Cheap Chic: Garbage Couture

Another post whereby Frugal Scholar mooches off her kids. This time, the mooch is via the Divine Miss Em, whose talents are numerous. Miss Em is a senior in high school. Those who have been followers for a while may recall that she goes to a wonderful state-supported magnet school, the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts. This is a residential high school, located on a college campus. It is available to all who qualify for the sum of $700.00 a year for room and board. What a gift for my children!

We received a recent email full of news about the senior class activities, including the Senior Breakfast. The theme this year was garbage. So all the girls made dresses out of garbage bags. Would I be too doting-mama to say that Miss Em won the Best Dressed Award?


There is so much here to emulate: pick a theme that will lead to frugal fun. Their prom had an India theme. So Miss Em borrowed a sari, bought some cheap Indian jewels via a website, and--being artsy--painted henna designs on many hands. This was perhaps a $20.00 prom. I read a blogpost on conscientious spending, where another proud mama noted that her daughter stuck to a $300.00 prom budget, which was a far cry from the over $1000.00 average. Well, I think we can do even better than that!

Similarly, the Senior Breakfast could have had a country club theme or such. But no--the kids thought of something creative and frugal.

So below we have an excerpt from Miss Em's email and some pics from the festivities. I have no idea what the guys wore. The pics show what I have always thought: the important thing for the girls is getting dressed up with your friends.



What is Senior Breakfast, you ask? Well let me tell you! It's an LSMSA tradition where the night before "Dead Day" (Dead Day is the day before exams start, where there's no class and dead silence because all the students are studying themselves to death) we have a late-night breakfast. As in, it starts at midnight and ends around 1AM. We are served breakfast and hang out with our classmates and we dress up in accordance with the theme. This year, the theme was trash-bag formal. You make formal attire out of trash bags, duct tape, any "trash" you can think of. Being a crafty girl, I worked super hard on my costume. I made it entirely from trash bags. It was a floor-length gown with ruching and layers. I must admit, it was very impressive by the time I was done with it. I made it ball-gown-big at the bottom by blowing up garbage bags with air, tying them off, and putting them underneath the dress. I'll attach a picture of it. I think you'll be impressed. It was also fun to spend so many hours on the dress, wear it, and then literally rip it off my body. Wheee! I also made accessories out of duct tape. Duct tape earrings and headbands and even a bracelet and a ring.

Although the pictures may have a girls gone wild vibe, let me assure you, this is a studious and accomplished bunch. Indeed, I am sure they will all do well in college, and, thereafter, will rule the world.