Great Cheap Halloween Costume Hunt

lightning15uk

i got my daughter a ghost costume 99p store ace she is chuffed but an idea we had a couple of years ago was to collect cereal boxes attach to an old coat jacket throw fake blood over it and you have yourself a (cereal killer) lol the spider webs you can buy the white stuff is great for effect the more you pull the better i also find if you can get it from pound shop or 99p shop the the cream make up is better, ok you only get one colour at a time but it washes off easily and can be stored and dont dry up goes on like foundation its brill !!!!

PeteW

Me, the missus and a couple mates will be on a plane flying back from New York on Halloween. Do you think BA would let us fly in fancy dress and do some in-flight trick or treating??

Iloveafreebie_3

Well I have posted before there is a competition to win £200 worth of Halloween goods from SMIFFYS.com it was in a magazine pick me up
Here is link: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=3121383#post3121383

Another good and cheap site is https://www.lets-have-a-party.co.uk

full-time-mum

Last year, DD1 wore my green hoody style fleecy top. We whitened her face and gave her bright red lips. With the hood flopping right over her face, she looked very zombie-ish.

Rachel_Mac

The Halloween I remember most as a child was the first that I was allowed to go out trick or treating - to next door when I was about 4. I was covered in a white sheet - no eye holes cut as that would have ruined a good sheet! My dad carried me and I said 'woo-ooo-oo' :rotfl:

As for gifts for trick or treaters - make a big batch of biscuits or cakes. It's nice to have a bit of variety in their haul, and they will appreciate the effort.

panlane

Don't buy or hire costumes, make them instead. It's oodles more fun and far more impressive. I say this as coming from a family that takes every fancy dress event as a test of its honour.

Simple cost saving is to buy cheap make-up and spray paint in black, silver, white, green and red and then store them away for every future occasion. I've been using the same make-up for three years (and not just on Halloween). Put them in a hamper filled with odds and ends that will come in useful for parties one day, e.g. loose fabric, wigs, yoghurt pots, egg boxes, hot glue gun, old blinds (great for roman armour), twine, etc. Most of the vitals are just the waste of your average household combined with a quick sortie to the local charity shop.

Cheap costumes for halloween could be:

Cannibals. Wear very little, darken your skin (if appropriate(!) with tan stuff/boot polish/fat), warpaint the remainder, make feathers by cutting serrated ovals from bright magazines/leaflets, make an axe or spear from a stick and some hardboard/cardboard, make shrunken heads from old dolls (suitably grossed-up), make a medicine bag of clattery bits and annoy your mates by staring wildy at them and jiggling it about.

Go as a zombie or car-wreck victim. Wear rags, bind yourself up on your joints. Splatter yourself with blood. Whiten and grey your skin, darken your eyes, draw flies on yourself, get an old tire, muddy it up and run it over your clothes. Remember to lurch around and dribble for most of the evening.

For a mummy just do the same but wrap yourself in strips of old paint sheets, the filthier the better. Have as much trailing as possible.

Loved the earlier idea someone had about the Invisible Man circa Claude Raines.

Go as an executioner with the black fabric mask and a whopping great hardboard axe. Or the hangman with a sack cloth bag over your head and a rope noose round your neck.

Go as a victim of the bubonic plague with purple welts painted on you. Get a bunch of you in rags and then have one person dress up as the doctor with a poncho over their entire body and a papier-mache bird mask. Have them be plagued up underneath and then escort you about, swapping who is the doctor every so often.

Go as the monster of the recent Asia Extreme cinema trend. Saduko (The Ring) is just a girl in a white dress with long damp black hair over her face and a funny way of walking. Ju-on (The Grudge) is just the same black hair, white skin routine. Stay quiet and stare. Or completely black yourself out and go as that creepy bloated thing from Dark Water.

If you want an extreme way of getting an awesome effect use emulsion paint on your skin and then talc. It's cheap, totally covers and gives a gross texture.

Just a few ideas from the top of my head that should hold for kids as well as adults. Basic rules are: accessories make the costume, it should be nigh on impossible to move, drink, eat or be recognised in, you should look like an idiot, and you should never take the costume off until the night is done.

josie301

Another good and cheap site is https://www.lets-have-a-party.co.uk

Was just going to mention this site - found it today - it's great!! Postage good too.

Also another costume idea - black trousers & poloneck, then have lengths of string tied to your arms in a football net fashion and - hey presto you are a spider in a web! :T

In_for_a_Bargain

Basic black cape & witches hat in Asda for 40p each. Glow in the dark teeth 9p. Can't complain at that. They had lots of fairly cheap stuff, but they also had the dearer stuff too.

squashy

Aldi have always been great for costumes- last year got a gorgeous pumpkin suit and a little purple witches outfit. They usually go for around £4 each.

magpie-c13

panlane wrote:

Just a few ideas from the top of my head that should hold for kids as well as adults. Basic rules are: accessories make the costume, it should be nigh on impossible to move, drink, eat or be recognised in, you should look like an idiot, and you should never take the costume off until the night is done.

Couldn't agree more! Loved the plague victim idea too. For cheapness, I reckon you can't beat a zombie costume - all that's really needed are old clothes to wear ripped and some green or grey hair and body spray.

My personal tactic for saving on costumes is to have Hallowe'en in mind throughout the year! I always have a great costume this way, without the price tag. This year I'll be a 'Barbarella' style space chick with a holographic dress and silver shoes picked up from ebay for about £3 each in the summer (ebay prices on anything unusual soar in the month before Hallowe'en). So far this year I've also bagged myself some perfect ruby slippers for a future Dorothy-from-Wizard-of-Oz costume and a floor length red velvet hooded cloak for a Little Red Riding Hood costume (which, incidentally, is always a good bet for a cheapish costume as all you really need is the cloak and a basket).