Getting Ben together

(P.S. Watch for a real picture of this character later today)
Marc loves a chance to act, even if it's for free and for an audience of little boys.
So when he got the call to be Ben Franklin at our ward's Blue and Gold Banquet he didn't hesitate.
"Sure," he said. "When is it?"
I'm a little more gun shy.
As soon as I heard him tell the person on the phone he would be there, I started calculating the costs.
Let's see: he'd need a wig, a greatcoat, a vest, a ruffly shirt, buckled shoes, knee britches, knee sox and maybe a kite with a key hanging off it.
I checked on the web, costumes rented at a starting price of $40.
"Oh," Marc scoffed. "That's too much. We can do it cheaper than that."
I figured we'd be scouring the Deseret Industries stores for costume parts or maybe we could luck into finding someone who had the appropriate clothes.
He called around a bit. He has reading glasses that look like little old-fashioned spectacles already.
Someone knew someone who had been involved in the Colonial Days event in Provo.
Somebody else knew somebody who might have access to the costumes from the production of "1776."
Then, last weekend, when I gently reminded Marc that the gig was only a week way, we started to panic.
Nobody had called him back and we had nothing but a fairly free Saturday.
We started off in the direction of Archive Costumes at Hale Center Theater.
They had all kinds of stuff.
The friendly girl helped him with a "waistcoat" (that's different from an ordinary vest, I was told) and an overcoat without a collar. She found him some britches and a lacey kind of scarf he could tie around his neck.
Everything came in his size and was clean and it seemed silly to spend all kinds of time and gas searching the county for similar things.
"How much?" I sighed.
"It only comes to $33," the girl said. "Course you'll still have to get some nurse's white tights at Walmart."
Marc looked at me hopefully. He so liked the look.
I handed over the credit card and we made the reservation.
Then we started trying to find the tights. Several stores and lingerie sections later, we found a pair in his size for $8 at Target.
So we're up to how much now? And that's before he prints off the papers for his Ben Franklin Jeopardy game and finds a cane and a wig?
I'm not sure Franklin would approve.
Isn't he the "penny saved is a penny earned" guy?