Planning ahead for Halloween? It will be less scary when you save on Halloween Costumes for the kiddos! Make this Halloween season fun for your family while staying on budget.
Are you ready for Halloween? There’s still plenty of time to dress up and have a fun time! Halloween is not a “big” holiday at our house, but my kids do like putting costumes together and trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Over the years, we’ve done all these ways to save on Halloween costumes.
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5 Ways to Save Money on Halloween Costumes
Host a Costume Swap
Within your moms’ club, church group or neighborhood, send out an invite asking for costumes to swap. Just label your costumes so you know who to return them to, and borrow away. My MOMS Club did this for years, and it was a great way to get a new-to-you costume for zero dollars.
Buy Used Costumes
You may not have a group to swap with, so keep an eye out for gently used costumes in thrift stores, at yard sales, and on neighborhood Facebook selling groups, Ebay and Craigslist.
DIY or Make Your Own
If you enjoy doing DIY, whether it’s sewing or just using a glue gun (like my DIY Owl), you can make a costume to fit your child. We’ve even made a Stick Figure Costume with tape and a paper plate!
Find all kinds of easy and fun costumes online, like these 30 Quick and Easy DIY Halloween Costumes. You can also make a no-sew tutu and turn it into one of the cute DIY Tutu Costumes.
Use What You Have
This is what my kids usually do, since we’ve had a lot of dress-up clothes over the years. Just putting together a cape, scarf, boots, etc. can be the basis for a lot of different costumes.
One of the ways we make an old costume “new” is by adding face paint. My husband decided a few years ago that he wanted to tackle this, and he did a great job on our Tiger’s face.
He looks forward to doing this every year now, and we always use the Snazaroo Face Painting Kit. It has a great instruction booklet to help you learn.
Buy a Costume Online
Why online? The selection in most stores like Target & Walmart is small, while the prices at party stores are outrageous (plus there’s so much gross stuff there I don’t want my kids to see). Plus, when you shop online, you can use coupon codes for a discount and get cash back.
I’ve invested in costumes over the years because I knew they’d be used 3-5 years in our dress-up bin (then, I either sell them to recoup some cost or hand-them-down).
If you go that route, pick costumes that will be used again and again–like animals, a Harry Potter robe, or (in our case) a dragon. That costume was worn daily for months!