However, if you find yourself planning an upcoming bridal shower on a budget, have no fear: It’s entirely possible to plan a tasteful, fun and sentimental gathering without breaking the bank. Here are five time-saving and cost-cutting ways to throw a beautiful bridal shower:

Invitations
It can be tempting to blow your entire budget for the party on the invitations, but consider saving money (and time) by sending them electronically. Web sites like Pingg.com make sending invitations and tracking responses electronically a breeze. And with an enormous online image database, it’s almost guaranteed that even the pickiest planner will find the perfect invitation design.

Food
Skip hours of baking and frosting and provide your guests with a creative and low-fat ice cream cake. Ice cream sandwiches from The Skinny Cow look sweet when stacked in a pyramid and topped with creative garnishes. Your guests will be thankful for a low-fat snack option, and you will have time to actually enjoy the party. Sandwiches come in strawberry shortcake, chocolate, vanilla, vanilla/chocolate, chocolate peanut butter, mint and cookies n’ cream flavors. Use one flavor for a consistent look or mix and match flavors for extra guest options.

Drink
Sangria is an unexpected and delicious drink to serve at your shower. Added bonus: the ingredients are inexpensive and easy to find. You can even substitute grape juice and seltzer water for wine for a tasty non-alcoholic version. The only other ingredients required are slices of fresh fruits such as oranges, pears and peaches, and about 1/4 cup of sugar. For variations on the classic recipe, check out Cooks.com or AllRecipes.com

Games
Rework an old classic by playing a game of Bridal Shower Bingo. First, create copies of a blank grid resembling a bingo card. As the guests arrive, have them fill out the grid with gifts that they think the bride will receive. (The free space is in the middle and players can write their own gift in this space.) As the bride opens a gift, players cross it off their bingo card. Award a prize to the first person to fill five spaces in a row, across or diagonally.

Favors
Pamper your guests with homemade body scrubs in simple, elegant glass mason jars. You can even customize the recipe below to include your favorite scents and colors.

Homemade Body Scrub

You will need:
3 cups Epsom salt (or coarse sea salt)
1 cup oil (almond, canola or olive oil usually works best)
Essential oils for fragrance
Mason jars

Instructions:
First, measure out your salt and pour into a large container. Measure out the oil and slowly pour into the salt while stirring. Finally, add the essential oil to the desired strength. Attach any desired ribbons, hang tags or other decorations to the outside of the jar.

Mom, sister, daughter, wife – they’re all special women in your life and you want to get them luxury gifts this holiday season. But your budget is limiting your spending. You can do luxury without spending the big bucks on beautiful gifts. All it takes is a little creativity and a good eye for quality.

Here are some luxurious gift ideas without the large price tags:

Spa package:
Women love to be pampered, but heading to a spa can be very expensive. Instead, create a beautiful gift basket of lotions, creams, gels, oils and exfoliating products for the bath. Make sure you schedule free time for her to relax in her spa and let the stress seep away. Add a calming CD or a manicure set to top off the package. To keep this gift extra special, look for products with a scent the recipient appreciates and enjoys.

If you are in an area where a spa training center is located, give the company a call and find out if you can schedule an appointment at a reduced price. This way you’re still able to give the luxury spa getaway, without the extra cost.

Jewelry:
“Pearls bring elegance and beauty to any outfit and also are an affordable jewelry choice,” says Jeremy Shepherd, CEO of PearlParadise.com. “Freshwater pearls are very versatile – they come in a variety of pastel colors so you can match an outfit or skin tone perfectly, and you can look for the perfectly round classic pearls or mix and match some of the more unique and creative shapes.” PearlParadise.com offers pearls up to 80 percent off retail price, and freshwater pearl earrings to complete strands of freshwater pearls start at $22.

Another popular style of pearl is the Tahitian drop pearl – a pear-shaped pearl with no banding around the middle like circle pearls. Tahitian pearls come in darker colors including green and peacock. Every woman – no matter her age or style – should have a beautiful drop Tahitian pearl necklace or earring set to enhance the elegance of her wardrobe. To learn more about Tahitian pearls and see the huge variety of settings and designs, visit PearlParadise.com.

“Nothing says luxury and good taste as cultured pearls. Known as an icon of style for centuries, pearls take on a woman’s personality, her distinct luster,” says Kathy Grenier, director of Marketing and Communications with The Cultured Pearl Association of America Inc. “Today, cultured pearls of all shapes, colors and varieties are available making pearl jewelry options plentiful.”

Afternoon out:
With children, work and extra activities, sometimes the best – and most luxurious gift – is an afternoon out on the town. Depending on your budget, you can expand this into an evening on the town or a mini getaway as well. The months of January and February are ideal for traveling because hotels, flights and tours are lowering their costs in an effort to fill vacancies.

If you plan on the afternoon out, special discounts are often available for lunch menus and afternoon matinees. Get dressed up, have a great lunch at a well-known restaurant and catch the latest theater production while keeping the cost affordable.

Shop off-season:
This tip will take a bit of extra work, but if you’re willing to dig, you can find many summer clothing and accessory items for reduced prices during the winter months. If the recipient is big into purses, look for bags made from linens and light-weight fabrics. Search for some extra-stylish shades or a beautiful summer hat. For the professional female, look for a cool warm-weather suit made from flowing linens. If the clearance racks in the stores don’t have anything, go online to find the great deals.

What do Customers who Bought this Toro Lawn Mower Have to Say?

Amazing Mower, Well Worth the Money!
This is my first self-propelled mower. I’m coming from a basic, no-frills machine that I bought some years ago when I just wanted something cheap that would do the job.

Next, add the fluids. The mower comes with the right amount of 30-weight oil. Then fill up the gas tank, and you’re off.

The mower has an engine kill switch like you’d find on a motorcycle. Switch to “I” (Ignition). Pull the starter cord. Mine fired up on the first pull! The engine runs smoothly (and much quieter than my old mower). You don’t need to have the safety bar pulled in at this point — the engine will run, but the blades will not spin.

Pull the safety bar in and the blades start spinning. Release it and they stop, but the engine keeps running. Kill the engine by flipping the ignition switch to OFF.

That’s cool. With my old mower, every time I let go of the safety bar it killed the engine and I would have to pull the starter cord again to get it going.

The propulsion is really nice. The upper section of the grip is spring-loaded and slides up and down the vertical handlebar rods slightly. The more pressure you apply to the handlebar, the faster the mower will want to move. Release the bar, and the mower stops moving. There is another, secondary handlebar underneath that can be used to circumvent the propulsion entirely, if desired.

There is also a large lever that allows you to change between mulching and bagging. This can be done at any time. With the bag attached, pulling the lever to the rear will start bagging, while pushing the lever forward will close off the opening to the bag and start mulching instead. The mower also comes with the side discharge attachment, which installs easily and is very effective.

When you’re done mowing, there is a port on the side that accepts a standard garden hose. Attach a hose to the mower and turn it on. Then start the mower and start the blades spinning. It does a really good job of cleaning out the mower for you. When the water coming out starts to run clear, just shut off the hose and let the blades keep spinning for another few seconds until the mower is dry. You will still need to clean out some of it, though, like the bag port, which the hose doesn’t reach.

The Briggs & Stratton engine seems strong, easily handling whatever horrible things I threw at it (with a caveat, explained below). Propulsion was also strong, and even going up a steep incline behind my house required only about 5% of the effort required with my previous mower. The overall build quality is excellent, and it’s a real looker to boot.

There are a couple of minor quibbles, but nothing significant enough to merit the loss of a star. I’m not a huge fan of the white wheels, which were already turning green after the first mow. And the wheels themselves don’t turn as freely as those on my old mower. Presumably this is because of the propulsion mechanism, so I guess that could be the case with any self-propelled mower. And finally, when in mulching mode, the mower seems to stall more frequently than my old mower when it hits the hard stuff. I live in Florida, and it rains a lot in the summer. Sun + lots of water = grass that’s sometimes a foot high in a week. So if the grass gets too long in between mows, this mower will sometimes stall because there’s way too much material to mash around. However, switching to side discharge or bagging solves the problem immediately, and the mower will cut ANYTHING.

Unstoppable in deep grass…

Started first pull right out of the box. There is no primer bulb and no starting ritual to learn. I do recommend running it completely out of gas when it is time to change the oil. Toro wants you to lay the mower on it’s side to drain the oil out. This also floods the engine with gasoline making it hard to restart.

Drive system is user friendly and completely intuitive. The faster you walk the faster it goes, the slower you walk the slower it goes. You stop and it stops. It does need to coast a couple of inches forward to disengage the drive system or it is hard to pull backwards. Try to pull it backwards more than two feet and the rear guard gets pulled under the machine and then you have to drag it along. It you have a yard that requires a lot of backing it can get tiring. This is my only complaint of the mower. I am 6 feet tall and the handle height is perfect for me. The hand grips are very comfortable and almost vibration free. Relaxing to operate…even fun at times. I said I’d never own a self-propelled lawn mower but at 51 years of age it’s time. That and my yard is almost a full acre.

I also own this engine on a different mower and this version is not as loud.

I do not bag or mulch since my grass is usually too tall for that. In the free discharge mode it is unstoppable. My grass was 7″ high when I got the mower and I cut it with the deck set at the second lowest height setting possible and I could not induce it to stall. Not even running at full speed. Very impressive. (It was late afternoon and the grass had mostly dried out.) In routine mowing with just slightly overgrown grass it leaves a very nice cut. No need to mulch or bag. Even in the deep grass that day it did not leave a mess behind. I have used the mulch mode once and it made the yard look beautiful. But it is not practical to mulch if I am going to be taking off more than 1 1/2 inches of grass in a single pass. Then I really have to slow down to make it look nice.

If it lasts I will be very pleased. The only concern I have about potential longevity is that the drive system whines at times like those big riding rechargable kids toys. Not a judgment, just an observation.

AUGUST 19th UPDATE: In the review I stated that the mower effortlessly took off five inches of grass in a single pass with no issues. If the grass (fescue) is damp or rich with moisture from recent rains, trying to take off that much at once will clog the discharge chute. Trying to remove three inches at once will clog the chute if it is damp and thick. We sold off our last commercial mower in the spring and this is the first residential mower I have been willing to tolerate. And while it can’t compete with the high speed blades on commercial mowers it runs circles around the stuff that Sears, Lowes and Walmart sells.

American kids are learning from their parents this back to school season – about value, smart investing and getting the most for every dollar spent. Developing wise spending habits is a good thing for kids, but does it mean they have to sacrifice their sense of style as they head back to school?

Not necessarily, says children’s fashion expert, Jenny Cooper, head of J.Crew’s children’s line, called crewcuts, for ages 2 to 12. Children of top celebrities from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., have been spotted wearing crewcuts. “It is possible to get great style, quality and durability at family-friendly prices,” Cooper says. “Parents should look at their children’s back-to-school wardrobe as an affordable investment, and follow a few basic rules when shopping.”

* Look for sophisticated, classic styles rather than trendy clothes that may have less enduring appeal. Because something is classic doesn’t mean it lacks character and personality. Timeless style enables a wardrobe item to be usable and relevant for future seasons, whereas trendy togs are often “flash in the pan” items that may be cheaper and less durable. “Your son may outgrow his crewcuts by this time next year, but you’ll still be able to use the clothes next year to put his little brother in stylish, great-looking hand-me-downs,” Cooper says.

* Look for quality. Choose garments made of durable, quality materials that have great details. It’s common for children to fall in love with certain articles of clothing that they wear over and over again, as any mom who’s washed the same shirt five times in a week knows. “It’s worth it to spend a little more on a few items that will look great no matter how much use and washing they get,” Cooper says. “We are obsessed with quality.”

* Don’t forget fit. How often have you bought your child a pair of pants or a shirt in a particular brand, loved the fit, and went back and bought several more pairs in different styles and sizes of the same brand … only to find out that not all styles fit the same across the brand. “Fit should be consistent,” Cooper says, “so that items will look great and consistent across all ages. We want our jeans to look as amazing on a 10- or 12-year-old as they do on a 3- or 5-year-old.”

*Build a wardrobe by mixing and matching key items. Just as you purchase a piece for your own wardrobe keeping in mind what it will pair well with, do the same for children’s clothes. A good pair of jeans, smart-looking skirt and classic shirt or blouse can be worn for a variety of occasions, from dress-up to casual. “Try to keep a core of neutral-colored items – pants for boys, skirts for girls – that will go with whatever fun, playful thing your children want to wear on top,” Cooper suggests. “If you establish a good base, the rest of the choices they make will always look great.”

* Remember, your children’s clothes need to fit their personality, not just their body. “Our aim is to create styles that kids would create themselves if they were little fashion designers,” Cooper says. “Styles should be fun, comfortable and unique.”

* Accessorize for your kids, just as you do for your own wardrobe. For boys, a pop of color in the socks instantly gives a little guy a twist of personality. For girls, look for jewelry that looks like the real thing, rather than gumball jewelry, and don’t forget hair accessories to really crown a look.

* Finally, don’t underestimate the importance of good shoes, whether they are dress shoes, casual shoes or sneakers. You child’s shoes should be durable enough to survive the season of tumble and fun, and good-looking so that your child wants to wear them again and again.

If there is a silver lining to the recession, it’s the increased competition that’s driving businesses in practically every industry to woo consumers with ever-escalating deals. From car makers pledging to make your new car payments if you lose your job, to online coupon sites that are actually paying consumers a share of the site’s commission on everything they buy, businesses are going all out to grab their share of the disposable cash consumers still have to spend.

That’s good news for you, the smart shopper, but it can be time consuming to separate the hype and hollow promises from the truly great deals that are out there. Online coupon and deal sites in particular offer great savings opportunities … or the potential to waste your time and money if you patronize one that falls short of its promises.

When you’re winnowing winning Web sites from the herd of hollow-promise-pledging competitors, keep this advice in mind:

* More Americans than ever are shopping online. In fact online sales rose again last year, even when nearly every other segment of the economy stayed flat or dipped. This means more businesses will hop on the information superhighway in order to stay competitive, and you’ll have even more opportunities to find great deals.

* If a coupon or deals site doesn’t do business with the stores where you shop, just how helpful is it? Sure, you may get a cheaper price from an obscure online merchant that you find on a discounter Web site, but you’ll be sacrificing the peace of mind you enjoy when you deal with retailers, merchants and businesses you already know are reliable. Plus, you also risk sacrificing quality and customer service by shopping in the realm of the unknown. Look for sites like MyDealsAndCoupons.com that has shopping arrangements with more than 1,200 top-name, recognizable merchants and retailers, including favorites such as Walmart, Target, Macy’s and Kohls.

* You can patronize one Web site for your retail purchase needs and another for online shopping needs like booking travel. But your savings will add up faster, and you’ll spend less time hunting for deals, if you find a comprehensive deal site that offers deals with both retail and online sellers, including top travel sites like Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity and Hotels.com.

* If you’re already spending money online, it makes sense to do business with a Web site that will actually reward you for your patronage. And sites are going to great lengths to reward consumers. At the forefront of the trend – sharing commission from retailers with the site’s customers.

The newly launched MyDealsAndCoupons.com actually provides members with cash rewards for every purchase they make. The site does this by giving consumers a percentage of the commission the site receives from a retailer when a shopper buys something from the retailer through his or her MyDealsAndCoupons membership. Users create a free membership and make their purchases, and 90 days later (to allow for returns or resolving any customer service issues) the site deposits the cash into the member’s account. Once the balance tops $10, the member can request a payout through cash or PayPal.

The site takes its rewards program a step further by offering members lifetime referral rewards. Whenever someone you’ve referred to the site makes a purchase using his or her membership, you get a share of the cash rewards.

Thanks to the economy, increased competition means better deals for consumers, especially savvy online shoppers. Visit www.MyDealsandCoupons.com to learn more.

Famous Brand Name Shoes Clearance Sale

At this time of year, it seems people are taking more pictures than ever. Another school year is wrapping up — there are graduations, proms and sporting events. And don’t forget about summer holidays, family vacations, reunions and weddings. Without a doubt, the digital camera has made it easier than ever for anyone to capture hundreds — even thousands — of pictures of these cherished moments. But this modern marvel of technology has been both a blessing and a curse.

We all take pictures that mean something to us, but then what happens? Weeks, months, even years go by and those same pictures are all but forgotten, held hostage in a camera, buried on a computer hard drive or lost in cyberspace. Then, when the time comes to share those photos, it seems they’re nowhere to be found.

Some people still make their own prints, but that only solves part of the problem. Maybe you put one or two on the refrigerator, but what about the rest? Off to the shoebox they go with the forgotten promise that, “One day I’ll get them in a book.” If you can relate to this, you’re not alone. There are other options to help you turn your digital photos into lasting memories.

First off, you’ll want to spend a bit of time finding out what you have to work with. If you’re buried in digital photos, start by paring down your photo library by deleting those you don’t like or need.

Next, set up a file system and get in the habit of naming your photos as soon as you download them to your computer. Be consistent with your naming conventions to stay extra organized. For example, for all photos related to a specific event, begin your naming scheme with the same word (such as reunion). Finally, back up your files to ensure that nothing gets lost.

If you’re drowning in a sea of shoeboxes packed with prints, it’s time to get organized. Start by putting the photos into large acid-free envelopes or boxes, marked with the year.
Discard the photos you don’t like or don’t want to keep.

Next, decide which photos you want to scan and set them aside. Scanning is a great way to preserve older photographs and to make copies of the more current pictures you will want to keep forever. Don’t have a scanner? Send your photos to a service like Jostens Image Scan where they process your photos for you at a reasonable price.

Once your images are organized, why not make the memories permanent and published?

Jostens Photo Memory Books at OurHubbub.com are a great way for you to share your most memorable stories by creating your own hardcover photo memory books. With more than 150 designs and a myriad of custom covers, there’s a look and feel for just about any story, season or occasion. Parents can delight their child’s favorite teacher with the ultimate year-end gift, or make the perfect memory book for the graduate. Students can score points with a great gift for parents, capture the fun of prom night, or celebrate the team’s big season. If you’ve got pictures, a Jostens Photo Memory Book will help you turn them into a keepsake that you will treasure forever.

Forget the cost of all those new ink jet cartridges and photo paper for your printer, not to mention costly scrapbook materials. Jostens’ photo memory books start at just $34.99 for a 22-page book — saving you money and time. Plus, you’ll finally be able to show off your pictures and stories in a published coffee table book for your family and friends to see and not be forgotten. Visit Jostens and enter code AMAZING9 at checkout to save $10 off your first book — now through Sept. 1.

NASCAR style safety harness.

Lightweight and easy to transport – even on a bus.

Collapsible into a compact unit.

Back wheel brakes.

Shock absorbing front wheels – probably not sufficient for rough trails, however.

Read more about Baby Trend umbrellas strollers