Halloween Costumes that Don’t Cost a Fortune

If you’ve ever purchased a Halloween costume from a store, you know it’s not cheap. A popular kids costume could easily run $40 or more when add the accessories that are sold separately. Even discount stores likes Target and Wal-Mart are selling costumes for $25 and $30. Adult costumes are even more expensive. Depending on where you find what you’re looking for, it could end up costing you $80 or even $100.

You don’t have to pay that much, especially if you don’t wait until the day before Halloween to shop. Here are some tips for finding affordable costumes.


Costume Swap

Invite friends to all meet at your house and bring their old costumes. Everyone who brings a costume gets to “shop” for something different.


Ebay

You can find new and gently used costumes on Ebay for a fraction of their retail cost, and let’s be honest. Most people only wear their Halloween costumes once or twice. Gently used at a low price is a steal. There are thousands of kid costumes on Ebay with bidding that starts at $.99 cents. That includes popular costumes like super heroes, Toy Story, Star Wars, Hannah Montana, Disney princesses and hundreds of others. Start bidding now. You may need to bid on several auctions before you get the costume you want, and you’ll want to allow time for shipping.


CostumeSuperCenter.com

This online retailer has sales all year long, and there’s almost always a special code on the home page for some type of discount. Today, the special is for 10 percent of $30 or more. To get even better deals, sign up for e-mails. Two weeks ago, the offer was 25 percent off a purchase of $25 or more, plus free shipping. These sales almost always include clearance items, and this website has a huge clearance section with popular costumes that sell for as low as $9.99. Many are just $14.99. That’s a deal all by itself, but if you’re buying more than one costume, you can also get the discount and free shipping.


Make Your Own

You can make a lot of costumes with the clothes and accessories already in your home – even popular characters like Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. FamilyFun.com has an entire section on its website with dozens of homemade costume ideas for kids and adults, with step-by-step directions for making each one – now sewing required. Before you start making a costume, however, put pen to paper and be sure it really is cheaper to make the costume yourself. Sometimes projects get more involved than you expect them to, and it’s cheaper to buy the costume.

The key with affordable Halloween costumes is to start early. That is when you find the best deals. Also, the day after Halloween, shop clearance sales and buy costumes for next year. Clearance costumes also make great Christmas and birthday presents for kids, all year long.