5 Ways to Get a Great Last Minute Halloween Costume {on a Budget} was originally published on While He Was Napping in 2014. This post has been updated and edited for accuracy and to maintain working links.
Halloween is almost here! Do you have your candy all picked out and stashed away? What about the costumes? All set? Just in case you need a last minute Halloween costume on a budget, I’ve got 5 tips and tricks to help you out.
Last Minute Halloween Costume Tip #1
1. Pajamas. How easy would it be to turn this set of Batman pajamas into a costume?! All you need is a mask, the pajamas come with a cape! And the purple girly version is an option too if your little lady wants to be The Dark Knight for a night. And bonus: your little one can wear these for more than just a single night (or a couple of nights if you’re a bit of a party animal). Just add a mask and ta-da!
We found a Chewbacca pajama set – similar to this one – that Little J wore last year. The costume was pretty simple and didn’t need much added to it, so we concentrated on face make up instead and it turned out awesome. And Little J still wears those pajamas at least once a week – 1+ years later!! Totally worth it!
Last Minute Halloween Costume Tip #2
2. Sweats. You can turn sweat pants into almost anything. Seriously. Some of our best Halloween costumes EVER have been glorified sweats. And they all turned out incredibly cute. It doesn’t get more comfortable than sweats and they are warm too. Perfect for little ones and trick or treating. If you do it right, they can wear them again or just add them to the dress up stash. Sneak peek of our sweats costumes:
Last Minute Halloween Costume Tip #3
3. Raid the closet. You would be surprised what you have already in your closets. Big J insisted on being a scarecrow when he was 3. Yes, a scarecrow. I didn’t want to have to buy a scarecrow costume… when was that ever going to get used again? After going through his closet, and attaching a few embellishments, he was a pretty darn cute little scarecrow… for FREE! That same year, Little J was a dinosaur made from a one-piece pajama set he already had in his closet, a bit of felt, hot glue and a couple googly eyes. If my husband hadn’t re-organized the server and hidden our family photos somewhere, I’d show you… Completely FREE costumes and everything came out of our closets!
Last Minute Halloween Costume Tip #4
4. Only buy accessories. A full Halloween costume can be pricey! And, even late in the game, you don’t have to cough over the big bucks or settle for what ever is left to have a great costume. Use what you have and only buy the extras. When Big J was two, he was a cowboy for Halloween. He already had jeans, a button-down shirt, a bandanna and shoes that passed as boots. We found a costume set for $10 that had a soft hat, chaps, and a vest. Because his costume only cost us $10 we decided to splurge on a $20 stick horse that made the costume. The hat, vest and chaps are now in our dress up box and the stick horse is still used as a weapon toy at least once a week.
Last Minute Halloween Costume Tip #5
5. Buy things you’ll be able to wear after you use them as a Halloween costume. This year, Mr. Napping and I needed costumes that matched. Do you know how hard it is to find matching clothes in men’s and women’s sizes?! And Mr. Napping is three sizes bigger than me… We both ended up getting a new pair of pants and a matching men’s shirt, but we can wear the pants after Halloween and Mr Napping says he’ll wear the shirt too. My shirt will probably get turned into a kid-sized apron after Halloween. While this is a little more expensive, you’ll get use out of it for more than one or two nights.
And there you have it. How we keep our Halloween costumes in our budget and make excuses for what expense we do incur. Halloween was never a big holiday in my home while I was growing up. I can count on one hand the number of times I went actual Trick-or-treating. I don’t want my kids to miss out on all the fun of Halloween. We did our first family themed costumes a few years ago – #2 and #5 are the methods I used to put these together…
How do you keep Halloween costumes in your budget?
