Ok moms-dilemma--the children love Halloween and getting dressed up and so does the "big kid."
I am not an artsy person and I do not have time to scrounge around to do this and that for costumes. I do not own a needle and thread...I also loathe going to these stores and dropping $40 a child to buy a costume. I can not justify spending over $100 for one day.
Does anyone have any time-saving savvy ideas?? Thank you ahead of time:)
T.
seriously, GO TO MARSHALLS AND TJMAXX!!!! They have the exact same costumes as the expensive websites for 16.00! Also, a week before halloween, they go on clearance for half off. Last year, my daughter was Wonder Woman and the year before, Cinderella. They have costumes in all sizes, including adults. They have the popular costumes and you will not be disappointed!
GO THERE!!!!!
Hi T., are you a member of Freecycle? Free stuff...
Sign up for freecycle, freesources and dupagecountyparent swap. It's a recycling site where people give stuff away, and you can get rid of stuff. You can get a lot of good stuff for free. I've received some winter boots for my kids, halloween costumes for 2 years for both of them, christmas tree, toys, sleeping bag, etc. I've seen people give away a car, computers, furniture and a lot more stuff.
Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/, then search for freecycle, freesources groups in towns in your area. Just type in your town, sign up and have fun. It's an awesome site! You get a lot for free and by recycling you help save the environment!
I just bought my daughter the cutest bumblebee costume from Buy Buy Baby. They had a pretty large selection. It was 19.99 but they take 20% off coupons from Bed Bath and Beyond so today I went back and got $4.32 returned to me.
Sorry I don't have any other ideas for you. Maybe someone else has an idea of something you could make.
what kind and size costumes are you in need of
Burlington Coat Factory has costumes for under$12
I don't know if this suggestion will work for you, but I'm doing something really simple for my 20-month old twins this year. They will be "sick" and "tired". "Sick" will wear a hospital gown (we got it when their older sister went to the hospital this summer for her broken nose) and I'll put red dots on her face. "Tired" will wear pajamas, carry a pillow and I'll put black circles under her eyes. I found this idea online (I think I searched for "creative Halloween costumes", or something like that).
I also saw an idea for "peace" and "quiet". "Peace" is a hippie and "quiet" is a mime. These costumes aren't quite as easy as sick and tired, though. I don't know the ages of your kids, but these should work for any age, singletons or multiples. Good luck!
I do not know if you have any boys. We love the super hero PJ's. They can wear them for Haloween and still use them all winter long. The disney store also has many cute princess pj's for gilrs that could easily be used for a princess costume.
This doesn't help you for this year, but I always go shopping for costumes the day after Halloween for the next year.
Check goodwill and salvation army stores they usually have some really cute, barely used costumes for cheap. Good luck
I bought my daughter a cute costume at a resale shop for $10 (it retails for $40 online). The place is called Good Cents, located in Geneva. I also sold a costume on ebay, and there were MANY on there.
One year I forgot all about Halloween because of other issues and at a last minute- literally- I grabbed some purple balloons left over from a bday party and safety pinned them to my sons clothes. He went as a bunch of grapes, although I called him the Fruit of the Loom guy! I also took a brown paper bag and made that into the vine and put that on top of a hat to finish the look. Was adorable for about 10 mins tops of work!
Another year I made him into a box of Popcorn. All I needed was some CHEAP poster paint from the dollar store, a box and some pocorn and glue. On the cap I glued tons of popcorn to it and the box I cut out a hole for his head and arms and glued popcorn to the top of it and put red and white stripes on the sides like a movie popcorn box. Was a bit time consuming but he won first place for this costume in 2 contests!
Maybe you can find a way to also make a soda, butter and salt or candy costumes quick and easy! Make it into a night at the movies theme!
I can not wait to see other ideas here since I am looking for a affordable one this year for my daughter!
Good luck and many blessings!
Party City has a pretty big selection for about $20 per child.
Buycostumes.com is also reasonably priced. With 4 kids, I understand that Halloween can be really pricey for you to do elaborate costumes and accessories, so maybe you could find simpler costumes in the stores or online. Some other ideas would be doctor scrubs or sports players, which involve clothing that could be used again. How about just rubber masks with every day clothing?
Old Navy has great costumes for pretty reasonable. Craigs list always has tons too.
Perhaps you ought to look into craigslist or e-bay? I'm pretty certain there are some moms out there who actually *did* spend a boatload of money and would like to sell their only-worn-once costume for a fraction of the price.
