Hi <<First Name>>! We're getting closer and closer to Halloween!!! And that means awesome costumes!!! I LOVE COSTUMES! The real trick and treat of the season is to put together that perfect costume at the perfect price. I dress up on a budget. Here are some tips for costuming for less:
1. Think of a costume that's funny rather than trendy. I won a work contest a while ago by putting on black slacks, tennis shoes, one of my husband's sports officiating shirts, spray painting a dowel stick white, and wearing dark sunglasses. I also ran into walls once in a while on purpose. Yep, I was a Blind Ref. You can get a costume ref shirt for $5-$10 on Ebay, the dowel stick was $0.50, and the spray paint was $1.
2. If you are following a theme, look around on Pinterest and search engines in general for images and ideas. You can even search using the words "cheap" and your theme idea. My Black Widow costume was inspired by three other budget-conscious cosplayers and ended up costing around $50 total. It consists of a $28
cat suit from Amazon, already had the boots and red hair, $8 utility belt, made a Black Widow belt buckle using thrift store finds at Goodwill for $2, and bought a
plastic bullet belt for $8 and $1 black spray paint to make the wrist cuffs.
3. Re-use parts of the other costumes. Right now, I'm putting together a $50-$60 post-apocalyptic outfit. It will consist of a $21 black fake leather corset with buckles, $5 black tights that I'm tearing up and putting over $4 neon leggings, same black boots, same utility belt, $3 fingerless black fake leather gloves (will go with Black Widow now too), $4 hair dye, an $8 gun belt holster (Black Widow and Cat Woman), and a $5 airsoft gun (Black Widow and Cat Woman). My Cat Woman uses the same black body suit / cat suit that I use for Black Widow.
4. Shop 4-6 weeks early on Ebay. You can find some great deals overseas but it takes 7-30 business days for them to be delivered. So this year, shop for thrift store gold. Then start prepping for the next cosplay opportunity!
Win the Monthly Prize!
Just to say thanks for being part of the BFS community, each month we give away a $25 Amazon gift card or Paypal cash AND a free copy of BOTH of my eBooks to one lucky BFS newsletter subscriber! To enter this month's, please
jump over to this post and leave a comment - only one comment per person per month please! A winner will be chosen and notified at the beginning of next month.
Reader Questions
Revanche asked, "Your hair! I love it. Salon or home job? What did you have to do to get the color to take? Was it difficult?"
Nope, not hard. Totally a home job and my last set (a combo of Adore African Violet and Violet Gem) is already nearly completely gone. I use $4-$7 semi-perm dyes and my hair rejects nearly every one of them in less than a month, lol. But I do love how purple looks, so I am probably finding a permanent dye or buying some more developer to make a color last longer the next time.
http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/hair-dying-experiment-update-meet-magenta/
I haven’t blogged about the Adore brand most recently since it is pretty much the same as the rest…
Pretty much, if you want your hair to be crazy colored for 2 weeks to 6 weeks, try Ion Brights or Adore (so far, if I find a better one, I’ll blog about it). If you want 2-5 washings to get most of it out (so like a week or two), Manic Panic original.
Thanks for being the best readers ever!
Crystal Stemberger
budgetingfunstuff@gmail.com
P.S. If you have any questions at any time, please contact me! Just hit Reply!
