Every Oct. 1, I concoct an elaborate plan for a Halloween costume, and once Halloween rolls around, my plan falls apart, and I’m scrambling to find a new costume.

While wearing a costume isn’t required to celebrate Halloween, it certainly makes the holiday more fun while deterring any potential fear of missing out.

Luckily, my lack of follow-through has pushed me to make creative, resourceful costumes, so if you’re also scrambling to find a costume, you’re in luck.

Raiding your closet is one option. One year I found a green blazer, brown corduroy pants, a dress shirt and brown docs. Paired with a frog salt shaker, I became Jason Funderberker from “Over the Garden Wall.”

I was similarly spontaneous this year. I have a cropped dupe “brat” shirt that my friend made for me and straight-leg black jeans. All I need is to tease my hair and smudge on some heavy black eyeliner and boom, I am Charli XCX.

The stylishly disheveled “brat” aesthetic is easy to replicate and a good way to celebrate brat autumn.

Also, makeup is very versatile. If you don’t have any, you can always ask a friend. 

Drug store makeup is also typically on the cheap side, and at this point in the season, there’s a good chance dollar stores will have cheap Halloween makeup they are trying to get rid of.

Here are some easy makeup-centered looks:

• Clown (creepy or cute)
• Fake blood or artfully applied lip gloss around the mouth can be an easy people-eater look
• Eyeliner cat whiskers (Sharpie is an option too, but riskier in terms of removal)
  • Cat whiskers can be used for a classic cat costume or paired with flannels or plain t-shirts and swoopy hair for a Dan and Phil look.

When it comes to makeup, don’t succumb to the pressure of influencers to construct a super complex look that uses 25 different products. Even simple looks can still look sufficiently spooky. If you can’t get makeup in time, there’s always the old bedsheet ghost costume à la Charlie Brown.

Mixing Halloween with college students will most likely yield a party, the perfect place to show off your last-minute look.

House venue Como Backdoor’s third “Dyke Night” falls on Halloween night, and the Instagram post promoting the event says it’s free if you wear a costume.

“I just wanted a fun tagline for the post,” owner Iris Bolton said, admitting that the event doesn’t have a cover fee. “But I do really want people to wear costumes.”

Bolton came up with the idea for biweekly “Dyke Nights,” parties exclusive to people who identify with lesbianism, at Como Backdoor as a way to replicate lesbian and women-only bars on the East and West Coasts and create a space where lesbians feel safe.

It’s only right to host “Dyke Night” on Halloween, given how the holiday has come to be known by the queer community as “gay Christmas.”

“It’s gonna be a big lesbian costume party,” Bolton said. “I’m hoping it will be well-attended.”

Bolton hosted Como Backdoor’s recent Halloween rave as a “sexy bumblebee,” which she said has been a year in the making after she accidentally stole a pair of costume antennae from her sorority.

Bolton described it as her highest-effort Halloween costume, but it really only took one day trip to Spirit Halloween for pieces and some artful cutting and spray-painting yellow of black and white striped socks to make arm and leg warmers.

For a different Halloween event, Bolton said her last-minute costume was Princess Bubblegum from “Adventure Time,” which only took some pink hairspray and a closet raid.

“It was cute and a little slutty but still put together,” she said. “Like, I could’ve worn it to class.”

Robbie Sturbeck, a University of Minnesota senior, plans to attend “Dyke Night,” along with another Halloween night party, as Mabel Pines from “Gravity Falls.”

“She’s my queen,” Sturbeck said. “She was such an inspiration to me when I was younger. Just like, ‘OMG, weird girl!’”

Sturbeck came up with the idea earlier this month, and it didn’t take her a long time to get there.

But if she didn’t have a costume at this point, Sturbeck said she would have gone as a corpse or tried to look creepy in a gothic outfit.

Sturbeck, a self-described extrovert, said she likes going out on Halloween.

“Everyone’s excited about the same thing at the same time,” she said. “It’s like we’re dressing up and getting candy! It’s wacky!”

Like wearing a costume, partying is not required to have a good Halloween. Being a homebody is perfectly valid and definitely can be more fun than a party.

But now you have ideas to get the ball rolling on a costume if you want to join any wacky festivities.