It occurred to us late in the game here that we still didn’t have a Halloween costume for Baby Money. Not that he was really going to participate all that much (or remember, for that matter), but it’s still nice to get in the festive spirit for family and friends, and especially photos ;)
I will never get this beautiful image out of my mind from last year! Haha… The perfect blackmail photo for when he’s older ;)
So as any good parents do, we rushed our little guy to Kohls yesterday to see what types of bargains – if any – there might be. And to our surprise we found two costume ideas on the semi-cheap!
- That dinosaur looking getup above. $20 (On sale from $35 I wanna say). We both thought that was a decent price to pay for such an elaborate looking suit, but then the wife made the good point that he’s only going to be wearing it ONCE. So why pay for such a small usage when you’ll just have to donate it – or worse, find room for it in your closets! – soon after? That led us to keep looking and find the following:
- Skeleton hoodie! $10! I was sold on this in a heart beat – we can go as Dad & Son skeletons since I have my own similar shirt! The wife, however, was not nearly as impressed ;) “I hate skeletons – I don’t know why they’re so trendy these days, ugh…” “Yes, but honey – it’s only half the cost! Annnnd he can then use it all winter long and be one of the cool kids on the block! Just like his daddy!” Wife: “Yeah yeah, fine… you know you’re only cool in your head though, right?”
And just like that we had our next baby costume :) I can’t tell you how excited I am to show him off all day and night tonight, haha… It glows in the dark too – If that’s not cool, what is?? (Wait, what’s that? glow-in-the-dark went out in the 80’s? DAMN!)
So for any other slackers out there, try hitting up Kohls or Target or even TJ Maxx today on your lunch hour and see what types of goodies you can snag for your babies/kids. A lot of stuff is on sale right now since Halloween is now here and almost over, so for once it’ll pay to procrastinate ;) And not much, for that matter too (bah dum-ching).
If buying stuff isn’t your style – or you don’t want to wear baby costumes (hah!) – try some of these other ideas I’ve nabbed from earlier posts and around the web this week. I’ve plucked out the most clever ones for you :)
Cheap Halloween Costumes for Adults:
- Christmas Tree – My all-time favorite costume ever: Wear all green, wrap yourself in Christmas lights, and then plug yourself into the wall :) Done and done!
- The Tanning Bed – Tape glow-sticks up and down your arms. Then go around the party, entrapping people in your embrace: Instant tanning bed.
- Static Cling – Wear normal clothes and safety pin socks and lint to it! (Good one, @meimur)
- Pinterest board! Dress in all white, then hang a cork board around you with pictures of cute houses, tattoos, book cases and anything else people like pinning all over the place tacked to it ;)
- Random Hook-up – Drape a lot of random colored extension cords around you :)
- Smarty Pants – Tape smarties candies to your pants – SMARTY PANTS!
- Chick magnet – Tape a bunch of Barbie dolls to yourself. Or use pictures of hot girls!
- Freddy Krueger/Wolverine – Just put silverware on your fingers!
- Gold digger – Wear a shiny gold dress and bring a shovel.
- Martini Glass – Saran wrap your body for the “stem,” put on one of those big medical dog collars for the “glass” part, and then put green tights around your head for the olives ;)
- You… With a Mustache – find one of those mustaches on a stick, and voila! (via Wisebread)
Cheap Halloween Costumes for Kids:
- Kid Robot: All you need is boxes & sharpies :)
- Stuffed Animal: You know those huge stuffed animals you win at a carnival or fair? Take out all the stuffing, poke holes in it, then let your kid wear the outer shell! Haha…
- Athlete: Have a kid who plays a sport? Let them wear that uniform you paid a lot of money to own or rent/lease for the season ;)
Here are more last minute Halloween ideas from my blog: 40 Cheap & Last Minute Halloween Costumes. And then here are some more ideas off Pinterest too, for both kids and adults (though it also means you need to be really crafty too ;)): Clever Halloween Ideas
Anyone already know what they’re going as this year? Which, should be like 99% of you since you’re better planners than us? ;)
I’m pretty excited to finally be something *else* other than a rock star for once, haha… That’s always my fall-back (lazy) idea, since it only requires some guyliner, nail polish, and maybe some fancy boots ;) Ooh, but maybe I can still find a way to rock those too? Do skeletons wear snake-skin boots? Could I be a *dead* cowboy who happens to don a mohawk too? YES!!! Haha… That’s the ticket!
*Scurries away to go find them*
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#8 hits a sensitive spot for me. My last name is Krueger, so I always got “Nightmare On Elm St.” jokes my way.
Now that my son is 3 I am dressing up with him to take him. Kind of corny, and store bought, but it is the thought that counts … I hope.
I put a blog post up if you want to see how ridiculous I look. :-)
Awww, haha…. and crazy that’s really your last name! Oh man, that must have been all kinds of annoying growing up, haha…
I dressed my son in cowboy gear that he had and got 2 costumes for the price of 1.
I glued cooked sauceless spaghetti to the front and pieces of toast to his back. He was a spaghetti western from the front and a toasted western (a popular Canadian sandwich) from the back.
If you have black clothes, a beret, toast and something to make a little moustache you could go as French toast.
Hah! I wonder if anyone (youngins) even remember what “spaghetti westerns” are anymore? I barely do! haha… clever though :)
One of my best friends growing up had a frugal, creative, strange family and they had some genius costumes. My favorite was the Sock Fairy. They had a tutu from her younger sister’s dance days and hung a bunch of their mismatched socks on it. Everyone thinks the dryer takes your socks, but it’s really the Sock Fairy!
YES! LOVE THAT!!! I always wondered where they went too ;)
I too procrastinated this year and ended up with on sale goodies! Max is going to be a ninja, and I think it is one of my faves for him!
Don’t forget, you can keep the costume and all future babies can wear them! Not one time use but two – maybe more! :)
If you already have a red cloak or large pashmina for you or your baby, it’s easy to do a Little Red Riding Hood costume.
Did you sneak into my house and steal my kid’s stuff? He is being that dinosaur (he called it a dragon). We got it from Costco and it was like $15 earlier this month and we got a skeleton hoodie for, get this, 97 cents from Old Navy last week!
I’m doing anything this year. My wife is going as a german beer lady, but that is because she already owns a dirndl which she wore to Oktoberfest a couple years ago.
Dragon!! Yes! D’uh – I think your son is correct on that one :) And your wife’s costume?? Am I allowed to say “ow ow!” without getting in trouble? ;)
My daughter and 2 of her friends are going as the power puff girls, my oldest son is wearing a squid hat we picked up at an amusement park awhile back and my youngest son is dressing up like Uncle Jesse from full house. Gotta love re-runs.
Hhahahah… Uncle Jesse used to be my hero!!!
Ha ha, my intention was to mash together some existing clothes and a lab coat from a previous costume to go as Dr. Luigi (Mario). All I needed was a green tie. Then I got even lazier and never bought the tie. Haven’t shaved in a week and a half so now I’ll just go as a back-alley doctor or something. I won’t need to spend a cent this year. ;)
Hahha… or you could have gone as the end of Movember :)
Hey J., here are some inexpensive ideas my kids are doing this year. My daughter is dressing up like a nerd (like her daddy ;o) ). She’s wearing large fake glasses and some nerdy looking clothes. Didn’t have to buy anything. My 11 year old son is dressing up as a mafia gangster. We bought a $10 hat. He has the slacks, coat and toy gun. Cheap!
Awwwww… nerds unite!
Our Halloween got rescheduled for tomorrow by the town we live in! I’m so disappointed!
What an awesome picture J$! You’re right, that is definitely blackmail worthy. I think I am going to have a similar one for our youngest as my wife went for some crazy puppy costume for him. He better hope I don’t get a pic of it. ;)
The Christmas tree is my friend Whitney’s favorite outfit. But she doesn’t just reserve it for Halloween. Any day of the year that kid can get away with wearing it and plugging herself into the wall she will. I laughed out loud seeing that it was first on your list!
Woahhh – that is awesome!!! No one’s ever heard of it whenever I tell people of it – that’s so cool! Tell your friend Whitney she’s now MY favorite friend too! :)
Haha love the tanning bed idea. That should get filed under “Halloween Costumes for the Creeper”
Agreed ;)
And I love the skeleton hoodies. They’re so Donnie Darko!
I’m a cat. Every. single. year. Cheap and easy :)
As a woman with no children in my late 20s, I personally find halloween (at this point in my life) to be a colossal waste of money. I get the parent/kid thing though. I saw an absolutely adorable costume of a 1 year old in a thing one costume (red shirt and sweatpants, blue wig, and paper sign on belly saying thing one) and a pregnant mom with a cat in the hat hat on with a thing 2 cut out on her belly!
Back in the day I loved it all for the parties and drinks :) Now, it’s trying to make sure the punks around our area don’t steal all the candies and/or our decorations! I’m so old, haha…. But yes – def. more fun now with kids :)
That’s an absolutely adorable chicken right there. You’ll have to post a picture with the matching skeleton costumes.
Ha. I love pun costumes. Some thoughts:
You can dress up with a t-shirt and baseball cap that both say, “Go Laptops!” and have a big foam #1 glove. You’d be a laptop fan :)
You can dress up with a t-shirt and baseball cap that both say, “Go Ceilings!” and have a foam #1 glove. You’d be a ceiling fan :)
You can dress up with a t-shirt and baseball cap that both say, “Go Kitchen Exhausts!” and…sorry.
Make some kind of head contraption that hangs a leaf in front of your face. When people ask what you’re supposed to be, blow on the leaf.
Wear a name tag that says, “Hello, my name is Frank.” When people ask who you are, point to the name tag and say, “I’m Frank.” Then stare at them awkwardly.
Oh man. I could think these up forever.
I think what you need to do is get a hidden camera and now try out each of these in the real world and then report back your findings ;)
Also, here’s the destruction you got to avoid by not going w/the dinosaur costume http://youtu.be/lq7nGSp4sSU
I am right there with yall!!! Wearing my skeleton shirt that has my two little fetus skeletons on my bellah!
So. Adorbs. And yes, I just said adorbs.
100% taking random hook ups next year!
I used my black college graduation gown to go as a Ruth Bader Ginsburg this year. Got a gavel and spectacles for less than $10 at a Halloween shop and slicked my hair back into a bun. Borrowed a scarf from a friend and good to go!
I like how you’re gonna go from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to random hookups, haha.. you, young lady, are an enigma ;)
I’m going to be autumn with a diy costume I made out of felt:P Happy Halloween!
You mean Autumn from 500 Days of Summer? That would be awesome :)
That would be – she’s kind on the eyes :)
I think your wife and I would be friends — I too don’t like how skeletons are trendy! This year I am just handing out candy to the kids, so I’m wearing cat ears. Boring but free. :)
Except for the candy! ;)
I am going as mini mouse. Its a home made costume that I threw together with clothes I had about 7 years ago, but whatever, it’s easy and its free! and It’ll be slightly different because I’ve definitely accrued more items to add to the costume since then. :-)
Great find! The photo from last year is too cute!! This year I’m dressed as Clark Kent — I found a little boys Superman pajama tank top on sale for $3! I also bought black suspenders for $6.50 and had everything else already. I’m happy with how it turned out but the photo I posted on my blog looks more like Drew Carey than Clark Kent!
Haha, nice… And I’m digging those pictures in the background of that shot – is that at work or your home? Or is that the same thing? :)
I’m actually tempted to go poke around the stores tomorrow to see what kind of deals I can score on Halloween candy. Clearly no one wants to stuff stockings with ghost candy but I have no issues with the now cheap snack. :)
I take Halloween candy all day, any day! So feel free to stuff my stockings with them! :)
My boys were Willie and Jase from Duck Dynasty! They loved it and didn’t cost us more than $20 altogether. $5 each for both to have a beard and $5 each for both to get a bandana. They already had the camo. :)
HAH! Nice! Any costume where a beard’s involved is a perfect costume to me :)
I was actually able to get a ninja turtle for as low as $6 and it was indeed a good deal.
hah! awesome!