Our costumes are largely not frugal, so…here’s a Saturday post for you, where I can be non-frugal for a moment.
Sonia
Sonia went as Alice in Wonderland, using a vintage-style blue dress, an apron, a pocketwatch, and headband/shoes/socks she already owned.
Sonia’s costume is the most sensible out of all of ours because everything except the apron is actual, usable clothing (she even wore that dress to homecoming with her cousin!)
Mr. FG and me
We continued our tradition of coordinating, this time with the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts, inspired by Sonia’s costume choice!
Sonia did our makeup, bless her!
The hardest part was getting rid of my actual eyebrows…we kind of spackled them down with a washable glue stick, covered them with concealer, and then carried on.
Zoe
Zoe went as Michael Jackson from the Thriller music video. We tried really hard to find a secondhand version on eBay, but nothing was small enough.
But hey, we will sell this one and someone else can have a secondhand costume!


I believe all of our costume pieces came from Amazon except for our shoes (we all wore regular shoes that we already owned.)
They weren’t super cheap (although my dress was only $33!).
But I figure I can sell them for about 50% of what I paid for them, and Sonia’s stuff doesn’t even need to be sold.
And the fun we have getting dressed up like this makes it totally worth the money.
P.S. My plan is to hold onto the costumes and sell them next September, but if you or anyone you know is in need of these costumes, let me know!
P.P.S. Some of you asked if Mr. FG and I dress up because we have a costume party we go to. Nope; our neighborhood has a parade that we walk in, and then we walk around with the trick or treaters.
P.P.P.S. This post originally had photos of Zoe in zombie makeup, which she applied to mimic Michael’s from the video. However, this has read as blackface to some readers, which is horrifying to Zoe (and to me.) We do not support racial mimicking, we know blackface is offensive, and that was not at all what we were trying to do. We do not want to be offensive, even if our intentions were pure, so I have removed the photos.
mm says
Michael Jackson is literally one of the most prolific pedophiles in history. How unfortunate that your family either isn’t aware of this obvious news and/or you don’t care.
Randi says
I was thinking the same thing, but I wasn’t going to mention it in this negative tone. If I had children( and I do have young nieces), I would NEVER let them dress as MJ. As a former sex crimes prosecutor, I cringe at the though.
Lori says
Great costumes. We were super frugal this Halloween. I had one daughter who wanted to be a bat, which was just black clothes with some bat wings I made out of about two yards of black flannel and a pair of black cat ears (which look like bat ears!); a son who wanted to be candy corn, which I was able to make for under $8 because Joann’s was having a crazy sale on flannel when I was there shopping for costume stuff; and a daughter who wanted to be a mummy which my husband took care of with a $5 sheet ripped into strips. I don’t think we’ve ever gotten away with a Halloween this cheap before, but it was good because cold and rain meant the kids only got out for about thirty minutes anyway.
Kristen says
Wow, those sound like great costumes! I’m impressed.
Marinell says
Y’all do look great.
Jem Horwood says
Aw, you guys look awesome!! And I agree with the comments above: the girls get more beautiful every year!
Battra92 says
Fun fact (that is 100% useless knowledge!) Alice isn’t wearing an apron; she’s wearing a pinafore. Of course unless you’re reading The Tale of Tom Kitten, you never really need to know what a pinafore is.
priskill says
Aw, you all look great — how fun!
Molly F. C. says
I love your Halloween costumes too! I look forward to seeing what you all dress up as each year. Sonia’s shoes are the best. I’m a fan of spectator shoes. Since Sonia loves vintage, she may be interested in a website that sells shoes for swing dancing and everyday wear. I drool over them. The shoes sadly are expensive but oh so darling. The site is re-mix classic vintage footwear.
https://remixvintageshoes.com
Kristen says
I’ll tell her to check it out! Thank you.
Suz says
You read my mind; I was amazed by your eyebrows and interested how you got that look! : )
Everybody looks amazing and I especially love Sonia’s Alice costume – much better looking than the cheapy flimsy store-bought Alice costumes out there. We were pretty rained out, so it’s nice to see your Halloween went on!
Barb F. says
In agreement with all the commenters on this one. What fun!!! I get a kick out of handing out candy here, and acting scared/surprised by the little ones.They are so serious trying to convince me they are not super hero or monster for real. No Josh this year?
Kristen says
Nope, Joshua and Lisey didn’t dress up.
Lisa M. says
Agree with the commenters above. If dressing up at Halloween is important for you & your family, it’s your choice how to use your resources. The memories & photos will be something that your family will cherish. How can you place a price on that? It is the gift of frugality that makes it possible – being able to choose how resources are utilized.
Your daughters are simply lovely. Growing older & more beautiful, they also look happy. You & Mr. FG must be very proud.
Renee says
I love seeing your costumes every year!
Kris says
I wouldn’t have recognized you! Such fun costumes. Frugality comes in many forms …. for me, it’s about saving where I want to save to allow occasional splurges. If splurging on costumes is your thing, then more power to you!
Gail says
YOUR GIRLSARE SO BEAUTIFUL!
Both my adult kids go all out, too, for the neighborhood gatherings on Halloween. Their kids love it, and it is good family fun. Love it that you choose a few non-frugal moments for memory making.