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[Emi]

My first real cosplay was John Egbert. It probably cost around $80, mostly between the wig and material for the hood. THEN I decided to make the Zillyhoo, which was probably a little over $100 by itself.

[Neener_nina]

I don't really consider my steampunk outfit a real cosplay, soooo of my Twilight Sparkle outfit, the ears and horn were the most expensive from Yaya Han at around $30? If I recall correctly. Then the contacts and knee high stockings at around $20... The shoes and blouse I already had, the extensions were $2 each. The cardigan was $8. Awaiting a wig though that set me back $21.

[DollFacedDude]

Kero's fabric cost $60 all together. The stuffing I filled him with cost me another $60. I guess fabric glue and thread cost another $10. I think I spent about $30 on ice packs to keep cool. So, in total I guess he cost about $160. Not too bad for a mascot suit. I really need to find a way to make some money so I can start on my next...

[NeverCryAgain]

Cosplay can be as expensive as you want it to be. Usually, it is cheaper to make the things yourself, but not always. My first cosplay was a Tron siren, and i had to get the catsuit, which in itself was $80, and the shoes and back pieces made it come to about $100. I made everything except for the catsuit. My next cosplay was Korra from The Legend of Korra, and it was about $60, because her outfit was relatively simple and I could make all of it, I just paid for the fabric and shoes.

[lenkagamine02]

My 1st cosplay was haruhi suzumiyas summer uniform :P It cost me $100 because at the time I had no idea there was a cheap way. Now I make all my cosplays and I suggest you should to its fun and MUCH cheaper

[Vault21]

I needed nicer clothes, anyway, so, while the new shirt and shoes costs around twenty bucks each, I still use them. So, really, my first cosplay cost a $25-$30 wig and $0.99 eyebrow pencil.

Should've splurged for the liquid eyebrow pencil, which I ended up doing for my Naruto cosplay.

[AkitoSohma123]

My first cosplay was pokemon ranger kate it was around 75 to 100 dollars. I think I could of made it cheaper by going to Goodwill for the black shorts but then again you can't always find what you need at Goodwill.

[redfirerick]

My first cosplay expense was bleaching my hair for goku!! Man that was nuts, then I kept it till it grew out lol. I actually had a wedding the following week after A.E and ..yeah odd pictures lol

[XxChibiArtistxX]

My first cosplay was L from Death Note (unoriginal I know) I only spent ~$20 on it, and that was pretty much just for the wig...

Normally, I make it a point to spend below $150 per costume. Personally, I can deal with minor accuracy flaws for the sake of saving money. My most expensive cosplay to date is one I just finished, Madoka from Madoka Magica. I've racked up about $142, but I bought everything one at a time to make it feel less expensive than it is C:

[Ketta]

Doing my first "proper" cosplay and it's cost quite a bit, around £110. Bought what I needed all at once too so I really felt it >:

[PurpleDuckie]

My first ever cosplay was Pyocola from Digi Charat, my mom helped me make it and paid for just about all of it so I am not sure how expensive it was. My guess is that it was well under $100 though since we modified stuff we already had and only really made the hat and apron, I also didn't wear a wig :P

I don't think there is ever a "too expensive" as long as you have the money for it and you are happy with your costume. I try to keep my costumes under/around $200, but I've made a couple in the $300-500 range and I feel it was worth it since they rocked!

If you are worried about it being to much money, get your money's worth out of it. Re-wear the costume multiple times and add a little each time to improve it. Not only do you end up with a way better costume after a couple wears, it prevents you from spending on a new one! For future costumes you can lessen the hole in your wallet by starting as early as possible and investing a bit here and there - for example saving $20 a month to go toward a costume. $20 is pretty much the cost of a night at the movies and you probably won't think much about spending it / putting it aside but that is $240 over an entire year and more than enough for most costumes!

[Monocle_Complex]

I suppose it depends what a person considers expensive. Considering I have no sewing/sculpting background I buy my cosplays and modify things that I feel confident I can do where possible. My first cosplay ended up costing around the $125 range and I slowed added to it over the coarse of time so there's probably about $200+ rolled up into it.

[liyosa]

Currently doing my first cosplay. Yes, it was expensive. I'll break down the materials

Cloth: Jo-ann's bottomweight cotton cost me a bit - 15 bucks for 1.5 yards, plus another 7 bucks when I messed up big time on the top. So... $27 total
The scarves each cost 4.18 per yard (I am NOT pleased with the material, but that's another story), and I bought overall 2.5 yards, so that's around $10.45 for that.
The cape was muslin - 2.99/yard. I bought 1.5 yards. That's $4.49
If you want to count things that I eventually didn't use, I also got a crappy lining which I eventually ditched because the lining was beyond my skill limit. It cost another $7.00
Total for cloth: 27+10.45+4.49+7=$48 (this includes mistakes you will probably run into at some point)

POINT: Look for deals at Jo-ann's. I realised this only quite late in my cosplay, but if you wait for deals and gather up coupons, it greatly decreases the price of cloth. That was my mistake and that's why I ended up spending so much.

Tasseling: I bought tassels from Walmart. For the time being, they were the best deal to me. $6.68 for all the stuff I believe. I also bought ribbon - 3.27 for a spool of wired ribbon, and 0.47 for another spool of ribbon which I will also be using in other projects, so it's not such a loss.

Tasseling: $6.68+3.27+0.47=$10.42

Paint: I needed paint for my costume. To be more specific, fabric paint. I bought four tubes for eight dollars or something, and then I needed to buy another one for four bucks. I can't remember too well the exact pricing, so I'll estimate

Paint: $12

Jewelry: Still ongoing. I bought some beads for $6.18 and supplemented with my own beading collection (dollar amount ???). Just bought teardrop beads for another $5.00 but luckily I have way too many bugle beads to count so I'll be using those (cost is probably $1.50 since I bought a whole bunch at a clearance sale at one point) I actually bead in my free time, so this isn't such a big del for me as I can use leftover beads to do other things 8D.

Beads: honestly, I'll only count $11.18, but the price is probably more like $15.00

Boots and Wig: I haven't done these yet, but I'll anticipate those being a huge bulk of the cost by themselves. I'll estimate 20$ for boots and $30 for wig. :| So $50?

Overall cost: $48+$10+$12+$11+$50 = $131 (anticipated)

Oh, one more thing: I chose a pretty detailed cosplay. The first mistake I made was to cosplay Terra, which is excruciating both in terms of cost and time investment. So... if you don't feel like the investment, you should probably choose another cosplay (my reasoning to spend so much on this is that after this year? I have no free time at all! Yay! I'm in a university programme which sucks up as much time as possible, and I don't anticipate having any time to do the frivolous stuff I did this summer, so I might as well go all out. Essentially, this will be my last cosplay for a couple of years until I get out and get a job (maybe? hopefully? Blah.) ). Anyways, coolstorybro aside, Final Fantasy costumes with lots of Amano details? Expenseeeve.

[EmoxJerk]

I think I spent around 200-250 dollars on my Zero cosplay.
I think for World Is Mine Kaito, I'm up to maybe 50 dollars now.

However, I'm sure that my most expensive cosplay would be a cosplay I have planned to "debut" next, next year which is Phantom from Maplestory. All those accessories and fabrics will kill me

[setting54]

Let's see, first cosplay ... Now that I look back, it wasn't at all expensive. It was Fionna from Adventure Time, and I already have blonde hair, so simple cosplay and no wig really required, which takes down the cost quite a bit. But, I may have thought it was expensive at the time because the shipping on the hat was a lot because I had to get it across country in about 4 days!