Have you seen Hershey’s newest Halloween treat? The Screme Egg is a twist on the chocolate giant’s popular Easter sweet, the Cadbury Creme Egg. The shape is the same, as is the egg’s white filling, but the Halloween version features a green yolk-like center instead of yellow. If that doesn’t make you scream, perhaps the nutritional value will. A single Screme Egg contains 150 calories and five grams of fat. While that may not seem like a frightening amount, consider that the average adult can fit roughly four of the eggs in his or her mouth at one time. Add … Continue reading →

And by “simplify” I mean “keep it cheap.” Fortunately, cheap doesn’t have to translate into ugly. Goodness knows my 8-year-old would just “diiiiiiiie!!” if I suggested we scale back on Halloween costumes and decor. However, like many families the world over; we live on a budget. A tight budget, that doesn’t allow us to go bat wild celebrating pagan holidays. Still, I don’t want her missing out on all of the candy-coated fun, so instead of canceling Halloween, I find frugal ways we can participate without going into debt. Here are some of the inexpensive ways we keep the holiday … Continue reading →

Forget about bloody fangs, hanging skeletons and cackling witches, if you want a real scare leading up to Halloween, try filling up your gas tank in California. An unprecedented spike in fuel prices has added more than 50 cents a gallon to the Golden State’s pump prices. The AAA reported that gas prices hit a record of $4.67 per gallon on Monday morning, though market analysts say that number should fall in the coming weeks. Still, for many families the damage is already done. Now, it’s a matter of cutting back in other areas in order to stop the bleeding. … Continue reading →

Who buys Halloween candy this early? Places like Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens have had their spooktacular holiday displays up since Labor Day, but that doesn’t mean you have to succumb to their marketing ploy… Mom. Yes, my mom is a candy company’s dream customer. She is the sucker purchasing pumpkin-shaped lollipops, snack-size candy bars and other sugary sweet Halloween treats weeks in advance of the pagan holiday honoring the dead. And while my mom and others like her are responsible for keeping Willy Wonka’s smile from fading, it’s a different story with dentists. Many teeth experts are already sounding the … Continue reading →

It will be, if a Connecticut lawmaker has his way. State Rep. Tim Larson wants to make Halloween easier on working parents by moving the holiday to the last Saturday of October. “Halloween is fun night for the whole family, but not so much when you have to race home from work, get the kids ready for trick-or-treating, welcome the neighborhood children, and then try to get everyone to bed for an early school and work morning,” Larson said in a public statement. The politician also notes that by permanently moving trick-or-treating to the Saturday kids will be safer, as … Continue reading →

If you watched ABC’s Good Morning America earlier today, then you probably wish that Halloween would be cancelled all together, especially if you are a parent. The morning show did a bang up job trying to scare the daylights out of moms and dads with a segment about the many, many, many, many ways kids could die on October 31st. Actually, I think piece was designed to increase safety and parental awareness regarding the dangers that lurk on All Hallows’ Eve, but all I walked away with was a dozen or so ways my kid could meet her maker on … Continue reading →