought a cheap, yellow sweatsuit from Kmart, laid it on my driveway and then sprayed black spray paint on a section of my car’s spare tire. I then rolled the tire over the front of the sweatshirt top and then on the pants. Voila! Speed bump.
“Fourth. I borrowed a white lab coat from my friend’s mom and made dental tools from aluminum foil. I placed the tools in the breast pocket along with a few packs of Dentine gum. I was the fifth dentist — the one that didn’t recommend Trident. When people asked what I was, I handed out a piece of Dentine as I explained the costume. It was a big hit.”
Karen’s idea is clever and low-budget. “I had a very sarcastic friend in college, many years ago, and she dressed in a green T-shirt and jeans. On the left side near her heart in black marker she wrote the letters NV. When asked what her costume was she replied: I’m green with envy.”
Elizabeth’s idea is classy. “Two years ago, I wore a dead-on Jacqueline Onassis-style ‘do’ and oversize dark sunglasses, borrowed some pearls and, beneath a tailored suit jacket, wore a giant pumpkin face that I’d cut from one of those cheap plastic lawn bags. My Jackie O. Lantern was a hit everywhere it went that year and cost me a grand total of $8 for the drugstore sunglasses and pumpkin bag!”
You can suggest a frugal Halloween costume at BargainBabe.com. I’ll dress up as the cheapest, most bizarre costume you’ve suggested and post pictures of the winning costume, of course.
If none of the above ideas caught your eye, PureCostumes.com has a range of traditional costumes like jailbird, witch and ’50s poodle skirt girl. Each day, the site sells one costume for $10.31. Click on “31 days of Halloween” to find the daily deal.
I saw costumes for as little as $8 on the site and for as much as $90. Most were priced between $10 and $40. Under each age category there is a clearance section with slightly lower prices. You can also search for costumes by price. The site lets you calculate the shipping before you fully check out, which is a nice feature.
If you are getting dressed up for Halloween, chances are you’re going to need some makeup. EyesLipsFace.com is a great source of super cheap makeup. Most everything on the site is $1.
Oriental Trading is more of a party supply store, but they have three makeup kits, including a glitter kit, a clown kit and a glow-in-the-dark white makeup kit for $2 to $3 each. Hard to beat those prices.
If you are not interested in buying makeup online, drop by your local drugstore. Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens have low-priced makeup, and there are often makeup coupons in the Sunday newspaper inserts. Rite Aid has a few beauty coupons online.
Got makeup but lack imagination? Google “Halloween makeup ideas” and click on the image results. The pictures that come up will give you ideas for how to achieve a particular look, like a puppy dog, zombie or vampire.
