Halloween is just around the corner, and Costumes Express is ready With over 4000 costumes in a variety of themes. Costumes Express has costumes for babies, toddlers, children, teens and adults. Plus you can find costume accessories and party supplies. Right now you can save $10 on a $75 purchase, so don’t wait, order your costume now.

When I was a kid, the school supplied everything up until junior high. But with my kids, every year I spent hundreds of dollars on crayons, notebooks, tissues, glue sticks and hand sanitizer. As they’ve gotten older, the expense hasn’t decreased. Between $8 binders and $120 calculators, stocking up on school supplies requires a small fortune. But there are some things you can do to slash your spending on back-to-school items.

1. Use what you’ve got. Go through your home to find paper, binders, pencils and other items you currently have that can be used at school.

2. Refurbish last year’s binders. Binders in particular cost way more than they should. Turn an old binder new by decorating it. You can even get decorated packing tape to help hold any lose bindings together.

3. Take advantage of tax-free days. Many states offer a holiday from sales tax. Visit Taxadmin.org to see if your state offers a tax-free day.

4. Use last year’s lunch box and book bag.

5. Have a school swap with families in your area or through a site such as Zwaggle.com. This is ideal for lunch boxes, book bags and clothing.

6. Get books for free. Many of the great classics kids are asked to read in school are free through e-book stores (i.e. iTunes) or at Gutenberg.org, which allows you to download and print.

6. Take advantage of sales and store reward programs. For example, Staples had single subject notebooks for 50 cents. Plus it offers $2 back on returned ink cartridges.

7. Put off clothes shopping until October when back-to-school clothes start getting discounted.

8. Check ebay. Ebay is a great source of all sorts of stuff from school supplies, calculators, books, bags and clothing at significant savings.

9. Check out Mamasource, which offers daily deals and other savings up to 50% on all sorts of stuff. Currently you can enter to win Apple products (i.e. Mac Air and iPad), plus save on back-to-school.

Here’s a fun Halloween Treat. You can carve your own digital pumpkin.

Here are some fun Halloween activities that kids can use to decorate or just have fun.

Coloring Page Creator – Lets your child create the picture to color!
Witch’s Brew Color Page(and hidden picture)
Frankenstein & Mad Scientist Color Page
Jack-o-lantern Scarecrow Color Page