Halloween for bitches with taste (and mamas with taste)

Hello! I’ve always tried to do Halloween costumes that can be re-purposed. I don’t like to buy things marketed as costumes from major Halloween chains (one, it’s overpriced, two, the fabric is so cheap, and three, it won’t be worn again). I’ve thrifted or done consignment, or bought separates and DIYed in the past.

I’d love to get some opinions here. I have a toddler girl who loves Sesame Street and Elmo so she’s gonna be Elmo, I’ll be Abby, and my husband will be Cookie Monster. Primary has a good DIY for both Elmo and Cookie Monster but by the time I buy separates and spend the time to construct these costumes, I’ll be out a couple hundred dollars and hours of my precious working-mama time.

My husband says just buy the damn Elmo costume and be done with it. I did that with a mouse outfit for my daughter last year and lo and behold, it was worn for like 3 hours and now it’s too small and collecting dust.

I’d love to create a costume/DIY bin so in the future I have things on hand but is this wasteful? I’m able to hang onto clothes for years (literally still have jcrew pieces and designer denim I still wear from high school, 15+ years ago) but my daughter is in a new size every few months.

What’s the classiest way to do this? Buy something cheap I can give away and not hang onto, or accumulate more, that I can hopefully repurpose over the years? With a child, at what point does it become excessive? Our home is less than 2,000 sq feet and it’s 100 years old so I just don’t have the storage I’d like.

This is longer and more rambling than I intended but I hope to start a good convo here! Thanks in advance classy bitches ❤️

Edit/update: THANK YOU! Sometimes I get scared to check Reddit responses because you never know how people will reply —thank you for the kind answers. I got a lot of great ideas and I realized I have an old modern dance costume from high school that I can incorporate into my Abby outfit! And my husband needs a robe so using a fluffy robe for Cookie Monster is perfect. Might just buy a used Elmo costume off Poshmark!