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.

If you still haven’t finished your back-to-school shopping, Discount School Supply is offer big discounts on school supplies from now until Friday, August 26th. Use code 4thekids to get an additional 15% off Discount School Supply’s already low prices. Great source of supplies for teacher as well!

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.

I’m convinced that every mom should have a Smartphone. I don’t know what I’d do without mine. I keep track of the kids, snap photos because I never remember my camera, capture and organize my thoughts, keep my shopping list, entertain myself with music and movies, find the nearest public restroom, find the nearest Starbucks and so much more.

One of the biggest assets of a smartphone that it can save you time and money on shopping. There are many great shopping apps, but one of my faves is ShopSavvy. In my quest to spend as little as possible on groceries, the biggest challenge has come in knowing which store has the best price. Not all sale items are listed on the store circular or online. But with ShopSavvy, I can scan the barcode of the item in question with my smartphone, and it will tell me if there is store nearby that has the item for cheaper! It will tell me the price and even give me current reviews.

My husband loves Blue Diamond Habanero BBQ Almonds. Almonds are not cheap, so I love when I get coupons for Blue Diamond almonds. When I was at the grocery store, they had the almonds for $3.79. My coupons were “Buy 2 get $0.60 off”. This store only doubles to 50 cents, so my cost would be $6.98 or $3.49 each. Using ShopSavvy, I discovered Wal-Mart has the same almonds for $2.80. Using my coupon, I would get them for $5.00 or $2.50 each…nearly a $1.00 cheaper for a total of $2.00 in savings.

If you’re a stay-at-home mom who needs to save her pennies as much as possible, you need ShopSavvy. Did I mention the app is free?

I’m a gigantic Disney fan. Ever since I was a kid, Disneyland was my favorite place to vacation. While many people spend their 21st birthday at a bar, I was at Disneyland.

Now that I live on the east coast, Disney World is much closer. And while my heart will always be with Disneyland, Disney World is a spectacular place to visit. Last year I spent my XX (you don’t need to know the age) birthday there. What’s great about Disney is with a little research and planning, you can get a great deal. Right now if you buy two Walt Disney World passes, you can get a 6 day, 5 night hotel accommodations for free!

I’m an avid reader. While I do love reading on the iPad, there is nothing quite the same as holding a book. I’m at a bookstore or library at least twice a week. The problem is, books aren’t cheap anymore. Even paperbacks are creeping up in price. But right now Borders has a buy one paperback get a second one 50% off. Use promo code: BOGO

The Coupon Mom is offering 3 free ebooks that can help you save big at the grocery and drug stores. And you don’t need to register or give your email to get them!

I first saw the Coupon Mom on a re-run of Oprah. She bought $125 worth of groceries for about $37. I was impressed! So I visited her site to get the low down on grocery shopping. The ebooks offer some great tips to get you started. However, I think discount grocery shopping is a skill that is developed over time. I ended up spending 25% over my normal budget and spent over 5 hours (3 of them grocery shopping) in the process. I can only hope that the 6 boxes of cereal, 8 cans of diced tomatoes and other items I stockpiled will last long enough to have the end result be a lower monthly grocery bill.

To learn more about the Coupon Mom and to get the free ebooks, visit CouponMom.com

One of the great things about the Internet is the ability to research great deals on everything you need. The trick is to sort through thousands of resources to find the deals you want and need. Over at Wise Bread, they have made the deal finding a little bit easier. On its Deals Roundup page, Wise Bread lists the day’s best deals, coupons and freebies from the best bargain sites on the web.

In my attempts to save money, meal planning and grocery shopping has become more complex. I’m clipping coupons, shopping multiple stores to get the best prices, and planning meals around what’s on sale. Being domestically and organizationally challenged, this new way of cooking and shopping has been difficult for me to manage.

But I’ve just come across a great new web and phone app that can make it easier. Ziplist offers lots of great features to create a shopping list and plan meals. The shopping list can be organized by aisle or store. It can be shared with other members of the family so that they can add items.

Not sure what to make for dinner? Ziplist has tons of recipes and with a single click all the ingredients can be added to your list. It will even show you items that you may already have at home so that they aren’t added to the list. And if you find a recipe on another website, you can save it to your Ziplist recipe box.

When you’re ready to shop, you can print out your list or access it by through your SmartPhone (iPhone app coming soon).

To learn more or to create your own list, visit Ziplist.

Most people seem to get upset at how early Christmas and holiday promotions start. I don’t mind so much because I love the holiday season; the sights, smells, great food…what’s not to like.

But now I appreciate the several months heads up because with economy as it is, I can’t afford to buy all gifts in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not only that, but this year my family will need to be more frugal in gift giving. Thank goodness for the Internet and all the great  deals  on it.

I’ll be sharing resources over the coming weeks that can be used at anytime, but will be particularly helpful during the gift giving season. This week I want you to know about UWantSavings.com.

Like many discount resources, UWantSavings.com gets overstock from stores and manufacturerers and sells them at a discount. They have a variety of items to fit every room of the house. Today I found a Hamilton Beach 14 cup food processor for over half off…its only $45. A Sony Cyber Shot digital camera just sold out … it was only $145 instead of $299. I’ve seen Wii/Xbox games for less than $20.

It may not have as much stuff as similar sites, but there is a lot good stuff at a good price that makes it work a visit. Visit  UWantSavings.com

40-80% off discount retail prices.