If you are like me, you often wait until the last minute. Take Halloween for instances, you have put off buying that costume until the last minute telling yourself “I’ll get it next week.” now here it is the day before Halloween and not only don’t you have a costume for your child, but you happen to be a little short of cash to buy one.

Don’t worry, here are four cute, quirky, cheap, and easy to make Halloween costumes that are sure to make a big splash with your little trick or treaters.

Instead of making your child into a rock star, gypsy, or mummy, make them an object.

Moneybag

This costume can be assembled in short order and is cute and your child will love it. All you need is an old burlap bag or pillow case, some play money, and a bit of yarn an old hat, and some self adhesive green felt.

Simply cut leg holes out of the bottom of the pillow case. (the sewed part not the hem part.) Cut arm holes out of each side. Make a large dollar sign out of a piece of self adhesive felt, and from another couple of pieces of felt cut out the words “Property of U.S. Government.”

Now take a length of yarn and using a large needle work it in and out of the pillowcase near the top or hemmed part so you can pull it like a draw string and tie it once it is drawn to comfortable fit your child’s neck. (don’t make it too tight.)

Staple or sew play money around the leg and arm holes, and cover the hat with money.

You have just turned your child into a bag of money in only about an hour or two.

Basket of Dirty Laundry

I used this outfit on my 8 year old son one year and he not only loved it but it got his picture in the local paper.

Simply take a plastic laundry basket (you can often buy them at the dollar store) cut leg holes in the bottom and line the cut out holes with duct tape so the cut plastic does not dig into their legs and feels more comfortable. Using clothesline, make straps that are tied to the top edge of the basket and will fit over each shoulder.

Fill the basket with clean, but stained old clothes, throw in an empty laundry detergent box or bottle on top of clothes. For a finishing touch I placed a pair of colorful boxer shorts on my sons head. It kept his ears warm while tricker treating, got a lot of smiles, and completed the costume perfectly.

This outfit can be completed in 20 minutes once you have everything gathered together.

A Lamp

The costume in the picture was improved upon latter for to make my little human lamp, look even more adorable. Again you can use a pillow case. In the picture I cut the neck hole from the closed part of the pillow case, but in a later version I made the lamp like the money bag. I then cut a small hole in the back of the pillow case and attached a cut off wire with the plug still attached to the back knotting it on the inside of the hole for the cord.

Painted his face yellow to look like a lit bulb, and placed a lampshade on his head. The whole outfit took about 20 minutes to complete.

Christmas gift

This one is my personal favorite. Simply take a box that is large enough to fit your child (about waist length) turn it upside down, cut out a neck hole and two arm holes, and wrap it in Christmas paper.

For an extra special touch you can take the round piece of cardboard you cut from the bottom of the box to make the neck hole, wrap it in the same paper as the rest of the costume and place a bow on top and tie it to the top of your child’s head.

You can also cut holes out of the bottoms of shoe boxes, so you child can slip his feet into them and wrap them as well. It is really cute when you use different colored and designed paper for each box. With small bows on them, so your child becomes three gifts instead of one.

Depending on your wrapping speed this costume takes less than an hour to make.

There you have 4 quirky costumes you can make, quickly and easily at the last minute.