This year my friends and I decided we wanted to have matching costumes. After visiting a certain club last year on Halloween, we learned they hold group costume contests every year. We’ve narrowed it down to Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story or Scooby Doo. (I’ve already called Daphne) These group costumes would actually make Halloweene even more exciting. It makes mingling more interesting and it’s easier to keep track of your friends amongst a heavy crowd. I think Scooby Doo would win that one over Alice because of originality. Everyone loves Scooby Doo.

I’ve warned y’all before – don’t buy costumes in shops or rent them. Find one of the many great websites that sell Halloween costumes, like Halloween Express. They actually have a huge selection (since originality is very important – without it, you always lose) and are fairly priced for an online costume store. Shopping around is always important, especially when you’re on a budget. I’ve found that you can sell your used costume on eBay and get some of your investment back…if you don’t throw up on it or spill liquor on it…

The best way to find a good school that will actually teach you the things you need instead of giving you a piece of paper for money is to ensure your school is an accredited university. Meeting with (either by phone or in person) an admissions counselor will also help build your confidence in the school. You can also try talking to other students through message boards to see if they enjoyed getting their degree and would recommend the university.

This website doesn’t just show you online schools like University of Phoenix. It also includes traditional campuses that offer distance learning programs. There is also other information for those interested in going back to school after working. There are helpful articles and links to other resources. As a bonus, there are articles about telecommuting jobs, which is something that I have. Working from home doing customer service is a great, flexible job for any student.

In all seriousness, Halloween is my favorite pointless holiday and searching for the perfect costume starts very early. This year is going to be themed for me and my boyfriend. We’re going as Padme and Anakin from Star Wars. And this year I’m actually going to buy my costume instead of try to make it. (That failed miserably a few years ago.) BuyCostumes.com has over 15,000 costumes for various holidays, but mostly for Halloween. Their costumes are all new and are usually much cheaper than you would find in a regular costume shop. My Padme costume is going to cost me $50 from them, but when I found one in the costume shop downtown, they wanted $100 to rent it.

There are multiple online printing websites that offer everything a specialty print shop would, but at internet prices. If only some of the student organizations were as cost-conscious as a small business owner, then my tuition and fees would go down (seriously, my university pays for everything the student orgs do!). This is just another way for smart students to cut back their spending.

Another benefit of ordering from online printing websites is that you can often design your product right on their website. Some of them have a lot of templates for you to go through to build the perfect flier or business card, with stock images and clipart for you to choose from. This all just makes professional printing much easier for the student or small business owner.

1. Hulu has a large number of TV shows and movies, as well as video clips. It’s missing a lot of episodes and series/movies, but it has most of the popular ones.

2. Surf the Channel is a similar website that has pretty much the same content, but it does have a few that Hulu does not.

3. Most of the major networks have their recent episodes available for online viewing.

4. Torrents. Because I don’t want the MPAA cracking down on me, I’m not saying that I do this. It’s just one possibility.

5. YouTube, which is not supposed to have copyrighted content, actually has plenty of it. There are a lot of series uploaded to YouTube. This is how I watched season four of Grey’s Anatomy actually.

• Pasta (anykind, I use shells)
• Bacon
• Alfredo sauce (you can make your own or buy premade)

Directions

• Cook pasta
• Cook bacon
• Pour alfredo sauce over pasta and add bacon

• Tortillas
• 1 lb ground beef
• Old El Paso enchilada sauce
• Cheese of your preference, I use Colby Jack

Directions

• Brown ground beef
• Mix enchilada sauce, ground beef and cheese
• Alternate layers of tortillas and beef/cheese/sauce mixture
• Pour cheese on top
• Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes

• 1 lb ground beef
• 2 cans of mushroom soup
• 1 bag of frozen tater tots
• shredded cheese of your preference, I use Colby Jack
• French Fried Onions

Directions

• Brown ground beef
• Under cook tater tots, you want them to be partially cooked
• Mix mushroom soup, beef, tater tots and cheese in 13×9 inch pan
• Add cheese and French Fried Onions to the top
• Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes

• Fettucini noodles
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions

• Cook pasta.
• In pan, melt cream cheese, milk and butter.
• Once creamy, add parmesan cheese.
• Pour alfredo sauce over pasta and serve.

1. Use ClaimID. This is a website that pairs with OpenID to have one login for multiple websites. This way, you can make sure your information is tied to one username. So when your potential employer googles your name, you can make sure he only sees what you want him to see and not what some crazy man with your name posted on Myspace.

2. Run your email through IdentiFight. This service will find website accounts that are tied to your email. It will pull up your flickr, myspace, magnolia, etc. So be careful NOT to give your mom the same email you post pictures of you drinking beer on myspace.

3. Search different combinations of your name on google. See what comes up.