Ten last-minute Halloween costumes

We all love Halloween. In fact we love any excuse to paint ourselves blue (whether that’s for Smurf or Avatar purposes) and drink far too many themed cocktails.

Celebrating as a student though can be tricky; parties tend to be incredibly impromptu and held on a very tight budget. Year after year, some mate of yours decides to have a last-minute Halloween party and you have neither the time nor the funds to invest in an amazing costume.

Fear not my fiendish friends, The Tab has got your outfit covered. It won’t take more than five minutes to put together and is made out of stuff you’re bound to have lying around your digs. Here are our top ten last-minute low budget costumes.

This costume is just a killer for imagination and will cost you next to nothing. Simply throw on a rain coat and wellies over whatever you’ve got on, staple some of your younger  brother or sister’s prized stuffed cats and dogs to your umbrella and you are hot to trot (well not hot but very convincing as someone who’s got caught in the rain.)

Not an obvious choice but it is a student saviour; it’s an absolute bargain and involves a onesie (preferably a green one.)

Get a bag of white pipe cleaners (£1.20 on Amazon) and twist them into three points. Glue gun them all over the onesie for a very convincing cactus. Add an exotic flower for added authenticity!

This costume is one size fits all and is really quite impressive. Find a framed picture, take the picture out of the frame and hold the frame in front of your face.

That’s it. You’re welcome. If you’re feeling daring and not too hungover you could add a hat or paint your face? Up to you.

A serious costume my friends and perhaps the most ingenious, simple and my favourite of the lot, and you definitely have all the stuff required for this outfit.

Dress yourself entirely in pink (or maybe pale blue or white depending on your gum flavour preference) and stick a trainer to your head. You may get several ‘wtf’ looks at first, but once explained this outfit will get so many pats on the back.

For a more subtle costume, simply wind some wire round a headband (Primani of course) and attach black card bats that you will have made earlier.

I’m not suggesting you construct a small house, as fabulous as that would be; this outfit takes less effort than first seems.

Wear your chinos (yes you have some) trainers, shirt, one of those cardigans you bought from Topman a few seasons ago, and pop the lenses out from your 3D glasses. Blow up a few of those leftover balloons from your housemate’s birthday and hey presto, grumpy old man.

As long as you’re prepared to say ‘so long’ to your Raybans this is a pretty spectacular quick fix costume.

Glue gun black pipe cleaners around the edges of your sunglasses. Follow by Tipp-Exing spider webs onto the frames and dress entirely in black.

They also avoid that embarrassing walk to your friends in full costume as you can just slip them on, on arrival.

For a really original outfit get prepared to play with words. Be a little less obvious and go as a ceiling fan as seen below (simply add the ‘go ceiling!’ logo to a t-shirt with masking tape) or glue gun several tubes of Smarties to your trousers to be a ‘Smartie pants.’

As young adults our face painting days can so often seem like a distant memory. But think back, to those days at the zoo where your tiger face paints would seem so convincing you would spend the remainder of the day growling.

Well we think it can be just as effective now, we are especially impressed with the Roy Lichtenstein inspired face paint! And, unless you have severe allergies, grab a pack of face paints at your local pound land.

Get your balloons out again, this costume is so easy but probably best worn sober, as balloons tend to attract drunk people who want to pop them.

Simply round up as many purple or green balloons as you can and attach them in any which way possible to every part of your body. Paint your face the identical colour and hey presto how could you be mistaken for anything other than a bunch of grapes?

So there you have it, I do believe that not one of these costumes will cost you over a fiver and yet they are top of the board for originality. If all else fails do the whole ghost sheet thing and claim that you’re being ironic.