Costumes

Halloween is coming up just around the corner.  While, Halloween isn't really a holiday that we particularly celebrate, my husband and I do participate with our friends in a costume party.   Costumes can bust your budget for the month of October, especially as your family grows and those costumes only last a year.  Maybe you can get them to last through a few kids, but not always.

A friend told me of an idea that she had about a costume swap.  She does something different, but thought that maybe doing a costume swap would work as well too.  I have a great group of friends that we try to do things like this with.  Not, only costumes, but baby clothes in general, maternity clothes and so forth.

Get all your costumes that your kiddos have out grown together, have a little gathering with your friends and do a costume swap.  You can even make it a fun little party if you want, I mean what a great excuse to get together with your friends!

Another idea for cheaper costumes, make your own.  Get creative!  Here are some ideas that we've done in the past as a couple and haven't had to buy anything:

1. Mr. & Mrs. Smith: I don't have a photo for this, but we just dressed up a little, black dress pants and a buttoned down white shirt.  Then we took our pellet guns and eye cover and called it good.

2. Switched roles (My husband is a library director and at the time I taught art). These are clothes that we had in our closet, plus I borrowed one of the paint smocks from the school to have him wear, other than that we had the books, paint, and paintbrushes available to us. Nothing to buy!

Bear with the photos, I was a newbie :)

3. Star Wars (pictured at the top) The only thing we ended up buying for this, was my husband's shoes.  Other than that the clothes were items we had in our closet, a sheet for his cloak and we already had all of the light savers even the little one.

4. Color family (This one has been on my list for awhile, but we haven't been able to participate the last couple of years).  My husband would wear all blue, I would wear all red and our girls would wear all purple.  These colors worked for us, it's what we had.  you could easily change the color combo to match colors you already have and that make each other. (yellow + blue = green, red+ yellow = orange) 

Last year the girls wore clothes from their closets as well.  We ended up doing two different events, so they had a couple different costumes, but really we paid nothing extra for them, they were what we had.

     Miss cheerleader & Little Pop-Star                                             Little Dutch girl & Princess Sophia 

  (she even had a toy guitar at one point)                                     (who picked out her costume herself)   

           

So, find some friends and have a fun costume swap, or raid that closet and get creative with what you have, really it comes down to being creative!  

Any other ways you save at Halloween?  Or any other costume ideas?  We've expanded the family so are always looking for more ideas!