Happy Friday: DIY Halloween Costume Moneymaker
This Hip2Save.com Deal was hand-posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 5:08 pm.
Sent from reader, Angela: Hi Collin! I thought you would get a kick out of this moneymaker …I am always trying to save $ and cut expenses to get out of debt, but I knew gift card prizes were in store for a costume contest at our company Halloween luncheon, so I DIYed my costume for a grand total of $5.25 and ended up winning a $35 Target Gift Card and a $5 Starbucks Gift Card for participation! Looks like I made $34.75 today just for having fun, showing some Halloween Spirit and Staying out of the expensive Halloween costume aisles! Happy Halloween!
HAPPY FRIDAY! 
Do you have a funny, “Hip”, or unique photo to share?! Email us at happyfriday@hip2save(dot)com. Every Friday, I will post one photo, submitted by you and/or another Hip2Save reader, that gives us a glimpse into your frugal lifestyle or simply makes us smile. If your photo is published on Hip2Save, we’ll email you a $10 Amazon e-card!
** Check out all the previous Happy Friday pictures here.
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ariana says:
she looks like Mr. Lobard on Handy Manny (halloween episode)
tooo cute!
Jen @ MyPotpourriWorld says:
How cute!! What an awesome idea. Congrats on winning!
Kate says:
You are so stinkin’ cute! That is awesome!!!
Ashley says:
I had to stare at the pic for about 5 minutes before I realized you were a gumball machine! Very creative
and congrats on your moneymaker!
Ashley says:
oh wait! add $10 for amazon so it’s an even bigger money maker!!!
Jessica says:
I made my 5 year old son’s halloween costumes. He was a red “Angry Bird” for the Angry Birds game everyone is obssesed about. It cost me like $5 to make. I used the 40% off at Hobby Lobby for the fabric. He won best costume at a YMCA Festival and won his first bike! I was so excited because that was on the list to buy.
Jen says:
I made my 5 year old son’s Halloween costume too – and he’s the black Angry Bird! I’m the queen pig, of course. It was $5 for both after a Joanne’s sale on felt and I used remnants for the rest. We don’t do costume contests anymore since last year when they awarded 2nd place to a girl in a store bought Jasmine costume just because they thought she was cute. My son was a homemade tiki of the god of volcanoes.
Congrats on your win!
Jasmine says:
How funny, my boys are going as Angry Birds this year, too, and I also made them. My youngest is the red bird, and my oldest is the Green Pig. We ended up having coupons and a sale at Joann’s which ended up costing me about $6 for each costume! When I saw what they were charging for the red bird headpieces, I figured it would be easier and cheaper to make a full body costumer for less than half!
I love the gumball machine idea- a little bit goes a long way!
Go Get Your "Coup" On says:
Make that $44.75, now that you’re the Happy Friday picture winner!! NICE..and how creative!
kari says:
yeahhhhh u rock girl
Teresa says:
I once took a old white sheet and cute out felt pieces in heart shapes to look like a playing card. I used a old wire hanger over my shoulders to make it drape better.
Lynn G. says:
Outstanding, tuuuuuuu cute!
Andrew says:
I reused last years costume at a work conference and ended up winning a $50 Visa Gift card and an Ipad 2. That turned out to be one heck of a money maker!
nata says:
what was your costume?
ManteeRawr says:
Wow, an iPad2? Sounds like you must work at an awesome company!
Noemi says:
Nice job!!!
very cute!
Nikki E says:
with overage from Walmart I was able to get 2 costumes for my kids for the price of one ($19.99) not to mention a slew of other items! Love couponing
Nicole Z. says:
That is adorable!
Dianna at savingsinseconds.com says:
Congrats, that is super creative and great that you won a prize!
Amy says:
Seriously cute!!!!!
Kara says:
Super cute. One year I took a clear garbage bag and filled it with balloons and wrote brachs on the outside. I was a bag of jelly beans
shelly says:
What a cute idea!
Elizabeth says:
Wow, awesome costume!
cwil says:
Love it! My daughter was a gumball machine a couple years ago, I made the whole thing. That year my kids’ theme was “junk food” and older daughter was a Kit Kat bar, and my little boy was a cheeseburger. I made all their costumes, which saved money, and they turned out adorable.
Carrie says:
Adorable! Great job and congrats on your wins!
Sandra Lee says:
Ingenious!
taliab90 says:
I LOVE this! It just made my day! When i was younger I was a bag of jelly beans and did the same garbage bag idea with balloons in it, but you have made this costume amazing!
Marcie says:
That is an awesome costume! Good job on the gift cards and amazon e-card!
Sally Leigh says:
I’d like to know if anyone put a nickle or two in your costume coin slot to ‘buy’ a gumball!
Catherine says:
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. At first I thought that was going to be how she said she made money, haha.
smhartford says:
LOL I thought the same thing!!
CB says:
I thought that too!
MoneyMama says:
And now she won another $10 gift card!
April says:
WOW! I am in awe….
lacie says:
very cute.
I wish I was creative as this! lol And now you won 10 more.. so.. thats very cool. I dont win stuff very often 
but at least its feastive and you made out this year so to speak
Bridget says:
awesome costume, and congrats for winning!!
smhartford says:
Adorable costume, I just love the idea! I wish I had that kind of creativity!
Jo-Ann says:
Congratulations on a terrific thrifty costume–totally hip!
Heather says:
So so cute! I love people’s creativity…it inspires me to try something for next year.
Ann Dee says:
Agreed!!!!
Shannon says:
I want to know what the headpiece is made out of? I’ve seen a gumball costume before but never with the headpiece. Great job!!!
Jennifer says:
It almost looks like the headpiece is maybe a red bowl? I wanna know if she had a shirt on under those balloons!!!! haha!
Angela says:
Thanks all!!!! I am super pumped about how it all turned out…especially since this morning was the first time I put all the parts of the Gumball machine on together! $4 at Dollar tree – water balloon kit, 2 glow necklaces (for the hoop at the bottom) and a red table cloth AND $1+ for the red bowl at Walmart next door! Just tape, scissors and go! It was pretty quick and easy to assemble and unique which is what makes it all the more fun!
Thanks Hip2Save for the $10 Amazon ecard – this totally made my day even brighter! All the couponing tricks and deals I learn on here are BOUND to make my $44.75 go REALLY FAR!
tpv says:
Congrats…very cute!
Cristal says:
I showed my boyfriend’s sister and she was like hey that’s the lady that won first place at my job. Pretty cool.
Angela says:
how funny – small world! Got a first name for my coworker?
Nicole says:
Last year I stocked up after Halloween w/costumes at 90% off at Target. A sailor Sweetie for $2 (20.00) Prisoner for $1.20×2 different sizes (12.00) , a swamp monster and gorilla for 3.00 each (30.00) and Bakugan Dragoniod for 3.00 (was 30.00) . I now have costumes and dress-up for a few years to come w/3 kids
13.40 for 6 outfits- not a bad investment. Hopefully I can sell them at Consignment when we’re done or pass down to friends. Not as creative but cheap!
Lori Stevens says:
LOVE the costume. You get an A+ for creativity! Way to go!
Maria says:
Sweet! I love the idea. Too Cute
Jen says:
GREAT costume idea! I hate spending a lot of money on them. This is perfect creative and cheap! LOVE IT!
KK @ Coupon Crocodile says:
OMG Angela – that is adorable! And you know you are a true coupon-aholic when you can turn an office costume contest into a money maker. Ha. That’s so awesome. And I just love your outfit!
KK
Katie says:
Great idea and congrats on your win! Happy Halloween!
Krista says:
That’s the cutest thing ever!!! Congrats on your big win!!!
Elizabeth says:
Colin and Angela,
Saw this costume late Friday night… showed it to my 7 yr old daughter Sat. morning and she decided she wanted to be this for the Halloween parade. Off to the dollar store we went, and for under $10, we created it.
She won 1st place today…. along with a $25 Mastercard GC!
Thanks so much for the awesome idea!
Collin says:
Yay!!! That’s so awesome!! Congrats to your daughter!!
Anonymous says:
Great costume and VERY creative!! You def. deserved to win!
NCCajunn says:
I loved the idea also! I showed it to my 9 year old and she wanted it for our local shopping mall costume contest, and guess what…..she won 1st place!!!! She was so excited to have FINALLY won something! Of course, her comment later was “thanks to Hip2Save” I won. She’s my little coupon buddy!