Saving money on your Halloween costume

Emma Olson, Writer

No need to spend your savings on an overpriced costume when a DIY costumes can be just as cool as store bought ones.

Fear not, broke college students. You can still wear a killer costume on Halloween without hurting your bank account.

Although store bought costumes can cost upwards of $50, anyone can dress up for minimal prices—maybe even for free!

The easiest way to have a low-price costume this Halloween is to dress up as a character from a TV show.

As long as the show is based in present-day Earth, the characters’ outfits should consist of fairly regular clothes. With any luck, you should be able to find most of the pieces in your closet.

Scared of your costume not being recognizable? Pick a character with iconic accessories. For example, Jughead Jones from the show Riverdale wears fairly normal clothes, and to dress up as him, all you would really need to buy or make is his hat.

Another way to ensure your DIY costume is recognizable is to gather a few friends and dress up as a group. If you dress up as one of the kids from Stranger Things, you might just look like someone making questionable fashion choices, but if a group of people dressed up as all of them, it’s a sick opportunity for a group picture.

If you’re not feeling the TV show character idea, you could always go the Mean Girls route and just throw on some animal ears with whatever you’re wearing. As long as you keep the color scheme within reason, people will get the idea and you won’t have to put too much effort in to your costume.

If you’re crafty, you can try to sew something to make a totally unique costume. To be a bat, for example, you could cut wings out of black fabric and sew them to the sleeves of a black dress or shirt.

Last but not least, you could always reuse last year’s costume. It’s pretty likely that no one but you is going to remember or care.

Whatever you manage to create for Halloween this year, try not to be too bummed over the expensive prices of pre-made costumes.

You really aren’t missing much–the fabric on most store bought costumes is scratchy and thin, which isn’t exactly ideal for a cold autumn night.

Besides, if you make your own costume, odds are that you’ll end up having one that’s completely unique. Say goodbye to accidental twinning!

High prices should not prevent anyone from enjoying Halloween, so don’t be afraid to rock your homemade costume with pride.