A successful party doesn't depend on the amount of money you spend. You can have a successful fun party if you spend time thinking and letting your creativity flow.

1. Serve ordinary drinks in pretty stemware garnered from thrift shops (they needn't match) – and garnish them with extraordinary, yet simple, touches. Frugal Luxuries by Tracey Mcbride.

2. Have a potluck, its not only cheap its tasty too. Ask each guest to bring their favorite dish.

3. Some people think there needs to be many desserts to choose but most of the time more than half is left over. Cut down on the desserts and the money spent by making one or two desserts.

4. Stop cooking appetizers if you are having a meal, this is an extra step that is not needed.

5. Skip the bar tab and have each guest bring their favorite bottle of wine. Just specify it on the invite "Bring your favorite bottle of vino to share!". 5 Frugal Yet Fab Holiday Party Tips – Ezine Articles.

6. Save money and be environmentally friendly by using your own dishes and silverware. F is for Frugal – Blissfully Domestic.

7. Make sure and have music playing in the background, it adds a festive touch to any event.

8. Bring the outdoors in to decorate with – Pine cones, evergreen clippings, and holly all make great holiday decorations and as an added bonus they make the house smell great.

9. Make your own invitations and hand deliver them to save on postage.

10. Borrow from friends any items you may be lacking, such as casserole dishes, serving trays and large punch bowls.

Sometimes coupons can add up to some hefty savings. Last night I was at the store and after coupons, I save $30. My total went from $78.00 down to $48.00. All because I checked out the sales and clipped coupons before I went to the store. So you have to put some effort into it but it is definitely worth the effort.

Here are some coupon sites that will help you get on your way to some great savings.

moneysavingmom.com – Helping you be a better home economist.

247couon.com – From books to pet stores to clothing.

dealcatcher.com – Catch the best deals online.

redplum.com – Sweeten the deal.

coupons.com – Free coupons.

And for advice on how to get the most from your coupons and how to combine offers with coupons to save more check out this site – grocerycouponguide.com

Yes today is Friday the 13. There are superstitions connected to this day, why is that and where do they come from?

The sixth day of the week and the number 13 both have foreboding reputations said to date from ancient times, and their inevitable conjunction from one to three times a year portends more misfortune than some credulous minds can bear. According to some sources it's the most widespread superstition in the United States today. Some people refuse to go to work on Friday the 13th; some won't eat in restaurants; many wouldn't think of setting a wedding on the date.

LEGEND HAS IT: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, one will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894). Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names). There are 13 witches in a coven.

Although no one can say for sure when and why human beings first associated the number 13 with misfortune, the superstition is assumed to be quite old, and there exist any number of theories, most of which deserve to be treated with a healthy skepticism.

LEGEND HAS IT: Never change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams. Don't start a trip on Friday or you will have misfortune. If you cut your nails on Friday, you cut them for sorrow. Ships that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck – as in the tale of H.M.S. Friday … One hundred years ago, the British government sought to quell once and for all the widespread superstition among seamen that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky.

Some say Friday's bad reputation goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It was on a Friday, supposedly, that Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit. Tradition also holds that the Great Flood began on a Friday; God tongue-tied the builders of the Tower of Babel on a Friday; the Temple of Solomon was destroyed on a Friday; and, of course, Friday was the day of the week on which Christ was crucified. It is therefore a day of penance for Christians.

But with all of this, you have to remember that Friday the 13 is just another day. Its interesting to read about but try not to think about it being a day of bad luck. Any day can have bad luck. Take it for what it is…just another day.

Can you believe it, Halloween is come and gone and we are staring straight into the eyes of what we like to call 'The Holidays"! Yikes! Yes in the past I was always ready for this time of year with not much to do but this year I have a lot left undone, and not much money to do it in. If you are in that same boat check out the tips below and start saving money today.

1. Save money on stamps by sending Christmas postcards. And only send them to the people you would like to get in touch with the most.

2. Using the Christmas cards you received last year you can make your own postcards – saving on the price of the postcards.

3. Make your own bows from newspaper and magazines – Click here for easy gift bow instructions.

4. Wrap your gifts in what you already have – left over material(you can even cut up old clothes you don't wear), magazine ads, newspaper funnies, and old wrapping paper.

5. Make your own gift tags – cut up old Christmas card, you can even use a deck of cards like they did here.

6. Decorate with what you already have. Hang up your Children's art work, fill a glass bowl with old bulbs or pine cones, string popcorn and cranberries to hang on the tree and along the fire mantel, use pine tree clipping for decoration and as a bonus it will make the house smell beautiful.

7. When looking for gifts, check out your local Goodwill, a lot of times you will find brand new merchandise from Target or other well known stores that donate their over merchandise. The cost of these brand new items are usually only a couple dollars.

8. Make your own gifts. There are so many easy fun project for the whole family to make and homemade is always best.

9. Save on shipping and deliver gifts in person when you can.

10. Always pay with cash, you will buy only the necessities because watching cash leave your hands is much harder then using the credit card.

Have you ever had suspicions someone is lying to you but you weren't sure? The following techniques to telling if someone is lying are often used by police, and security experts. This knowledge is also useful for managers, employers, and for anyone to use in everyday situations where telling the truth from a lie can help prevent you from being a victim of fraud/scams and other deceptions.

Walking may not seem to you to be a good way to exercise but according to an article from Family Circle I found out how good walking can be for you and the great thing is that its low impact and almost anyone can do it.

Millions of Americans don't exercise because they think working out has to be challenging to be beneficial. But the fact is just the act of getting up and moving makes a difference. New research has found that even super-slow strolls reduce risk of cardiovascular events by 31% and the chance of dying(during an 11 year period) by 32%. Participants covered as little as 5 1/2 total miles a week and went as slow as 2 miles per hour.

Walking can also keep you slim. A 2009 study of nearly 5,000 men and women found that americans gain an average of more than 2 pounds a year once they reach middle age, but the more walking they do, the less weight they put on.

For the best results, the American Heart Association, in partnership with the American College of Sports Medicine, recommends adults walk briskly for at least 30 minutes, five days a week. How fast? That's up to you. A study of overweight, sedentary volunteers revealed that all of them achieved a healthy heart rate of 60% to 70% of their maximum range when told simply to walk briskly.

For helpful information on walking and getting outdoors check out The Walking Site.

Found this article on the BBC News site online; Curry spice 'kills cancer cells'. An extract found in the bright yellow curry spice turmeric can kill off cancer cells, scientists have shown.

I was surprised when I read this about Turmeric. My family tends to eat a lot of curry dishes but I had never heard of it having the ability to help kill cancer cells. The chemical – curcumin – they have found has properties that have started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours.

Dr McKenna said: "Scientists have known for a long time that natural compounds have the potential to treat faulty cells that have become cancerous and we suspected that curcumin might have therapeutic value."

Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: "This is interesting research which opens up the possibility that natural chemicals found in turmeric could be developed into new treatments for oesophageal cancer.

To read the complete article click here.

Ever get suspicious of your neighbors 'sharing' your wi-fi internet connection when you are at home or at work. Ever feel like your neighbors 'sharing' overloads or compromises your wi-fi connection? Researchers say that they have found a way to solve your problems with paint. That's right: Paint. Researchers have developed a type of paint that protects your wi-fi connection from being used by other people outside of your home or office building.

It means security-conscious wireless users could block their neighbours from being able to access their home network – without having to set up encryption.

The paint contains an aluminium-iron oxide which resonates at the same frequency as wi-fi – or other radio waves – meaning the airborne data is absorbed and blocked.

By coating an entire room, signals can't get in and, crucially, can't get out.

Developed at the University of Tokyo, the paint could cost as little as £10 per kilogram, researchers say.

Instead of companies investing in complicated and expensive encryption software, this simple and inexpensive paint could prevent hackers from having access to secure information.

While paints blocking lower frequencies have been available for some time, Mr Ohkoshi's technology is the first to absorb frequencies transmitting at 100GHz (gigahertz). Signals carrying a larger amount of data – such as wireless internet – travel at a higher frequency than, for example, FM radio.

"I'm working on a material that can absorb a larger range of frequencies. We are capable of making a paint that can absorb over 200 gigahertz."

He hopes that soon the technology could be woven into clothing.

"We're not sure about the true effects of electromagnetic waves, in this range, on the human body.

While I'm not sure if I'm ready to dip my clothes in paint, I sure am glad that there are reserachers out there working on keeping our information safe.

Halloween is coming up around the corner and its time to start thinking about costumes and crafts for celebrating the holiday. If you're having a hard time of thinking of ideas, check out DLTK, a website full of holiday ideas and crafts, including pumpkin carving patterns that you can print off for free. Among the patterns are Aliens, Bats and even Blue's Clues patterns.

Make sure you take your kids and get out to a pumpkin patch. Enjoy making some apple cider together, enjoy a hay bale ride or corn maze and celebrate the season. Check out the innovative pumpkin cannon for an enjoyable way to get into the mood for the season.

Heiser Farms Pumpkin Canon – Willamette Valley Cyclocross Series from nwduffer on Vimeo.

Welcome to another Time Saving Tip Tuesday! Another chance for you to enact a strategy to save you time throughout your day. Another chance to form a transforming habit that will free you up to enjoy life and not have that overwhelming feeling that there is too much to do and too little time.

This week we're going to use a little science to help us with our time saving tip. I was never all that great at science in school, but I think that this simple law can be used as we consider how to save time throughout our day. One of Newton's (a really smart dead guy) laws of motion was this: Objects in motion, tend to stay in motion and objects at rest, tend to stay at rest. While I'm sure Newton said it much more eloquently, the general idea is that something that is sitting still will not move unless an outside force makes it move and something in motion will not stop unless an outside force makes it stop.

What does this have to do with saving time? Everything. Because so often, we can find it difficult to get started on a project or to-do list. We are 'at rest' with that particular project or even 'at rest' completely, sleeping or sitting on the couch. While rest is necessary, resters must beware. The longer you stay at rest, the harder it will be for you to get into motion.

So this week's time saving tip is simple: Get moving. Don't allow the illusion that there is too much to do to keep you stationary. Find a small, simple task that is easy to do and start with that, then allow the momentum of completing that action to propel you into the rest of your day. You will find that as you continue to stay in motion, the momentum of your action will give you the energy you need to continue on with the rest of your day. Your list will seem shorter and less daunting when you make the decision to 'begin motion' and get started on what you have to accomplish that day.