I've been an Indy fan all my life; I'm 25, and over the years I've collected numerous items of clothing and gear towards a great Indy costume. Yesterday I made what is quite possibly my best budget find ever--A pretty spot on Indy leather jacket (unofficial, of course) for $1 at a used vintage shop in the City Museum in St. Louis. It's pretty beat up, but that just adds to the character! I'm very happy with it, and I feel oh so frugal.
The rest of the ensemble has been either free or extremely cheap. In fact, the only thing that I actually bought at a store specifically for the costume was the shirt, and I paid under 20 bucks for it.
Here's my cost breakdown on the items I've collected over the years:
Hat: free, birthday present from when I was like 6 years old (for my Indy Halloween costume that year, naturally--I've since grown into it.)
Pants: free, hand-me-down from one of my best friends' older brothers
Shirt: $15, got it at an outdoorsy fish & game hunting store. It's not completely screen accurate, but it IS khaki instead of white, and it has the two pleated breast pockets, so it works for me.
Bag: free, was my grandpa's from WWII, I lengthened the strap a bit with an old duffle-bag strap.
Whip: $12, got it one year at a fair when I was a kid, I've actually modified it a bit for the costume: dyed it dark brown, and re-weaved part of it with leather strips to make it a few feet longer.
Jacket: Like I said, $1 dollar at the St. Louis City Museum's vintage store. What a great find!
Gun-belt, holster, and whip-holder: the gun-belt is one of those old olive drab canteen belts. I think it was my dad's from when he was a kid; not sure though. I've had it forever. I dyed it for the costume to make it darker and less green. Holster was $3 at a garage sale. I used the metal clip from the belt's canteen to attach the holster. The whip-holder is just a brown shoe-lace off an old pair of shoes.
Belt: just your standard department store belt, approx: $10; didn't buy it for the costume, but I've found it works about as well as any other belt.
Shoes: just your standard department store brown leather shoes, approx: $35, I actually didn't buy them for the costume, but it turned out that they worked perfectly, so now that's pretty much the only thing I wear them for.
So all in all, if you only count the pieces that I bought specifically with the intent of using them in my Indy costume, I spent a grand total of $31 dollars on it. Counting the belt and shoes, which I already owned and wear with normal clothes, make that $76 dollars. Anyway, it may not be perfectly screen accurate, but it's gotten some great responses at parties, and I feel nerdily cool in it.
Happy budget hunting, troops!