hat? It’s October already? Wait, October is almost over?! Why wasn’t I informed? If you’re anything like me and have lost all sense of time, you’re probably scrambling to put together a Halloween get up for all the festivities. If you’re like me (competitive but ultra cheap), you won’t settle for department store costumes and risk having your little one look like the 200 other kids dressed as Elsa or a generic ninja asking for candy.
Lucky for you I’m an expert in the minimal-effort-do-not-want-to-spend-a-fortune Costume Department and have compiled this list of 8 last-minute DIY Halloween costume ideas for all you crammers.

A pair of black shorts, white face paint, black eyeliner. Voila. I strongly suggest you go trick or treating until dark and let your child go “rest” in a corner. Maybe even across an annoying neighbor’s house. Videos please!

Got two kids? A girl and a boy? Perfect! All you need are old overalls and a striped long-sleeved shirt coupled with face paint and a toy knife to turn your darling little boy into an evil monster.
Dressing up as Tiffany Ray is just as easy and is probably the best way to recycle her old flower girl dress. Pair it with a black jacket, boots, and a blonde wig and let your two creepos walk hand in hand. Aww. Cutest couple award.

Oh you have two girls? Awesome! Freak everyone out with the creepiest kids on screen EVER.
You could buy cheap matching dresses from your local department store for this. If you can’t find light blue ones, settle for white and buy fabric dye from the bookstore and follow manufacturer’s (easy) instructions. If you’re totally hardcore and wouldn’t mind a bit of sewing, download simple dress patterns online and sew away.

Take inspiration from the new season of “The Walking Dead” and throw on old clothes dirtied up a bit with paint and fake blood (recipe here) and you’re good to go. Crank it up a notch by painting face some sort of gray and add a couple gory details for maximum scare factor.

This one will most likely get a lot of “How’d you do that?!” comments from other parents. If you’ve got a little more time and are up for the challenge, a headless person costume is a sure winner.
Scour thrift shops or your own closet for a trench coat, gloves, and a rucksack. Fill the rucksack with plastic bags for bulk and have your child wear the bag and button trench coat around his/her head so that the head is pretty much at stomach level. Fill up with more bags all the way down to the arms, and stuff bits of plastic into the gloves and attach it to the coat sleeves with safety pins. Form arms to make it look like the head is resting on the hands. To keep it in place, you can “hang” arms on your child’s neck with nylon string or just pin gloves to area close to neck. Be prepared for paparazzi shots for the duration of your event.

I don’t know about you but clowns freak me out (thanks, “It”!) and it’s pretty easy to add a couple details to an otherwise jolly fellow’s face paint and turn it into something you don’t want to see standing quietly in a corner and staring at you. Okay, I’m freaking myself out just thinking about it.

Don’t want to dress your kid into something that’ll have you checking under their beds for weeks to come? Peter Pan’s Shadow is an easy alternative using black felt, leotards, and tights.

This one is extremely easy, cheap, and unique. On a bristol board (fancy name for thicker cartolina which you can easily find at your nearest bookstore ), draw clothes with tabs just like the ones on actual paper dolls, cut them out, and stick on your kid’s clothes. Don’t forget to wear real clothes underneath!
What is your child wearing for Halloween? Share them in the Comments Section below!