How to save money on this year’s Halloween costume

As the spookiest holiday of the year rolls around again you might be wondering what to dress up as and where to find your perfect costume – but more importantly you might be looking at your bank balance and wondering if there is a way of getting your hands on an outfit for a reasonable price.

Prices for full costumes, plus accessories, can be on the expensive side. So why not do it yourself this year and put together your very own costume design?

You don’t need to be Martha Stewart to pull something fun together with minimal effort; you can create something amazing using things you might find around the home or at your local supermarket. No trips to the expensive craft store required!

Here’s an example of a cheap and simple costume you can create:

Paging Dr. Deadly

Let’s face it, when the zombie apocalypse kicks off hospitals will be the first to be hit, so an undead Doctor or Nurse is a perfect costume for Halloween. It’s also so easy to put this together using clothes you could already own and buying a few items from your local supermarket.

Start off by simply wearing blue trousers and a blue t-shirt underneath an oversized white shirt (look in your wardrobe or at a local charity shop), don a pair of latex gloves (Brosch Direct offers a great range of professional looking ones) and drape a child’s stethoscope toy around your neck.

For the finishing touches (and to make you look more zombie-like than in the morning, when you haven’t had your coffee yet) rub some white face paint all over your face, neck and hands, rub purple and black eye shadow beneath your eyes and then stick clumps of tissue in small patches on your skin, using PVA glue.

Finally, once the glue has dried, dab on red food colouring to create really gory looking flesh wounds. You can also find some great zombie make up tutorials online.

There you have it, an example of a gruesome costume you can create cheaply and easily this year. Creating your own Halloween costumes can also help you update your wardrobe. That white oversized shirt you bought for your undead Doctor costume can be easily re-worn tucked into a pair of jeans, the blue trousers could become a popular outfit choice and the red food colouring can be used, well, in food.

The easiest way to create something great is to make your costume stand out with the make-up; and you don’t need to be a top notch artist to pull off some great effects. For example, with just a black and white face paint palette you can find in most supermarkets throughout October, you can become a skeleton. By adding brightly coloured patterns around the eyes, using lip liner or eye shadow to your skeleton look you could create a Day of the Dead mask, and there are plenty of tutorials online to help.

The best thing about making your own costume is that you can craft exactly what you want for your budget. So this year don’t be put off from attending that party because of costume cost worries: do it yourself, create something unique and save a bit of cash at the same time.