With Halloween right around the corner, many of us are planning parties, nights out, trick or treating and the biggest element of all – costumes. For many, the costs of Halloween can add up quickly, especially with the prices of last minute attire. Avoid the fancy dress shop ques and hefty price tag nightmares this Halloween with these tips on some of the cheapest and easiest costume ideas to try.
Zombie
A foolproof halloween classic, all you need for this fancy dress idea is some good face makeup, a comb, fake blood and some old clothing that you don’t mind ripping to shreds. Start with the makeup, creating a pale white base and using different shades to give the illusion of under eye bags and wounds. Backcomb your hair as much as possible, and make sure to give your outfit a few noticeable rips and splashes of blood. If you want to step up your game a little bit, take a more creative route such as with this zombie bride and groom idea as pictured above.
Addams family member
Perfect for trick or treating families, the Addams family is a really fun and easy costume idea to achieve. For the grown ups, all you need is all black clothing, wigs if needed, and some spooky makeup. For little monsters, find a stripey black top for Pugsley and a black peter pan collar dress and some pigtails for Wednesday. If you have any cash to spare, invest in some creepy props such as ‘thing’ the hand to make those family photos even more fun.
Day of the dead-er
This one does require a little bit of skill, so you may need a makeup-savvy helping hand to achieve the full effect. Day of the dead costumes consist of cool skeletal facepaint, a dress or suit and a few mexican inspired accessories. For females, decorative roses worn in the hair as a crown is a popular style for this costume, and luckily there are plenty of DIY tutorials to help you create this look.
DIY mummy
This one’s great for any age range, and best of all, the entire costume can be made with items you already have in the home. First, find an old white sheet, brew some coffee or tea, and splash over the sheet until it’s left with a mucky shade. Rip the sheet into pieces and pin to a bodysuit of your choice until your whole body is covered (allowing the costume to be easily removed for toilet breaks of course!) Put on some ‘living dead’ esque makeup, and then voila – a fun and effective halloween costume without the added expense.
A bank robber
Last but not least, if you’d rather not mess around with makeup and DIY skills, this costumes perfect for you. All this fancy dress idea requires is a striped top, some black trousers or jeans, some black shoes, a black beanie and an eye mask. You can easily find plenty of striped tops from online stores such as Bellfield clothing for great prices, that are also wearable enough to get use out of all year round.
Collaborative Post
Costumes can be so expensive, I love the cheap and easy ones. Especially as they are only worn for one evening!
For something worn only for a couple of hours, I’ve always steered clear of spending a lot of money on costumes. Some great ideas here.
Love this inspiration – I have run out of time to buy something for my eldest daughter, so might try making one of these 🙂
My daughter loves dressing up and has come up with some pretty talented make up requests, no sure I’m up to the task though lol x
Yes, zombie costumes are definitely the easiest! My daughter wants to be witch. She’s only going to wear an all-black outfit with black tulle skirt! The only accessory I bough for her was a small witch’s hat headband from H&M 😉
Lovely ideas here. I always remember when my Mum visited us in a white bed sheet. She looked great, hehe 🙂
I actually dressed up as a Mexican Day of The Dead Mexican bride last year and it only cost me £25. It was a fab outfit too!
Some great ideas – having teens as well as little ones we have loads of costumes in the loft that get recycled!
Love the Adams family idea! I remember being dressed as a Witch in a bin bag with a hat when I was a child lol
Great ideas! I love that these don’t break the bank, costumes can get expensive!
Halloween is one of my favourite holidays! I am too excited about dressing up this Friday, ha! Love the Adam’s family idea
love these! One of my bug bears is how much halloween costs fro costumes we generally only use once a year but these are some fab ideas!
The Adam’s Family idea is cool!! The few times I’ve been forced into Halloween fancy dress I’ve always made my own. Some of the prices at fancy dress shops is ridiculous!