There are the people who live for sun, summer, warm air, and bronzed skin.  And those who live for the crisp fall air, weather weather, foggy mornings, football season, and everything spooky and pumpkin.  Which one are you?

When it comes down to it, I love the summer THE MOST.  All of it.  Being named Autum (my mom left the “n” off on purpose to be unique), having an October birthday, and loving all pumpkin things fall is a close second.  And Halloween helps!  Plus my LOVE for Thanksgiving…. I can’t wait to share some of my favorite Thanksgiving things with you soon

But, let’s talk Halloween… such a fun holiday!  As far as I can remember I have always loved this holiday.  I know some love “spooky season,” but I love dressing up, watching the magic in kids eyes, getting out and walking in the neighborhood and seeing the community. The fun of it fills this Enneagram 7’s heart!

We had an evolution into all the Halloween fun, but I will share a handful of budget ideas for couples (and families) as well as once you can order online. Like this one below. Bob Ross and a Happy Tree. The purchased items were the Bob Ross wig set and the Dollar Store leaves. The rest was put together with what we had!

As a child it was the fun of dressing up and “becoming” whatever you wanted.  And how many  times did we think as kids we fooled everyone and they thought we actually were that rockstar, old lady, or Rainbow Bright? It was the magic life only gives you as a child and if you let it as an adult occasionally it can return.

I’ve dressed up every Halloween I could.  And when I met my husband and Halloween rolled around I loved that he was on board to dress up, too.  We spent a few years dressing up as whatever we both wanted to individually.

I think what really sparked us with the idea of matching original costumes a was the year we were invited to a party when I was about 4 months postpartum with our son. I didn’t really want to go anywhere because I as so sleep deprived, but I also really needed some socialization. And– it was Halloween! I pulled out this tiger tail and headband I had gotten a few years prior to go Trick or Treating with Lucy and I searched for a “last minute costume idea” and saw the Hangover Baby/Alan get up. It was PERFECT to go with a TIGER! 🙂

Travis walked into that party and my friend said, “Dude! You look like the guy from The Hangover!” Ha. It was perfect. And when people saw the tiger with Alan and the baby it was a hit. So, that’s super simple custom idea that cost this tired baby mama about $1…. We grabbed Dollar Store sunnies to complete the look!

Then one year he dressed as a farmer with our son.  It also required just a couple Dollar Store items and our little guy was thrilled.

The next one was a “bad guy” to Jack’s police officer and the same year I dressed up as Olaf to our Lucy’s Elsa.  I was almost 9 months pregnant so it was an easy go to.

Both of those were the ages where the kiddos were picking what they wanted to be. I have never done whole family theme because I want the kiddos to have the freedom to choose whatever they would like to magically become. But we were able to coordinate to make its fun for them.

Travis’ costume was again a Dollar Store sheriff set and mine was a hat from Michaels, a glue gun, 1 piece of white felt, 1 piece of orange felt, and 2 pieces of black felt. We purchased the kids’ gear at Costco and made ours for about $10.

I loved coming up with costumes I piece together from what we have and what we can create. They always feel more authetic and fun. And when the kids were younger and we were really on a budget it was handy! I’ve also been a witch with a black Walmart nightie I cut up and a cheap ol’ hat from the Dollar store… wish I had those pictures.

But, there have been years I have just ran to the Halloween store the day before and made something on the shelf work just fine! For example the Hippie Set we came up with last minute a few years ago that I pictured at the start of the post.

Or years I grabbed all the gear from Amazon….

Picked up he sweat bands, leggings, leg warmers, neon shorts, tank, and unitard all on Amazon Prime to throw together this 80s workout duo set. The wig was from the Bob Ross set we had. Because; yes- we have a Halloween costume bin! And a 4th of July Bin, and an Ugly Christmas Sweater bin….. they come in handy for all the kids’ dress up days and spirit weeks at school also!

So we are huge sports fans, but you don’t have to be to make this one work. This was a hit and people still ask us to borrow parts of this from us. We were Ceiling Fans. Michael’s for the win with shirts, iron on letters, hat for me (Travis wore his Cleveland hat he had), and foam fan gear.

Speaking of sports… not only are we sports fans, but we are a baseball family. This one was a favorite of ours for sure. Sandlot, anyone? Wendy and Squints! Glasses (both of ours) and whistle were Amazon, and I grabbed the tank and shorts for my outfit from Walmart. The red ribbon in my hair and actually the white ribbon on the shorts were a Walmart find, too! I used the iron seam tape and ironed on the white piping to the sport shorts I found. We had the rest.

This one was so easy it was crazy. I had this wig from a party from years and years ago and it was matted up sitting in our Halloween bin. So, we didn’t buy anything for this, but you could do this one with just a wig!

And last year we told everyone we were detectives. We ordered these coats and these hats from Amazon. I cut some cardboard, glued cut up paper to it for the pixelated look, and glued elastic to the cardboard. Newsflash….. (see what I did there? ha)… we weren’t detectives.

I can’t wait to share what we will be this year! Another fun and so simple one. I’ve ordered a few things, but a lot of things we already have. I’ll reveal the end of October on my social media, but maybe I’ll also share on my newsletter! Let me know if you have any question about any of these items and if you have a great idea for what we should be next– please share! Happy Costuming!!!