Raising A Family

Every fall I find myself thinking back to my childhood. Just before Halloween we would rampage through the house looking for whatever we could find to make the “perfect”costume. It seemed that at least once, every girl was a baby and every boy was a hobo! We never had any kind of budget for Halloween. I guess with 7 mouths to feed that probably didn’t make sense anyway.

Times have changed and there are all kinds of costumes out there. I decided to buy a Cinderella dress for our daughter this year. I was going to sew one, but reality hit and I found myself surfing the web. After checking out about 30 or more dresses I found one for a decent price. Did you know you can pay up to $80 for a toddler size princess dress? Wow!

This got me thinking about how we can save a little when it comes to Halloween costumes. Here are some ideas I came up with.

• Once the kids have decided on a costume, ask around to see if anyone already owns one. We’ve used at least one borrowed costume almost every year. Most people are happy to share, especially since the costume usually has little wear. This year my 4 year old is being ghost. A friend seemed excited at the thought of loaning me the costume.
• Look in the back of the closet. Sometimes we have fun things laying around the house. We just need to do a little digging.
• You might even start a costume box. If you find silly things for a cheap price during the year, pick them up and throw them in the box. Have the kids look through the box to help them decide what to be. You can even store costumes worn in the past in the box.
• Before you go out and buy a new costume check second hand stores. Craigslist.org and Ebay are also great sources.
• If you do buy a costume check for sales. Lots of stores start putting the costumes on sale a couple weeks before Halloween. If you’re not too picky you may find a great deal.
• When buying a costume try to get something that may have a second use. I plan to use the princess costume for dress up. This way my daughter will be able to use it over and over again. Our 8 year old son is going to be a soccer player. We used things he already needs for soccer and bought him a new jersey. Now he has a shirt that he can wear all year.
• Don’t be afraid to let your child wear the same costume year after year. I have a friend who’s child wore the same costume three years in a row.

Finding that “perfect” costume can be lots of fun with out a huge expense. It just takes a little creative thinking. Happy Halloween!