My family LOVES Halloween. That magical month out of the year where you can be ANYTHING you can imagine and put together! From Elsa to a zombie (or a Zombie Elsa), we love playing pretend and flexing our creative muscles. My husband and I met while working in a haunted house, so we love trying as many different costumes as we can! Our kids really look forward to going all out as well. But like most local families, the Halloween endeavor isn’t without its challenges. Life can get so busy, and between jobs, kids, bills, coming up with the funds and time to create a costume isn’t always an easy task. Luckily there are a lot of easy ways you can create epic costumes on the cheap, and we are here to help you navigate how!
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The first step truly begins with the end of the current Halloween season. Not only does candy go on sale, but so do all of the leftover costumes and makeup! If you have a few dollars on hand the day after Halloween, snag up a few of the makeup sets and random costume pieces (and a few bags of Reeses pumpkins of course). We have a specific box we now store all of our costume makeup and brushes in, but we started with a gift bag. Everyday makeup can be used for all sorts of costumes, so if we no longer use a color or eye shadow- into the box it goes! Make sure to bag your makeup and clean or throw out used brushes or sponges to avoid any mess or bacteria. Footie pajamas are also a great find! They keep your kiddos warm during the unpredictable Ohio weather, and sometimes you get lucky and find masks that coincide at the dollar store.
Once you have figured out your costume, you need to decide; DIY or buy. Our costume choice was very popular that year, so we decided to DIY and challenge ourselves to make them based on as many items we already had on hand or could find quickly. My son had his mask and shield already in his toy box, and our neighbors had the remaining pieces we traded a smaller costume for! We had costume makeup to help with Vision (thanks to the previous year after sales), and all the pieces for Scarlet Witch were (somewhere) in my closet..
Even if you are someone who chooses to buy, Facebook Marketplace is a good place to start. Browsing the local yard sale pages, or even posting an ISO (in search of) on your neighborhood page is a great way to find your costume for cheap! It is also an opportunity to make money on your own “worn for barely 6 hours” costumes, and apply it to an in store item you may need. Our area has meet up spots near local police stations to help ease the stranger danger during item exchange. We were lucky enough to find my husband’s vision costume for $20 on marketplace!
Another option is your local Thrift stores. This is oddly enough a great spot to find practically new costumes for less than $15 a piece. What makes it even better?? Twice a month, some thrift stores have a 50% off day! I went into our local “Show and Sell” Ohio Thrift and was able to buy some future costume extras, as well as a significant amount of kids clothing for under $25! Some of these items still had the tags/original packaging!
Captain Marvel was a bit of a challenge. My daughter was very insistent on avoiding the tutu version that all of the stores seemed to have in stock, and ordering a $45+ costume was not something I was excited about. I read on a Facebook post that places like the Disney store and some Halloween stores will offer costume discounts before the holiday. At the time, we were able to get her costume at the Disney store for $25 at the beginning of October (RIP Disney Store... We miss you!!). Check local shops for coupons in local papers, or online! Signing up to their mailing lists can often get stackable discounts as well.
Don’t be afraid to take risks and make changes! I had an old jacket I rarely wore. Using Rust-oleum spray paint, in light coats, helped make it match my costume and it was under $4! For Visions makeup we went quick and basic as it was a night event. We used generic makeup sponges and paintbrushes from the craft section and drew most of the lines in advance with a white highlight pencil. We covered most of the areas in a red/purple blend, and used the gray, white, and black, to add detail. We applied a center gem we had from our craft bin for the infinity stone using a blend of elmers glue and water. YouTube and Instagram have great tutorials to cover just about any level of special effects makeup.
It took under a week for the Avengers to fully assemble! Hopefully, this helps give you some wonderful ideas for your own creative costume or quick cosplay ideas! Just remember to have fun!!
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