Some of my friends were asking me, “Have you been to the Halloween store yet?” No, not yet. And I’m on a mission to help you save money for Halloween. So, in preparation for my live chat at 8 p.m. tonight, I headed over there to check out the selections. I also looked through the store’s flier and if you’ve seen it, yes, that’s the merchandise I saw in the store – a huge range of stuff including superhero costumes, silly costumes, historic costumes and party tableware.

Halloween Bazaar’s local a store locationis  at 14500 LaPlaisance Rd., Suite B100, Monroe, Mich. This is right off I-75’s Exit 11, so it’s in a pretty visible spot even though you have to drive around the access drives for a bit at the outlet mall to get to the location.

This store has an absolutely huge collection of stuff. Don’t be afraid to enter if you are on a budget. There are costumes, accessories and decorations in a variety of price ranges. Those spider webs seen above. are only $2.29 a package. This headband and bow tie also were very inexpensive.

Yes I did see an adult pirate costume that cost $129. However, most of the complete outfits are in the same $10 to $60 price ranges as I’ve seen across town. I’ll tell you in a minute how to get the deals.

What I want you to first consider are the possibilities for low-budget costumes – and there are lots of options to help you out at Halloween Bazaar. If you have a costume where you can assemble the basic look with sweatshirts or other attire that you can repurpose at home, then do that and finish off your outfit with a new accessory or two such as a crown, a sword, cowboy hat, wig, animal ears, or a makeup design. It’ll be a lot cheaper to take that approach than to buy a complete costume.

Now, about the deals.

Now through Oct. 4, Halloween Bazaar is hosting a Grand Opening celebration with 25 percent off its entire inventory.

From Oct. 5-31, you will be paying regular retail prices.

The Blowout Clearance Sale starts Nov. 1 with 50 percent off entire inventory on Nov. 1; 60 percent off entire inventory on Nov. 2; and 75 percent off entire inventory on Nov. 3.

That means, if you or the kids have their hearts set on a particular outfit for this year, be sure to take advantage of the sales at this store, or elsewhere, when they are in effect to buy the desired costume or accessory.

But you should plan ahead for next year to the best extent possible. Kids change sizes and interests very quickly. But toddlers, for example, don’t have much opinion about how you dress them. You can decide this is the pumpkin year, or this is the dragon year.

And adults don’t change sizes very much and a lot of Halloween attire is consistently popular from year to year. So if you like dressing up a vampire, look for cool vampire pieces on a clearance sale and wear them for several years.

Or maybe, your “permanent” costume choice will be more of a medieval attire:

Halloween Bazaar is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. The store phone number is (734) 240-5500. The web site is www.halloweenbazzar.com.

But the store chain also does sell some seasonal merchandise in season, and the Monroe, Mich., store shelves currently have Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas items on display.

How do the prices compare? Well, I was impressed with this bag of candy with 40 pieces for $3. I didn’t get it because I’d rather buy candy my husband and I like in case there are leftovers, but I was impressed with the selection. I did decide to buy a bag of 18 baggies of animal crackers for the tiny tots who visit my house – and that was only $2. I’ll run out fast on those, but that’s OK. First come, first served. The rest of the kids will get candy bars.

There also is a selection of costumes at Big Lots including this one for $18. Yes, the $20 to $25 range is very common for kids’ costumes based on what I’m seeing on the retail market. You’ll have to go second-hand or buy just one accessory item to dress up what you already own in order to the cost of a kids’ costume significantly cheaper.

I had only one daughter to raise and we didn’t need to buy her a new costume every year. There was one year when someone else offered to buy her costume, and a few other years when she used stuff we already owned. So it was not a problem for us to spend $20 on a costume on the occasional year when we did splurge. Those of you who have more than one child to outfit probably think differently, and rightly so.

Given the cost of costumes, if you are in a situation where you will buy retail costumes this year, then try do so in a way where you can earn back some rewards points, rebate cash or discounts.

For example, Big Lots has a shopper loyalty program that just got started. The signup kits are available at the checkout lanes.

If you live in Monroe, Mich., you’ve probably eaten food or snacks from Gordon Food Service Marketplace — without having any idea where it came from.

It’s a popular place for caterers, office party planners and fundraiser committees to get brownies, spices, chicken wings, brownies, buns, frozen eclairs, party goods and concession stand candy bars. So just expand the possibilities to your own family shopping needs.

You don’t need a membership card to shop at GFS, although I recommend you sign up for a Fun Funds card so your purchases can be credited to a participating school or church as a fundraiser.

Here’s what I bought for $29.75 today: almonds, peanuts, fruit snacks, tortillas and Halloween candy.

That bag of Halloween candy was a bigger bargain than I originally thought with 125 pieces for $9.99. When I looked at another store’s candy display on my next shopping errand, I found that $10 would have bought me only about 80 pieces of name-brand chocolates even on the sale price.

Update on Sept. 20: as one of my friends just reminded me, GFS has coupons from time to time. Look in the sales fliers for the occasional $5 off a $50 purchase deals.

This piece is part of my “What can you get at …” series focusing on discount and second-hand stores in Monroe, Mich.:

The Monroe Thrift Shop has been part of the Monroe, Mich., civic and charitable society for more than 50 years.

The shop at 119 S. Monroe St. is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, closing at 1 p.m. Tuesdays. The women of the Thrift Shop Association cram a lot of stuff into a relatively small storefront. I usually stop by about every two months and I almost always find something to take home.

If you are insistent that your household and clothing stuff “go to people who NEED it,” keep in mind that all of the second-hand stores market to those families in the first place. But if the eventual use of stuff you formerly owned is a concern with you, do consider the Monroe Thrift Shop as a possibility for your donations.

When a family in Monroe County, Mich., gets an official referral by one of the social service agencies to the Monroe Thrift Shop, they are allowed to pick out a certain amount of clothes absolutely free. The Monroe Thrift Shop Association also sends bags of stuff from their donation piles to mission projects.

The proceeds from this thrift shop also fund community projects such as dozens of $500 scholarships that go to graduating seniors in Monroe County, with a $500 renewal possible. My daughter got one of those scholarships in 2007.

In the meantime, if you are a second-hand shopper, you will find that the prices at this shop are very reasonable. Note that the prices for jeans on that sales tag is $2 per pair.

One of my favorite things to purchase at this shop has been a stack of women’s and family magazines. Most of them are 25 cents each. The second-hand magazines are a great way to find new recipes, cake and cookie patterns, and home decor ideas.

And when I was a the Monroe Thrift Shop on Friday, I picked up four fabric remnant pieces for 50 cents each.

The merchandise at this shop also includes some items that you might otherwise only find at estate sales. Check out this rack of “vintage” items.

I had a pretty full schedule today, so I decided to make my first visit to the new store tonight  …

9:20 p.m., Wednesday Sept. 16, Wal-Mart, 2150 N. Telegraph Rd., Monroe, Mich.

Prepare for dazed and confused and amazed shoppers in the aisles.

I walked into the grocery entrance at Wal-Mart and a greeter gave me a map. You’ll want to keep that map with you until you learn the layout in the new store — but it focuses on departments rather than an aisle-by-aisle list.

“Have you seen the peanut butter?” a man asked me.

“I haven’t found that yet,” I said.

“I knew where it was at the other store,” he said with a sigh.

But that’s why he, I, and a lot of other shoppers were at Wal-Mart at 9 p.m. instead of at 7 a.m. or lunchtime or after work. Late evening was a much better time to go exploring and start finding what’s at the new store.

There’s a bakery, a deli, a large frozen food selection and a large produce section. I was hearing a lot of comments from other shoppers who were pleased at the selections they found.

By the way, the peanut butter is in the bread aisle.

Prepare to maintain your savvy shopping sense.

Of course, I brought my coupon box. But Wal-Mart doesn’t double coupons like some of the other grocery stores in Monroe do.

So save that 50 cent or lower coupon for another store where double coupons work to your advantage on the net price, and use the over 50-cent coupons at Wal-Mart when that net price will work to your advantage. You’ve been doing that anyway, right?

I noticed some prices lower than what I’ve seen recently at other stores, some prices higher and some prices the same. So what? That’s how it is at any store. Pay attention to the overall pricing trends, stock up on favorite products when prices are good, and split up your shopping list as needed to another day or another store.

I spent $27.18 and gave the cashier five coupons to get this shopping cart of groceries. I was pleased with what I bought today.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I don’t create shopping scenarios to show off my coupon math. My shopping cart brags feature the products that I really did buy that day and that my family will really use.

Prepare for a different product mix.

For example, there are sewing notions and some yarns for sale in the craft section. But there is not a fabric section at this Wal-Mart as compared to Monroe’s old Wal-Mart.

Prepare for a frustrating exit out of the parking lot if you need to go south back to the city of Monroe rather than north to the village of Carleton.

The only exit is a right turn only. I was warned about that ahead of time and sorry, peeps, I don’t have a good solution for that one.

I drove right like I was supposed to, took the next traffic light as a left turn into the Lowe’s / Kohl’s parking lot, drove to the old Wal-Mart on the access road, came back to the intersection of Mall Rd. and Telegraph Rd. and then got back into the street traffic.

This will be a horrendous traffic pattern during peak shopping times.

Prepare to be a little confused for awhile yet.

How many of you were in Monroe when the Meijer store or Frenchtown Square mall opened? I wasn’t living in Monroe then, but I was here when the former Farmer Jack grocery store opened.

You should remember from those experiences that it does take time to learn where  merchandise is placed in any new store.

Do expect that it will take a couple of walk-thrus before you know exactly where to find each item on your shopping list.

What’s my opinion so far?

I will shop at Wal-Mart more often than I have been. When I first moved to Monroe, I was at that store quite a bit to buy curtains, area rugs and other household items. Lately, I’ve only been to Wal-Mart once every two or three months as I stocked up on specific items I like. I’m thinking that I’ll bump up that frequency to once a month because there are more groceries to pick from.

My biggest complaint is with the traffic pattern since it is way more difficult than before to get in and out of the parking lot based on my route from where I live in the city.

To deal with that problem, I will definitely schedule my Wal-Mart shopping during off-peak hours. The store is open 24/7, after all.

If you’ve never been there, then be prepared for a very unique shopping experience when you do go! I’ve wandered through the store a few times since it opened, and decided to window-shop there today while I was running other errands.

IKEA’s demographic is easy to figure out: young adults and families on a budget who like modern style in their home furnishings.

Even though IKEA’s design style is not my preference, I would have been very glad back in my young adult days to pick up some of that store’s pieces to mix in with family hand-me-downs. There was a point when my brother’s old work bench was my kitchen table. And it would not have bothered me at all to assemble furniture when I got home. I still have a rocking chair that I assembled from a DIY kit and stained when I was 23 years old.

The IKEA showrooms that feature tiny living spaces are absolutely fascinating. If you need to downsize into a smaller space, or have family members moving into what used to be your basement or office, check out the possibilities at IKEA. You will see how multi-purpose rooms can be arranged to suit both adults and children, effective use of storage space under beds and in closets, and inexpensive solutions to needs such as toddler-sized beds and lofted bunk / office spaces.

One of the tricks to living well in a small area is furniture that takes up only as much space as is needed for the intended purpose or will do double-duty. For example, a love seat makes more sense in most homes than a sofa. Think about it: even during a party, you rarely see three people sit on a sofa.

Another small-space trick showcased at IKEA that I’ve used in my home is to consider all the uses for the multipurpose area when selecting colors and style for furniture and housewares. My living room, dining room and kitchen are all one big open space. I can’t decorate the areas separately – it’s one big room. So we picked a common color and theme that relied on what we already owned or wanted to get.

If you would like some help with your DIY planning, the next “Plan your dream kitchen” workshops at the Canton store are 7 p.m. Wednesday July 8 and Wednesday July 22. The “Save money, install your own kitchen” workshop is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays in July.

For the college students, the IKEA College Night kickoff event in Canton will be 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday July 23. College Move-In Madness will be 8 p.m. to midnight Sept. 3. Bring your college ID if you attend either of those shopping events.

This post is part of my “What can you get at … ” series featuring discount and second-hand stores in the Monroe, Mich. area.

This post is part of a series focusing on second-hand and discount stores in the Monroe, Mich., area. Click here to see the previous reports.

If you have traveled to and from Monroe via I-75, you’ve probably driven past the American Heritage Antique Mall. Have you ever stopped in to take a look?

I’ve often taken out-of-town friends there, but it’s been at least a year since I went walking through. So during my garage sale shopping today I spent about an hour wandering through the antique mall.

The American Heritage Antique Mall is at 5228 S. Otter Creek Rd., LaSalle. Its sign is visible from I-75 Exit 9. The phone number is (734) 242-3430. The store is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week, closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Once inside, you will find booths that are contracted by more than 100 dealers in antiques, collectibles, primitives and specialty items. When I was walking through today, I saw wicker baby carriages, handsewn handkerchiefs, Avon glassware (none of the pieces I’m missing from my set, but that’s OK), some Barbie dolls I admired (but none that were must-haves for my collection), old sheet music, old comic books, wine glasses and decanter sets, old postcards and lots of BLING!

I went home today with a glass candy bowl that cost $6. It was a pretty pattern but not one that’s high in demand, so I will enjoy it and not worry about the value should it break.

The selection each week can vary depending on what the vendors have in stock. But this week, there were strawberries, herb plants, eggs, and fresh flowers. Other items that I have seen at the farmer’s market include onions, handcrafted potholders, cucumbers and tomatos.

My mint plants died during the winter, but I enjoyed the scent last year of a full planter of mint plants in my back yard. I bought two starter plants today and I’m sure that in no time at all I’ll have a full planter again.

It’s a favorite stop for tourists, since the candy and ice cream store is across the street from Cabela’s.

But it’s also a favorite stop for the bargain shoppers! The reason: in addition to more varieties of Russell Stover and sister-brand candy than you’ve probably seen anywhere else … the store also has clearance priced brand name candy.

About three or four times a year, I’m driving through Dundee on my way to Ann Arbor or Toledo. If there’s time in my schedule, I go to Russell Stover and see what’s in the clearance section.

Today, the budget blogger was giving her Grocery Shopping on a Budget presentation to the Dundee Rotary Club. The discussions when I give this presentation live usually include questions about whether it is worth driving some distance to save money at this or that store.

This is my explanation: You don’t go out of your way to shop at a store that’s out of town. You add that shopping errand to your list of to-do things when you are already in that area.

In the example of the day, I told the Dundee club members I would go shopping at Russell Stover before I drove back to Monroe.

Here’s what the budget blogger picked up for $3 out of the clearance shelves today — 12 chocolate eggs:

The biggest craft supply store in Monroe, Mich., is Crafts 2000 at 15311 S. Dixie Hwy., Monroe Township.

I discovered this place almost as soon as I moved to Monroe because my bank branch is next door! But apparently there is quite a bit of word of mouth beyond my neighborhood that this store exists. I’ve been at scrapbook sessions in Toledo where the other crafters learned I lived in Monroe and said, “Oh, you have Crafts 2000! Road trip!”

Some perspective for my out-of-town readers: We do have a “regular” Jo-Ann Fabric in Monroe along with the usual discount stores, in-home craft consultants and some mom-and-pop craft supply places. But we do not have a Jo-Ann superstore, Michael’s or Hobby Lobby.

For comparison, Crafts 2000 is a lot like Pat Cataans.

Anyway, this place can be a bit overwhelming. Think of any fine art or folk art, and you will probably find supplies for it at Crafts 2000. I have bought disposable cake plates, scrapbook paper, holiday ribbons, Advent wreath candles, wooden accessories, ink pads and much, much more there over the years.

I know some of the local artists who specialize in painting, jewelry and other fine arts get their supplies at this store. One of the local art clubs even  meets at Crafts 2000.

The challenge I find is to get out of the store without spending more money than you need to because it’s too easy to get another project idea as you are wandering the aisles.

Today I was on window-shopping mission. I think I’ll be buying some papier machie boxes soon, but I need to figure out what size I want.

Some of the best bargains you’ll find at Crafts 2000 are in the rubber stamp bins where you can find a variety of stamp designs for 50 cents or $1 each. I didn’t buy any rubber stamps today, but I took home four or five the last time I went digging around those bins.

The sales flier at the front of the store features patriotic decor items and kids’ summer crafts. The “hot buy” deals that end June 1 include small clay pots at two for $1, sports themed memory albums at $7.97 each, Foamies wall crosses at 25 cents each and plastic table “cover rolls” for picnic tables at $12.97 for 300 feet.

Be sure to walk through the clearance section to the left and back of the store. Today the clearance room included an assortment of fall floral picks and some wedding party favor pieces.

You can also host a child’s birthday party in the classroom at Crafts 2000.