It’s that time of year again. People around the nation are dropping insane amounts of money on extravagant costumes to impress the masses. And then there’s you: a broke college student with absolutely no money to spend on a costume. With that in mind, here are a few quick, easy and, best of all, cheap suggestions for costumes that are sure to get a glance or two.

The first costume is “”Duct Tape Man.”” The construction of this costume requires five to six rolls of duct tape and one paper plate.

First, dress in pants and a long-sleeve shirt — you’ll see why in a second. Next, cover yourself in duct tape. That’s right, just wrap it around your body until you are covered in duct tape from the neck down. Make yourself a cape by attaching several long strands of duct tape together and putting it on your back.

To finish the costume off, use the duct tape to attach the paper plate to your chest. Then fashion a nice “”DTM”” on the plate to let everyone know that you are, in fact, “”Duct Tape Man.””

The next costume is an oldie but goodie: the shower. For this costume you will need a shower curtain with rings, some rounded PVC pipe, straight PVC pipe and some duct tape.

Simply fashion a ring out of PVC pipe and attach the shower rings and curtain. Take two pieces of straight pipe and attach them to the round pipe, angling down. They will attach to two pieces of rounded pipe that will be on your shoulders. Then duct tape them into place and you have your very own shower — perfect for dancing close with that special someone.

The next costume requires a lot of guts to wear. You can call it futuristic garb. This costume requires clear plastic wrap, colored plastic wrap and a colored thong that matches the color of your plastic wrap. Women can add a skimpy bra that matches the color of plastic wrap, but this is strictly optional.

To construct this costume, simply put on your undergarments and wrap around the naughty areas of your body several times with the colored plastic wrap. Wrap the rest of your body in the clear wrap. You should bring the clear plastic wrap to the party and invite others to join you in your ultra-futuristic attire.

Finally, there is the laundry basket. For this costume, you will need one rectangular laundry basket (fairly large), some string and a lot of laundry (preferably underwear).

For this costume, cut out the bottom of the laundry basket and put your legs through. Attach the string to the basket and use it as suspenders to hold the basket up around your legs. Then drape laundry over yourself. Depending on how brave you are — and how expertly you drape the laundry over yourself — you do not need to wear underwear with this costume.

These are just a few suggestions to keep this holiday enjoyable, yet affordable at the same time. It’s a pretty safe bet that these costumes will be unique this Halloween and will get a lot of attention.