Preparing for a Tightwad Halloween

So Halloween is right around the corner and if you have made a visit to a "Halloween Store" the thought of dropping $40-$100 on a costume can really scare you to death. My daughter and I just visited one such store because she wanted to dress as a character from Batman. They didn't have the costume she wanted and a Batgirl costume was $60. No way. As we were leaving the store we saw this really cool machine blowing out white bubbles that when you touched them they turned to smoke. I saw someone pick up the bubble blowing machine and a bottle of bubbles and found out the machine itself was...$70. $70--talk about frightening. Retailers are trying to make Halloween a holiday that is Christmas in October for them. Think about all the things we buy, make and decorate today and what was done 30 to 40 years ago. It is not even close. I can remember having a lot of "put together" costumes. The gypsy, the pirate, the kitty cat, the clown, the hobo, the little old lady (ala Tweety Bird): all of these costumes my mom put together for us out of the combined closets of our home.
Try putting together items for these costume ideas:
Teletubbie-colored sweats with a square sewed on the shirt
Pirate-Too short pants, a white shirt, a bandana and a clip on earring
Snowman-White sweats, Hat, scarf, pinned on felt circles for buttons
Ninja-Black sweats, black ski mask, sash
Princess-an old adult dress with a belt in the middle, a paper cone hat with material flowing out of it.
Prince-a construction paper crown, black pants, boots, a white dress shirt, a sash placed across the front (think diplomat sash-purple is nice)
Woody from Toy Story-Brown shirt, vest, jeans, boots, cowboy hat
Box Costume-Paint a box to look like a tv, salt and pepper, a die, a cereal box, an x-box or anything else you can think that is square
A Ghost-cut holes in an old sheet
A Vampire-black sweats and a black jacket with a collar. Turn the collar up and put on white makeup and add vampire teeth.
Rich lady-old coat with fur on it, lots of jewelry, big clip on earrings, an old hat

Most of all have fun with it. This is a great time to share being creative with your kids.

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