10 cheap costume ideas from the Economides

Here’s a list of 10 quick and inexpensive Halloween costumes — great for kids and adults.

You’ll already have many of these items in your house. If you need to buy anything, check out thrift stores and discount retailers.

The goal is to spend as little as possible and to have as much fun making your costume as you will wearing it.

1. The Pirate

• Long-sleeve blouse or a collared long-sleeve shirt
• Vest
• Gathered skirt or pants cut into knickers
• Boots or clunky shoes
• Jewelry — an earring, necklace or rings
• Belt or sash for holding a plastic sword
• Bandanna for your head

2. Bunch of Grapes

• Dress in a purple shirt and pants
• Twenty purple balloons tied to a string, which can be around your torso. Use safety pins on the string to keep it from shifting.
• Large leaves cut out of green felt and glued to a hair band.

1. More from TODAY.com
   1. Best-selling author Vince Flynn dies at 47
      

      Minnesota writer Vince Flynn, 47, the author of 14 thrillers and mysteries that reached the New York Times best-seller lis...

   2. Singer, yodeler Slim Whitman dies at 90
   3. Italian court: Amanda Knox appeal ruling was ‘illogical’
   4. Pharmacists pick top health products
   5. Dolce and Gabbana guilty of tax evasion in Italy

3. Identity Crisis

• Dress totally in black, including dress or shirt and pants.
• Name Tags. Buy a box of adhesive name tags and write a different name on each one.
  Stick them all over your clothes.

4. Granny

• Old flannel nightgown
• Bonnet or cap
• Shawl
• Lace-up shoes
• Old glasses, minus the lenses
• Walking cane

5. Mime

• Black long-sleeve shirt and black pants
• White face paint
• Black face paint and eyeliner for around the eyes and to outline your face

6. Cowboy / Cowgirl

• Long-sleeve plaid shirt
• Blue jeans or blue jean skirt
• Belt with a large shiny buckle. (You can make the buckle out of cardboard and aluminum foil.)
• Cowboy boots
• Cowboy hat
• Red bandanna

7. Princess

• Gown from a thrift store
• Tiara
• Fancy shoes
• Scepter. You can use a dowel rod wrapped with duct tape, built up to make a bulb on one end. Glue some fake jewels to it.

1. More from TODAY Celebrates Halloween
   1. Economides’ cheap costume ideas
   2. Humorous hauntings
   3. Spooky! 13 enduring superstitions
   4. Snooki, Gaga are hot for Halloween this year
   5. Halloween costumes ripped from the headlines

8. Rubik’s Cube

• Solid-color shirt and pants
• Large square box, with holes cut into it for arms, head and torso
• Colored construction paper cut into squares and taped to the box. A Rubik's Cube has nine squares per side and six different colors: red, yellow, blue, green, orange and white

9. Nerd

• Short pants, which you can get from a thrift store
• White socks
• Black, clunky glasses, with white tape on the bridge
• Shirt with top button fastened, either solid white or plaid
• Optional: Suspenders, pocket protector, slide rule

10. Scarecrow

• Plaid shirt
• Blue jeans with holes
• Rope for belt, around neck and wrists
• Work gloves
• Boots
• Straw hat
• Rafia, which can be used as straw to come out of pants, shirt and hat
• Face paint
• Optional: Burlap to cover face

Head over to the Economides' website for more information on cheap Halloween costumes.