Ever since we had children, the price to go on a vacation has become more and more of an issue.  Instead of saving up for a month to go away, we now have to save up for almost a year just so we can go way for a couple weeks.

In an effort to make our vacations more friendly our pocketbooks, we have been looking online for deals and coupons that we can use to reduce the cost of our trips.  So far this is work pretty good and we are currently doing research and how we can save money for our trip to Disney World and the inevitable purchase of Disney tickets.

From our research online, we learned that you can get Hopper tickets that are sort of an add-on to the regular tickets which allows you to visit as many attractions in one day without having to buy new tickets for each one.  This is very important for us since our kids have different interests and they of all suggested that we go to different attractions while we are there.

If you’re heading down to Disney World in the future, I would suggest you look into purchasing Hopper tickets and save yourself some money.  Visit the following site and read more about them.

I remember when my sister and I were young teenagers. We were really immature and it showed by what we did for fun. We used to call toll free numbers and order samples of diapers for our friends, hoping they would be embarrassed when they received them in the mail.

As we grew up in a very strict family, we were never allowed to go to parties and that sort of thing. We had to come up with our own entertainment on a Friday night and this seemed to be the best we could come up with. At the time, though, we considered it to be a great deal of fun.

Some nights we would go through the yellow pages and see what kinds of 800 numbers we could call and harass that night. One of our favorites was LL Bean. We used to call and use a British accent. It was fun at the time.

My friend was in New Jersey recently and swears she saw JLo in an SUV Diplomat every day that she was there. She thinks she even was staying the in same hotel and was just using a limo service.

My friend was there for a convention and trade show and she says that every morning when she was waiting outside the hotel for a taxi, she would see a woman with a couple men beside her (that looked like body guards) come out and get into a Dodge Diplomat with darkened windows. It had a driver too and she swears it was the singer.

I suppose it would be possible that the star was in town filming a video or new movie but I’m not sure my friend would really know a celebrity if one hit her on the face! It could have been almost anyone. Heck, maybe it was just some rich lady with her own Diplomat and some friends or a hubby and brother?

My daughter, going on twenty years old, loves to shock her friends by bragging that her mother got her started playing video games. And it’s true. Back in the late seventies, we bought the precursor to today’s video game consoles, the game of Pong, which hooked up to our television. From that time onward, I was hooked.

Then I discovered arcades, and blew many a quarter on Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man and Galaga. Those were my favorites. I’d sometimes try my hand at Donkey Kong or Centipede, but never had the success with them that I had with the others.

When my daughter was fairly young I bought a game system and three games I thought she (and I) would like. Talk about being hooked.

Since that time my daughter has bought or been given just about every gaming system out there. Now that everything is pretty much 3-D, I can’t play them anymore because they make me dizzy. It’s like watching a roller coaster ride. My brain can’t process it correctly and I get sick.

I saw an ad the other day in the newspaper that said free PSP stuff. I guess the next big thing has already hit that household and they’ve moved on. But free? So of course I picked up the phone. Free is good.

I am an avid gambler. I like to spend time at the casino and I also spend a lot of time at online casinos. One thing that I had never tried and always wanted to was betting on the races. Some of my buddies and I decided that we would go and try our luck one day and we started asking for horse racing tips from anyone we knew who had gone before.

On the big day, we drove down to the tracks, trading racing tips with each other along the way. I somehow knew that it was going to be a successful day and I was not disappointed. We made some money and when it was all over, we decided to go out and celebrate. It is now my favorite thing to do.

I became really good friends with a great horse racing tipster and we both like to spend a lot of time down at the tracks. In fact, this is what he does for a living. I am not at this point yet, and it is really disappointing for me when I am sitting at my desk and I know that he is at the tracks, having a good time without me.

Your mum’s sixtieth birthday is coming up and you and your siblings are planning a special event. She has always sacrificed for the five of you, and she’s worked hard all her life. For once you want to treat her like a queen..

You discover a castle along the Kent coastline that has been converted into a hotel and restaurant. Your younger brother wants to hire two Hummer limos for the family. Your younger sister, ever the practical one, searches the Internet for “limo hire Kent” and finds exactly the type of limo hire your brother was hoping for.

Your older sister shops for new clothing and luggage for Mum. Your older brother says, “Whatever it takes to make this special. We owe her.”

All goes as you planned. But the best memories are not of the luxuries themselves, but of your mum’s reactions, from disbelief, to shock, to wonder, to delight. She will take the memories of that weekend, to clasped to her bosom, to her grave - may it be many years hence.

I was listening in on a conversation in the school lunch room a few weeks before summer vacation. I was there to substitute for the high school vocal music teacher, and that day I didn’t know the teachers during my lunch period that well. Add to that the fact that I didn’t understand anything about the subject they were discussing, and you’ll understand why I finished eating quickly. It was like they were talking another language and no one thought to translate for me.

The conversation revolved around tickets for a concert to be held in Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. I’d never heard of the group, but that wasn’t the puzzling part. They kept talking about the best place to find free presale information. This one said he liked such-and-such website. Another said her husband’s employer gave them codes.

I was able to piece together enough from the context of their discussion that it’s possible now to buy tickets before they go on sale to the general public, and usually these tickets are discounted. Don’t ask me for any details, though. That’s all I got out of the conversation before the bell rang. Saved by the bell?

My daughter will be graduating from the 8th grade soon and going on to high school. Elementary and middle school wasn’t the easiest for her and I want to show her how much I care that she really did her best and got through school. She has worked hard through some learning disabilities to get through the last several years so she is well worth the money I’ll be spending.

We live in the Philadelphia area and I’d like to get a reliable Philadelphia limo service to pick her and some friends up after school and take them to the salon, the movies and dinner. I plan to pay ahead for certain services at the salon since we are regulars there, and the same for dinner. If they go over, no biggie, the owner knows I’m good for it.

I don’t want to do along though, so is it safe to hire a service just for them or should I plan to ride too? I don’t know….. just wanted to make it about her and her friends.

I have always been a huge fan of Jane Austen. I remember the first time I ever read Sense and Sensibility. It was the first time I was absolutely in love with a book. That was before I read Emma, which is my all-time favorite book in the world. She is such a romantic author and I can see myself as a character in her stories.

Last year for my birthday, my husband arranged for me and my girlfriend to go on one of those Jane Austen tours and it was so amazing. I had the best time and I truly think that she is one of the most brilliant and inspiring people that ever lived.

I hope to go again one day, but for now I am content to read and reread her books, so that I can fall in love all over again. One thing is for sure and that is the fact that I will always be her biggest fan.

I am not a very lucky person, so I am used to not winning anything.  I have bought scratch and win tickets before and I think one time I won enough money to cover the cost of the ticket.  Other than that, I have never won anything in my life.

That is why I was really surprised when I got a phone call from a radio station saying that I had won a pair of concert tickets through a draw I had entered my name into.  I was really excited because it was the first real prize that I had ever won in my entire life and I guess, I was just completely shocked.

I was thinking about it later, and I wondered if my name was the only one in the draw.  I know that’s not true and I guess I just got lucky this one time but I’ll tell you what, I am going to go to this concert and I’m going to enjoy myself because it will probably be the only concert I will ever attend for free in my life.