The hubby and I have a wonderful friend who organises fancy dress parties at her house every year. She usually hosts a party for Halloween, one for New Year and one in the Summer too just because our group of friends pester her to host another one mid-year.
Her parties nearly always follow a theme and she goes to town on the décor, draping spooky cobwebs from the ceiling, hiding fake spiders all over the house and carving out tons of pumpkins with funny faces lit up by candles at Halloween. At the last New Year’s Eve party, she strung up 200 gold balloons from her living room ceiling and it looked spectacular.
I remember a party she that did for the Queen’s Birthday one year, where we all sang the National Anthem on the hour every hour and everywhere was decorated with Royal Family merchandise. So much fun and seriously our friend is just so creative!
Anyway, the hubby and I don’t go out much these days what with having to pay for a babysitter and of course we have the debts to pay for. But we always try to make it to her fancy dress parties because we know we’ll have a total blast and get to let our hair down for once.
Fancy dress parties can be expensive
It can be costly to attend a fancy dress party. The good thing about the parties we go to is that they are held at our friend’s house and the only thing we have to pay for are our drinks so we just bring a bottle of wine with us. But fancy dress costumes can be quite expensive. From my experience, a single outfit can easily range from between £20 to £50.
But it’s not so bad if you get creative and make your own costume. At the last Halloween party, the hubby and I attended in fancy dress as ‘Harry Potter’ (him) and ‘Hermione’ (me). I wanted the hubby to go as ‘Ron’ but he drew the line at that.
We made our own cloaks from cheap black fabric, I bought a wig from eBay and he bought some cheap round glasses. We added the scar (him) and a stuffed cat accessory (me) and we could have passed for the real deal. 🙂 We spent around £15 for everything.
You can save money on fancy dress costumes by getting creative
If you want to make your own fancy dress costume, there are tons of ideas on Pinterest. Just type in the kind of outfit you’re looking for in the search bar and you’ll see some great ideas plus tutorials. If you’re going down the DIY route, be sure to give yourself plenty of time to research and then make your outfit, otherwise you could end up in a panic with only half an outfit created. I think it’s the accessories that really make an outfit so if in doubt, spend your time (and money) on those elements.
If you don’t have time to make your own costume, you can always check out a fancy dress company but be aware that they can be pricey. You might be able to take advantage of a sale though like the Summer sale which is currently on at MrCostumes.com.
My 3 year old daughter gets invited to fancy dress parties all the time and although cheap fancy dress outfits for kids are readily available at our local supermarkets, I nearly always make an outfit for her. That’s because she outgrows an outfit so quickly that there’s just no point spending good money in this area.
If you’re looking for inspiration to make kid’s fancy dress outfits, check out Activity Village, they have really simple tutorials on how to make costumes for kids which look pretty cheap to make, plus loads of other free kid’s activities too.
Do you enjoy fancy dress parties? What’s your favourite costume?
*This post was bought by Mr Costumes and all opinions are my own. **Photo courtesy of Flickr__________________________________________________________________________________________________
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16 Comments
I really love to check the videos about DIY on making a fancy dress. I have a seven year old daughter and I can say that she has a good sense of fashion, she loves decorating her clothes and styling it.
Clarisse @ Make Money Your Way recently posted…How Jon is Reaching Financial Independence
Aw she sounds sweet Clarisse! 🙂
Sounds like so much fun, Hayley!! Well worth the money spent. We don’t go to fancy parties often, but some friends of ours occasionally have a super formal Christmas party, and it’s so fun!! Doesn’t cost us anything but clothes and the tip for the coat checker and/or valet they have at their house. 🙂
Laurie @thefrugalfarmer recently posted…How to Save Money by Planning Ahead
Ooh that sounds great Laurie, I do love a good formal ‘do’, where you can get dressed up to the nines. Your friends sounds like they know how to party in style what with their valet for good measure!
Wow that sounds like a lot of fun! I used to love getting dressed up for Halloween and would spend a fortune on a cool costume, but I’ve been lazy over the last couple of years, so I just keep wearing the same recycled costume over and over again. I can assemble some cheap stuff, but I admire your creativity and ability to make something. I’m very unhandy in that dept!
Tonya@Budget and the Beach recently posted…So Many Goals, So Little Time
Thanks Tonya! 🙂 I think people struggle to remember who wore what at parties anyway, so I wouldn’t worry too much about wearing the same one in recent years.
That sounds so fun! I wish I had a friend that had parties like that. I’d even consider hosting them myself if I had the means ($$) to do so. Sounds like a blast 🙂 I’m glad you’ve found ways to cut down on your costume cost. I have actually re-used costumes a couple times too with just different accessories. Another thought that I’m planning on using this Halloween is swapping costumes with my BFF. She and I are nearly the same size and if we swap costumes then we’ll each have something “new” to wear without having had to buy or make anything.
Kayla @ Shoeaholicnomore recently posted…Looking Forward: October 2014
That sounds like a great idea Kayla – swapping outfits (costumes or other) is a great way to save money whilst still feeling like you’ve got something new on.
Love them! Wish we had a place big enough to host them. The best costumes always seem to be diy.
femmefrugality recently posted…Why I’m Okay Being a Tourist as Opposed to a Traveler (Sometimes.)
One of the best costumes I’ve seen is a scary DIY clown, like the one from the film I.T. 🙂
We always try to do the costumes ourselves. This past Halloween, Kate went as a mummy and all we did was buy a cheap bed sheet, ripped it into pieces and stained it with wet tea bags. I went as a bunny, yeah I know. I work in a lab and we have access to disposable full body suits, we call them bunny suits, so we just bought a ball of yarn and made a bunny tail. All in all, our costumes were about $5.
Aldo @ Million Dollar Ninja recently posted…DIY Phone Screen Replacement
Lol! I don’t think I’ve seen a bunny costume at Halloween, great use of the work attire! The mummy costume sounds great and glad you didn’t have to shell out too much cash.
We’ve been to our share but it’s been awhile. The last one we went as Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski. He had the cigar and saxophone and I had the black wig, beret and blue stained dress. We were a hit because I guess it was the year of that scandal. Now look how far he and Hillary have come!
Debs @ debtdebs.com recently posted…Top Ten Reasons You Need to Manage Your Finances
Lol! How funny! What a great idea, who could forget that blue dress. Yes indeed, how things change hey!
You can easily make a tutu of any sort with a string of elastic and tulle. Cut the tulle into strips like ribbon and tie them onto the strip of elastic. It take about 5 minutes in all. Your little one can be any kind of ballerina they want to be just by choosing a different theme of colors. Then you can recycle the tutu by having other people in the family wear it for different parties – or swap tutus with your friends!
Thank you for this suggestion Aharilyn! Great idea and I’m definitely going to try this for my little girl. 🙂