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DIY Costumes on a Budget

Halloween is the greatest time of year for all college students — whether you like to party four days in a row or just want to watch horror movies with your best friends, it is nice to do it in a low-cost costume. College tuition is already the scariest thing, and with tuition on the rise you lose that additional amount of money that you usually save up for your $100 Halloween costume that you’ll wear to that frat party where you’ll get beer all over it and then it’s ruined.

But you do not have to waste that $100 on a store-bought costume. All the fun of a costume can be found in a low budget DIY costume, and if you want to work with your friends to make a DIY group costume then this will be the best for all of your budgets and you will look very stylish. I have broken the following DIY costumes into categories for single, couples, and group costumes.

Low cost single costumes will be the easiest to make because it’s just one costume. Easy picks for some single costumes can begin with whatever you have in your closet currently. My go-to single costume is Olivia Dunham from the show Fringe. It is so simple because it does not cost me a dime. The character in the show wears a blazer, white collared shirt, and dress pants, and she wears her hair straightened, and everything I can grab from my closet. A simple and cute costume.

For couples costumes it gets a bit difficult because you must agree with another person on what to wear and you want to stunt at the party with your significant other. So putting in extra effort in a couple’s costume is essential. Some of the easiest couple’s costume ideas are taken by mimicking the couples from a show, movie, or play. This year my roommate and her boyfriend decided to be Star-Lord and Gamora from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy. She showed me that both owned most of the outfit except a few details like Star-Lord’s head piece, which was made from old headphones, and my roommate who had to buy paint to color her skin fully green. A cute idea and DIY costume, I can’t wait to see pictures.

For group costumes, do not worry: it’s very simple. There is a strategy for this that is fool-proof. First you must know how many people you want. Then it’s simply choosing a show, movie, or group that matches the number of your members for the group. The easiest group costumes are those that have the characters wear solid colors, to alleviate the pain of looking for a print or pattern. My favorite that groups do is the Scooby gang. The members of the Scooby gang all wear solid colors, making it easy to find some of the clothing in your own closest or your local Forever 21. Even characters like Scooby himself are very simple because you can make DIY ears from a new pair of brown socks or an old brown shirt that can be cut into a pair of ears and hot glued to a headband.

Costumes are fun but buying one costume for a lot of money only to wear it once isn’t fun. Save some money and make your own. Use the funds you saved to get more ice cream.

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