When Halloween comes around on college campuses, the costume parties are seemingly endless. Buying a costume you only wear once can be pricey and frustrating. Instead, save yourself a lot of trouble and try one of the costumes below that requires minimal items, most of which you can probably find in your closet already. Even if you do end up having to buy a few things for your costume, most of the items that make up this list require components that are generally pretty easy to find and are inexpensive.
Risky Business
Like most of the other costumes on this list, the classic Risky Business costume requires minimal effort and minimal articles of clothing. This may not be the best option if you live somewhere that has relatively chilly Halloweens, however.
What you need: An oversized white button-up shirt, a pair of spandex or boxers and a pair of mid-calf socks.
Tourist
Most college students I know either own a Hawaiian shirt or know someone who does that would let them borrow it. The rest of the costume is pretty simple, and you can really customize the costume based on the type of clothes you already have.
What you need: A Hawaiian shirt, khakis or shorts, socks and sandals, sunglasses, fanny pack and lei necklace
Rosie The Riveter
This is such a simple costume that once again allows you to be creative in how you decide to portray it. With the three staple pieces, you can really play around with your hair and makeup to give the look a truly retro vibe fitting of the "We Can Do It!" Poster.
What you need: A blue or chambray button-up shirt, red lipstick and a red bandana
Athlete
Like Hawaiian shirts, sports jerseys seem to be available in most college students' wardrobes. Feel free to play around with the sport and other aspects of the costume. This costume really just depends on what type of jersey you end up having at your disposal.
What you need: A sports jersey, black face paint and sneakers
Cat
This costume is definitely one of the biggest cliches far as Halloween goes, but it most certainly is an easy one. While you will probably have to buy a pair of cat ears, once you have those you can really just wear any type of black outfit you want.
What you need: A black shirt, leggings, black face paint and a pair of ears
Frat Boy
Going to a school where Greek life is very prominent, you definitely see your fair share of cliche frat boys, making it a great inspiration for a Halloween costume. Everything on the list of things needed for this costume is pretty self-explanatory and simple to put together.
What you need: Khaki or chino style shorts, button-up shirt, backwards baseball hat, sunglasses, Nike socks and boat shoes
Kim Possible
Why not use Halloween as a chance to let your inner-'90s kid shine through? The Kim Possible is pretty simple to throw together last minute, and it is a little more original than some of the other ideas on this list.
What you need: Green jeans/cargo pants, brown belt, black long sleeve shirt or crop top, black gloves and combat boots
Nerd
This costume is pretty much left open to your interpretation. Basically, as long as you are willing to rock the broken glasses look, you can make the costume as nerdy as you want to depending on the clothes you have already in your closet.
What you need: A pair of glasses with white tape wrapped around the center, button-up shirt, khakis or school uniform style skirt.
Ghost
If all else fails and the clothes at your disposal don't work for any of the costumes above, just find an old sheet and cut yourself some eye holes. I debated including this one, but the rest of the costumes are so cliche that I figured it only seemed right.
What you need: An old sheet and some scissors
Even though most of the ideas on this list are pretty cliche as far as costumes go for Halloween, they are all relatively easy to pull off and able to be done with the college student budget in mind.
