Be a Green Goblin

Instead of buying a new Halloween costume this year, why not make one from some old clothes and accessories? If you don't have much gear gathering dust in your own attic, check out a local yard sale or thrift store. Both can be treasure chests of unconventional vintage fashion, as well as used costumes from past holidays.

Given the cost of new costumes, you can easily save $25 or more by wearing a used costume. In addition, when you wear a used costume, you conserve the resources that would have been needed to make a new costume.

If half of all grade school children in the U.S. wore a used costume this year for Halloween, the monetary savings would total more than $300 million-enough to buy 200 million pounds of organic apples for bobbing.