Hallowe'en Costume Ideas For the Financially Challenged

Yes - it's that wonderful time of year again when we get to dress up like freaks and ghouls, carve eery looking pumpkins and hand out sweets to Trick or Treaters! Not to mention all the scary movies on telly (serves a great night in with your man or your girls + popcorn + wine = good times!!). There are always plenty of Halloween club nights and house parties to attend where dressing up is encouraged with plenty of prizes to be won... so here are some ideas if you are on a budget or don't really want to buy something you will never wear again:

The Mummy:

One Halloween House Party I went to a few years back, one of the hosts was dressed as a Mummy - and what a clever and economic Mummy he was! All you need is a pair of light coloured jeans or trousers and a white t-shirt. Then you will need to get a few rolls of white bandages form your local pharmacy and literally wrap yourself in bandages. Next add some dark rings under your eyes and your outfit is complete! Home-made Mummy

The Corpse Bride / Zombie Frou frou Girl :

One of my best mates had a Halloween Party last year and she really looked amazing! She had a short tutu, a corset, striped tights and great stiletto heels. She made herself a white wig with cotton wool and styled her 'hair' up and placed small rubber spiders in her hair. She also bought real looking fake blood and grey body paint. In the end she looked like something out of Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride - classic!

Vampy Vampires:

With vampires being MAHOOSIVE at the moment (Twilight, True Blood etc..;) and living amongst civilians, dressing like one is easy! You can really wear whatever you want, get some face powder for the undead look and a set of teeth and voila! Do give it some effort though... ladies can wear sexy heels and pencil skirts and guys can wear a nice shirt and fitted coat to achieve the look of this years vampires we all fell in love with. I suppose this costume is a safe bet if you have to travel home afterwards and you do not want to attract too much attention :D

Spider:

Now this is a genius idea and so easy to put together! All you need is 2 pairs of black tights, newspaper to stuff the legs with and some string. Obviously you have to wear black trousers and sleeves, as your arms and legs will act as spider legs (as will the black leggings stuffed with newspaper). Once the tights are stuffed, tie the waist bit of the tights on one side around your belt and knot it. Do the same with the other pair on the other side. Basically you want the legs to lift up when you lift your arms up - so tie string around the end of each tight's leg and then tie this to your wrist or finger. Leave some space between each leg and your wrist to get an effective 8 legged spider look ;P See this link on how to create the Spider Costume! This costume would look great doing Michael Jackson's THRILLER dance routine!! Easy Spider Costume

General Costumes:

If you don't have any creepy halloween specific costumes - why don't you recycle any costumes you do have? My best friend has all the gear for the perfect Cleopatra, and for Halloween she just wears white face powder, and dark rings under her eyes and she looks like a Cleopatra Zombie - easy! Christina Aguilera

If you need some ideas on makeup techniques - take a look at this website: Love To Know... They have a massive selection of makep up tips and techniques! Brilliant!! Well I hope you all have a wonderful halloween :)

Take care