Brooke Blogs This

Halloween is fast approaching, and it is stressing me out. For one thing, the town where I live has decided to do trick or treating the day before Halloween, but we don't normally trick or treat in our community. Does this mean I have to buy candy (which I haven't budgeted for) since we may actually be home on Halloween? Possibly MORE pressing is the fact that I haven't bought my daughters costume yet. Costumes are so expensive these days, for something a child only wears once (maybe, MAYBE, twice). Last year I bought her costume from CostumeSuperCenter.com and I was very pleased. I managed to find the costume at a reduced price, and was very pleased with their customer service and return policy, even though I did not need it. They have a clearance link on their website, with TONS of costumes at really low prices, including the exact costume my daughter wore for only $10! If you actually spend over $60 on their site, you can get free shipping through Sunday with cou

Last night, I did our grocery shopping and spent just over $100 on two weeks worth of groceries!!! Yeah, I am a little proud. =) So to stroke my own ego, I am going to post my top 10 grocery buying tips. I really do hope you find some of them useful. 1. Try the store brand at least once, on everything. We have found that most store brand canned vegetables are great, except green beans. Store brand green beans suck. But, try the store brand atleast once, on every product that you buy. Most of the time we are pleasantly suprised (some are even better than the national brand!) 2. Pay attention to how much things cost, otherwise how will you know when it is *really* on sale. I have found more than one store that advertises some thing "on sale" and it really hasn't been marked down at all. 3. Pay attention to how much you actually use/need/eat. If our family will only eat half of a dish, then we have the leftovers for lunch the next day. If your family despises lefto