While Stella usually indulges my laziness by combing through the financial blogs and picking out our weekly roundup on her own, I thought I'd try something new this week and scrounge around for them myself. The result of this was lots of sports-related stories!

This week, in our continuing quest to bring you the week's best in money-saving articles, we present six missives ranging from the truly informative to the head-scratchingly absurd. Submitted for your reading pleasure, there's a signpost up ahead.

Your next stop, the Cat Herding Zone.

I've been elected to write this week's "Home Sweet Home" edition of Herding Cats--which is fitting, because I do indeed live at and work from home. Since today is All Hallow's Eve Eve, it was also fitting that we feature a few stories about ghosts.

Read on...if you dare!

Recently Mainstreet had a post about cheap natural remedies and on the same day, Wisebread posted seven natural ways to fight the flu. Tylenol, Pepto Bismol and NyQuil may be OTC standards, but there are simple and natural alternatives that deserve space in your medicine cabinet.

Here's a list of five of my favorite natural basics to cure what ails you:

All of today's articles serving as virtual shooting-range targets for my warped sense of comprehension share the same general theme: food. It's something I admittedly don't know much about anymore due to the diet plan I've followed over the last few months, the likes of which limits my life sustaining nutritional intake to non-processed foods best described as boring.

Being a creature of habit and patterned processes carefully refined over time to yield more positive results than negative, I welcome this mundane feeding process which lacks in both general good taste and creativity, but serves up a healthy portion of predictability. Thank goodness for you, the news articles on the menu today subscribe to anything but...

I'm a firm believer in the idea that just about every parent strives to be the best parent they can--even the terrible ones. One of the most important things you can do to be a good parent is spend time with your children. Disneyland, Chuckie Cheese or the arcade may be a great way to keep kids entertained while spending time with them--but while these activities are kid-friendly, they are definitely not wallet-friendly.

A better way to spend time with your kids is by playing sports with them. Here are some sports you can play with your kids that will make for a great bonding experience--and they don't cost much more than just your time:

Readers of the Savings.com blog will of course recall my post from a few weeks back entitled The Sinister Six, in which I detailed six haunted destinations to visit this Halloween. Well, one reader was not completely pleased with my post. He would have preferred I write about a slightly different topic, namely haunted houses.

I quote:

"i have an idea for another Halloween article. you say the best haunted houses. I cant do the research thats your job but i have some suggestions. and by haunted houses i mean like the kinds that has people in it trying to scare you. not like with real ghosts..."

The displeased reader is my eleven-year-old nephew, and I would like to state unequivocally that I did not ask him for any research help, so I don't know why he has to go and take that attitude. But Haunted Houses is a pretty good idea. So, starting with my nephew's #1 choice, here are The Frightening Four Best Haunted Houses to visit this Halloween.

When you're consistently overworked, run-down, achy, and cramped all over, it's time for an intervention. These current, flurrying times can create mental and physical congestion in the best of us, so that's why, more than ever, routine "body tune-ups" are a necessity rather than a luxury. Just like your car needs periodic oil changes, your body requires a reprieve from constant, repetitive activity and hard-to-break bad habits.

I've listed three options of bodywork or massage modalities (techniques) that can help you fend off any further damage:

If you know anything about the Savings.com blog, you know that we love our LOLcats. I'm pretty sure there have been times that we've written posts specifically so we can use something amazing we found on "I Can Has Cheezburger." But in the spirit of fairness to the other most common domesticated animal, stella.louise has decided that this week's roundup should be (mostly) canine-themed.

I know, I know--it's an outrageous and atrocious betrayal, so I just wanted to let you know that I took no part in this decision. I'll try my best to be stoic.

The popularity of Guitar Hero at last week's Savings.com Party reminded me of what a musical group we have here. In addition to professional musician Erik DiNardo, we have quite a few guitarists, keyboard players, etc. Not to mention serious aficionados like Sara and Derek.

In honor of the musicality of Savings.com, I decided (with a little help from some friends...) to compose a lineup of songs to save by--aka the "Savings.com Playlist":

People love to complain about, or even hate, Los Angeles. I guess it's easy to whine about its incessant, unrelenting, guaranteed traffic at almost all times of the day -- save the wee morning hours of a Sunday. Or the searing and menacing hot days of summer that hang you dry and transform you into a prune. I get it, LA can be occasionally overwhelming and burdensome, but I'm not a hater of this city. I have learned a lot from it and taken advantage of and grown from all of its diversity.

This brings me to the topic of food. I love me some well-made, creative, thoughtful vittles. I'm the type of person who dreams of my next meal. Finding satisfying and delicious dining experiences in LA as a pescetarian is easy. So if you're in LA and happen to be vegan, vegetarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian--or even carnivorous, check out this list (in no particular order) of fantastic eateries that serve up the best and freshest in healthy vegan and vegetarian fare:

I quite literally lost my head last Halloween having spent the evening with a charming zombie protruding from my waist. While able to maintain ownership of the one provided by my parents, my poor zombie twin was not so lucky having his head stolen by the close of All Hallows Eve. You never know what you're going to get by the end of October so here are a few articles that make it difficult for even the most resilient to keep their heads fastened securely to their shoulders.

A while ago I posted about how you could celebrate Halloween year-round thanks to some scary video games. As the holiday quickly approaches, I thought of a couple more to get into a more macabre state of mind.

Here are three games that will be sure to give you nightmares when you turn the lights off and play alone late into the night.

To say that I'm obsessed with cosmetics would be an understatement of epic size and behemoth proportions. Any mention of "natural" or "organic" cosmetics nearly compels me to sit down and compose a rambling college thesis on the subject.

OK, so I'm enamored with beauty products--what girl isn't? There's something about the pop-py, pretty brilliance of color in eye makeup, as well as the loosely guaranteed but nonetheless well-intentioned assurances of age defiance in skincare products, which has me abusing my credit card. Fall is my favorite season, and it's finally here, so I can give myself an excuse to add some cool, smoky, even plucky colors to my face palette.

But, I also happen to be very conscious and extremely picky about the makeup I buy. That is, I'm a health freak and tend to be most attracted to makeup that have the words "natural" or "organic" in their clever marketing or packaging. Why? Because as I mentioned in a previous post, about 60% of what you put on your skin gets absorbed into your body. With this in mind, I try to be vigilant about checking the ingredients list on my favorite cosmetics and skincare lines and comparing it against the ratings of the Environmental Working Group Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database.

Last week Lindsay posted some affordable green cosmetic options she's discovered. Here's a list of healthy or environmentally-conscious beauty and skincare products in MY cabinet:

I've been testing out a BalanceBall chair from Gaiam--which I, uh, "diverted" from Sara--aka "WiscoVixen. Hey, possession is nine-tenths of the law--but that also means I'm responsible for writing the review.

What follows is an Ode to the BalanceBall Chair:

We chose to forgo the usual overarching theme for this week's roundup and bring you stories from all over the place. Stay tuned to learn about a couple of hot new products for the holiday season, some valuable savings tips, and how you can leave a certain Florida strip club healthier than when you came:

Do you ever walk by a park and feel nostalgic? Watching little kids going down sliding, swinging, and playing in the sandbox can make anyone wish they were young again. I wish I was here to tell you there was a way to turn back time but I'm still trying to figure that out myself. Just because you can't turn back the clock, who says you can't play the same games you did as a kid?

Many of the games we played as kids are great ways of getting in shape (unless you were like me and were lighting tennis balls covered in gasoline and playing catch with them). Here are a couple of games that are safer than playing Fireball and will get you in better shape.

I love seeing adorable, itty-bitty, munchkin-sized ghosts and goblins making their annual rounds in neighborhoods for their dutiful collection of Halloween goodies. Office parties wouldn't be the same without those oh-so-yummy Fun Size Snickers and other hyper-sweetened candies strewn across every desk.

Let's face it, candy is a universal language. People of all nationalities and cultural backgrounds find amore in this comfort food. It adds a little sweetness to the daily lives of an ever-increasing sour world. OK, I'll admit it--candy makes my taste buds sing opera.

But, I haven't touched a lot of Halloween candy in a few years only because my overall cravings have changed. Also, I don't have tiny tykes to entertain and feed, either--but I know that a 100 Grand Bar will have you knocking on Diabetes door a lot quicker than a dull homemade Pretzel snack. But I'm here to change the common notion that homemade "healthier" versions of Halloween candy is nauseating, rated G, or just plain lackluster.

Halloween is a time for bonding with family, friends, and children, so be creative and lean toward the "Trick" instead of the "Treat" in the Halloween mantra. Here's a list of websites that feature affordable and healthy alternatives to traditional Halloween pleasures, as well as ideas for arts and crafts:

It's Murphy's Law: Every time I have an exciting night planned, my skin breaks out. Next thing I know I'm accessorizing with a big, honking zit. I started thinking about important nights out--your high school reunion, a hot date, a special event--and all the last minute snafus that can spoil your look and your mood. How do you deal with these unexpected annoyances?

I asked some of my Savings.com colleagues for their fast, easy fixes for these common problems.

Sometimes it ain't easy being green, particularly when green items are sometimes marked up from regular priced items just because they're labeled "green." But switching over to more eco-friendly products doesn't have to be a choice between extra chemicals or extra cash.

This week, we take a look at some great green make-up steals that make you both look good and feel good for going green.

Autumn is a season that fills the senses. Visions of lush red, yellow, and orange tree leaves are everywhere. So is the scent of smoke trailing from chimneys of cozy homes--along with the cool air on breezy days and chilly nights...To many fall is a time of reflection and respite. To others, however, fall is a time of...well, food.

Fall is also traditionally the season of harvest--which means you can enjoy its luscious bounty for less. Stock up on squash, sweet potatoes and, of course, pumpkin--all rich in nutrients and low in price at this time of year. Starting with yummy Halloween candy, through Thanksgiving dinner and leftovers, all the way to winter holidays, autumn is a time for togetherness, laughter, fun times and delicious food!

If you're reading this, there's roughly a 9.7% chance you don't have a job (that's the current national unemployment rate). It's as depressing as it is inevitable here in the bottoming-out phase of the recession, so to help you folks out, we've geared this week's links toward ways to escape the dark clutches of unemployment.

I give you our favorite savings stories of the week, the employment edition!

Yesterday I posted about the saving money by riding a motorcycle, weighing the pros and cons of bike ownership. So, can you save money by commuting on a motorcycle? Yes, absolutely. Guess what, you could also save a ton of money on a root canal by doing it yourself...or better yet just ride a unicycle to work and juggle at the same time. That way you won't spend any money on gas and you can collect tips along the way.

Not a great idea right? The reason why: it's not practical or safe.

Since our community is such a vital part of Savings.com, I wanted to do a little recap of how much money our members have saved each other. Since April when we opened the doors for members to submit deals, people have submitted tons of deals to our site. So how much money have they saved each other?

Drum-roll please!

I'm not sure how, but the themes of our picks this week turned out to be food, crime, and how they sometimes intertwine. If you want to be Orwellian you could call that "FOODCRIME."

Sounds sinister. I don't want any part of it.

Behold our favorite finance stories for this week: