I really would not worry about anything that goes in your helmet. That comes later. Even padding. Focus on everything you need to COMPLETE the costume. Personally, I spent just over $3600. I got a lot of metal parts rather than resin, had DVH paint my jetpack rather than painting it myself, and just added the massive $250 ass ram that are MoW shoes to the spreadsheet without a second thought.
I hate to say it, but if you're going into Fett trying to be thrifty, you're going about it all wrong. Fett is expensive. You're going to spend a **** load of money. When you spend that money, do you want it to be garbage that you replace in a year, or have to repaint? Or do you spend the extra money for top dollar stuff? I try to compromise between the two- got most of my soft stuff secondhand, got a set of armor with a botched paint job second hand, saved probably $1000 total over if I had bought new. It's important to understand where it's okay to cut corners, and where it isn't.
