Having recently gone through a breakup and resulting move and a dear friend who suffered a near fatal motorcycle accident, I could not have made it through without the support of my girlfriends.  It's interesting how the crisis of our friend nearly being killed and living in a coma for nearly 40 days could have a positive outcome, but it brought a dear friend back into my life.   We'd lunch before visiting our friend at the hospital and reconnect with each other.  Strange, but we realized there in front of our friend how much we missed each other and what fools we were for losing touch. I know that any of my friends will always be there for me whevever I need them. I really couldn't ask for a better, more supportive group of friends.  Thank goodness for my girls.

Having a family is a pricy pastime, like eating Faberge eggs or using antique bone china for skeet shooting. Instead of fantasizing about the kind of European sport car you could buy for the amount of money you spend on your kids, consider ways to cut those costs. Here are some budget trimmers:

It used to be you could just kick the kids out of the house on a summer day, lock the door and refuse to let them back in until well after dark. But someone had to go have a hissy fit and make that illegal, so now a lot more kids spend their time indoors. Luring your kids away from their PS3’s and IPods and daytime soap “stories” is harder than ever, even when you try to convince them that the outside world is cool ‘cause it’s so totally old school. Here are some gentle ways to nudge them out of the nest and make sure they don’t spend their whole summer eating Hot Pockets.

Check out the article here.