So Halloween is around the corner and you know there’s going to be a bunch of parties and bars that will be celebrating the event. You can either go to the store and drop at least $50 on whatever polyester mess is left standing, or you can pull together a simple, yet fun, getup with what you already own-or can get with just a few dollars. Grab a date or a group of friends and pull together some of these tried and true ideas that can be thrown together even as you’re heading out the door.

Since Saturday’s weather is supposed to be less than ideal, what better way to wait out the sunshine than to leisurely browse the racks while being entertained by some top-notch live music?

Rock-N-Shop, the brainchild of BRAND and Openhouse Gallery, is hosting a hybrid shopping event where you get to rock out to local bands while you pick through designer duds.

$30 Dinner Party is a Monthly Column that lays out a detailed 3-course meal (appetizer, entree and dessert) for a dinner party of four for under $30. With a detailed listing of ingredients (and their cost) and super easy recipes, along with budget wine pairings, you’ll never have to put off socializing due to budget restrictions again. Recession be damned!

Lea Michele, Brian D’arcy, Kristin Chenowith, Lin-Manuel Miranda. If you live in New York you should know at least one of those names. They’re some of the biggest performers on Broadway today and hearing their voices live will not only give your the goosebumps but have you thinking “yes, this is why I live here.”

From the time I was a teenager, I was endlessly trying multitudes of beauty and skin care products in an attempt to find the perfect “miracle products” – the ones that would erase my blackheads, make my hair look shiny and full, or make my lashes long enough to touch my eyebrows. Even though I knew it was wasteful to buy a product, try it, and toss it, I was on a quest and nothing short of finding those miraculous products would stop me.

Halloween isn’t just for kids. In fact, my costumes have only become bigger and better throughout the years. But the best costumes are the ones that are so simple, you smack yourself in the head and think “why didn’t I do that” or “that could have saved me three hours of struggling with my mom’s hot glue gun.” Save yourself from that $50 costume from Ricky’s that will only fall apart after the second bar crawl and look to your own closet for some ideas.

Work sucks. And it sucks even more when the job you’re working is a boring, mind-numbing, string of monotonous processes which you have to suffer through until your boss decides to let you go for a 30 minute lunch break. And while some of us are courageous enough to say good bye to our mundane occupations and look for something better, most of us are not, or simply cannot afford to be. So for those of us who have wasted countless hours staring out the window and daydreaming of better days, or looking at the clock so many times it seems as if it’s barely moving, here’s a couple of things you can do to put some meaning back into your life or at the least some increased brain activity.

The Secret Science Clubs returns to the Gowanus’ Bell House with more brain-stimulating lectures, starry-eyed cocktails, and stratospheric sounds for astronomy nerds with a thirst for knowledge and tasty drinks.

Unbeknownst to me, the 92nd St. Y is (and has been) a hub for all things artistic and performing arts related. And with their 75th Anniversary coming up, there are all sorts of cool (read: cheap) events happening at both their uptown and Tribeca locations.

This weekend they are hosting the Marathon 75, a 2 day, all-day dance event featuring the likes of John Jasperse, Jacqulyn Buglisi and Chris Elam. $10 for an entire day of dance performances? That’s even a better deal than the annual Fall for Dance Festival at City Center.

As soon as I was 18, I couldn’t wait to do two things: buy a lottery ticket and get my own credit card. I lost my first $10 and gave up on the former, but I didn’t even have to try to get the latter. I got a phone call merely a few weeks after my birthday with a survey from a credit card company — they wanted to issue me my own card. Ten minutes on the phone and one week later, I had that little piece of plastic magic in my hand — and a whole new mess of troubles.