I've got a secret that could make me the mom they whisper nasties about on the playground. I've never paid a red cent for a Halloween costume. I've never made one either. I'm not bragging. Well, maybe a little.
I just don't get the $30 price tags other moms are paying. You can tell me it's because I never have, but I don't think I ever will.
In the 3 years since my daughter was born, I've lucked into a hand-me-down costume four times in a row. My secret? A pregnancy perfectly timed. Just as my youngest cousin (we're Catholic, what can I say?) was on the verge of turning 1, my daughter debuted. Which puts her second cousin a year ahead of her, and one Halloween costume size bigger. And thanks to an aunt who is among my favorite relatives in the world (and one of the most generous), I've been cheaping out on all hallows eve every year running.
I can sense the end of the run. My cousin is, after all, a little boy. My daughter is not (duh). And while she'll don a pirate hat and Batman cape to prance around town today, tomorrow she may well be begging to be a princess. He's more the Thomas type. But even when the hand-me-downs aren't being handed down, I can't see myself shelling out a mint for an outfit my daughter will wear for one day. OK, maybe two if you count the parade through town. Three if they parade around the nursery school.
Yes, I'm a cheapskate. I eBayed her baby's first Christmas outfit too. I could handle tucking away a $5 outfit. She would have worn the red, green and white through Memorial Day if it had been much more. Sure they're memories, but at what price? Is rushing from house to house on an October night that much better in an outfit that cost your parents more than they'll pay for the gas to drive you around town?
I could go old-fashioned and make her costumes, the way my mother hunched over her sewing machine crafting giant Tweety Bird heads the year my brother and I went as a matching set of Looney Tunes characters or the buzzing bee that still lives in stories of my nursery school parade. But there's not a Martha bone in my body.
The way I see it, I've got two options: the second hand store or making nice with the mother of a daughter older than mine. Cheap is good. Free is better. Now I'm really bragging.
Image: Buy Costume
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