Prepare your pocketbooks, parents: This prom season is going to be a doozy.

According to a recent article in USAToday, prom-goers are spending an average of $1,078 on the annual spring formal, while Northeastern dwellers are closing in on the $2,000 mark. The main culprits are dresses and tuxes, as expected, but all the other accoutrements add up to a wedding-like final cost.

The old adage "keeping up with the Jones'" is applicable here, though Kardashians may be more accurate. Thanks to constant exposure to celebrities, reality TV and social media, standards for style are at an all-time high and parents are bearing the brunt of it. Instead of letting the event drain your bank account, consider these tips for saving on prom without sacrificing style.

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Once the euphoria of being done with class has subsided, new grads must face what adults have been warning them about for twenty-plus years: the real world.

Poised on the cusp of opportunity, young professionals may be considered "the lucky ones" by the older crowd, but grappling with unemployment and severe debt is no walk in the park. Ease the transition from carefree college life to responsible adulthood with these 11 practical gifts for college grads.

1. Cash

Life after graduation is exciting but it's also laden with ugly financial responsibilities like credit card and student loan debt. In fact, total borrowing for student loans in a single year eclipsed $100 billion for the first time ever in 2010. Despite the perceived lack of effort associated with gifting cash, new grads are likely your most enthusiastic recipients.

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Medications can be lifesavers, but they can also lead to nightmare situations. If you take more than a couple prescriptions and over-the-counter (OTC) medications each day, making sure you have what you need when you need it is only half the battle. For many Baby Boomers and seniors, paying for all this pill popping is expensive and sometimes can lead to a choice between eating and staying on your meds.

No question it's ugly out there these days for those juggling (legal) drugs. Prescription prices are going nowhere but up and there's little relief in the OTC area, so a few cost-saving tips seem appropriate at this time.

1. Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA)

The PPA is a non-profit organization that helps qualifying patients without coverage get the medicines they need for free or nearly free. In brief, they offer a single-point access to nearly 500 public and private programs, including about 200 provided by pharmaceutical companies.

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As promised in an earlier tip, I wanted to write a post dedicated to creating tables in your blog.  You would be surprised at how much I use this valuable tool to get things to look just right and maximize my space on sidebars, footers and even in posts.  What you can accomplish with the use of tables is amazing and I think it is a tool that every blogger should be familiar with...so here we go!  (As a matter of fact, I used tables extensively in this blog post so that I could get my code and results sections to line up side by side!)

Today, I want to explain to you how to build a table such as the one I have displayed in my footer region, entitled "My Blog is Listed Here".  The function of this table is to display all of my mini-buttons in an attractive and SPACE SAVING way.  I will start out showing you how to create a basic table and then perhaps in a future post, we can discuss how to jazz it up a bit.  Decide where you'd like to put your table and then start with the following code:

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Working parents are already lining up child care plans for the summer. While they’re at it, educators say all parents of school-age children should also plan for preventing the dreaded summer slide.

"The 'summer slide' is the information and skills children forget during summer break from the end of one school year to the beginning of the next school year," says Carrie Scheiner, who created Exploracise (www.exploracise.com), to provide parents and educators with award-winning products and programs that combine learning, exercise and healthy lifestyle choices.

The education slide is well-documented by numerous studies, which were synthesized in the 1990s by Harris Cooper, then a professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He found that children could forget one to three months of learning over the summer.

"While some people are aware of the learning loss, many aren't aware that children tend to gain weight more rapidly when they're out of school," Scheiner says, citing a 2007 study by Paul Von Hippel of Ohio State University. "He found that kids, especially those at risk for obesity, gain as much weight during the summer as they do all school year."

What can parents do to keep young brains and bodies engaged in healthy ways over the summer? Scheiner offers these tips:

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No one wants a cookie-cutter wedding. The day you tie the knot should be as unique as your individual personalities. There's a quote that says, "The universe is not made of atoms. It's made of tiny stories." Just as you're coming together as man-and-wife, allow your creativity to spill into the details you're sharing on your wedding day.

1. Craft a story.

Telling your story as a couple as you approach the altar is a powerful way to connect with your guests and chronicle your journey to this point. Think of every element of your wedding -- from the invites to the wedding favors -- as a chance to craft a story from beginning to happily ever after. Don't be afraid to incorporate religious or ethnic touches that are special to you.

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