Now that Halloween is over, I want to get rid of the metric ton of candy sitting in my house. I could bring it in to the office, but if I can’t resist the siren’s song of the fun-size Snickers bar in my pantry, how can I turn my back on it when it’s sitting there, in plain sight, next to my desk? Besides, I left the candy at home this morning by accident, and my coworkers have already filled our corner of the office with tiny bars of every candy ever invented. To bring in more would be overkill.

But not if I’ve magically transformed them into something else first.
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Let’s face it: Whether you get the flu shot or not, and whether you’re worried about H1N1 (a.k.a. Swine Flu) or not, chances are you and your kids are going to be facing some flu-like symptoms this season.

Why? Well, even if you’ve gotten the vaccine, it can take as long as two weeks for your body to produce enough antibodies to protect you, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. And the flu shot only protects against flu — if you catch one of the many, many non-influenza viruses out there, you can exhibit miserable flu-like symptoms but not actually have the flu.

This isn’t a post about whether or not to get the flu shot. (Want to discuss that anyway? You’re in luck — this one is!). But if you’re looking for a drug-free way to ease the misery at home, regardless of the state of your immunizations, check out these options:
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I love to cook. When I was in college, after a stressful day of juggling jobs and school I’d come home and cook, the same way other kids would go out and drink. My roommates used to say they could tell what type of day I’d had just by looking at what was on the stove at 1 a.m. (which is when I got home from work, and settled in to study).

I still love to cook, but now that I’m juggling jobs and a family I have less time — not to mention way less energy — than I had when I was in college. And right now, with the economy still tight and my budget even tighter, cooking at home isn’t just therapy, it’s necessary.
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Before you weigh in (or opt out) of the current debate about health care, you should first read the HR3200 bill for yourself. (Don’t feel like sifting through all 1,018 pages of it? A group of voice actors, including Work It, Mom! member Mandy Nelson of Dandysound, have recorded it as an audio book. Check it out.)

Once you’ve done that, you need to sift through the rhetoric, from President Obama’s speech to Congress yesterday to Sarah Palin’s Wall Street Journal piece and everything in between. (The American Nurses Association has put together a great fact sheet that can help.)

And, if you’re like me, you’ll probably need to find ways to save money on medication while you’re waiting to see how healthcare reform affects you.
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I started clipping coupons when I was a dirt-poor college student, having to decide whether to spend and extra 60 cents on a couple of packages of Ramen noodles or use that money for bus fare to get to work. (Sounds terribly dramatic, but it’s true. It was Syracuse, N.Y., and it was worth going without dinner in order to avoid a three-mile walk home in the snow at night). Back then, the quarters I scraped together went a long way — a couple of coupons could yield savings equal to the amount needed to wash a load of laundry — and so the sorting and clipping was definitely worth my time.

I still clip coupons, but now it’s more an exercise in frugality, as well as a challenge to see how little I can pay for the things I usually buy anyway. Every once in a while I hit a jackpot — a buy-one-get-one free item for which I have coupons, for instance — and I find myself wondering: What if I did this all the time? Can you really save that much money with coupons?

Kathy Spencer says yes. And she can help teach you how.
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One of most basic ways to do more with less is to bring your lunch to work; if you usually spend just $7 a day on lunch, bringing it four days a week (splurge and buy lunch on the fifth, if you like) can easily leave $100 or more in your wallet each month. Though you do end up spending a little more on groceries, the savings — especially if you learn to love leftovers — can be substantial.

Bringing your lunch to work doesn’t mean throwing a soggy sandwich into a baggie and tossing it in your purse, though. It also doesn’t mean a dazzling selection of non-nutritive items from the snack machine. Here are five lunches that take little effort to prepare:
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One of the things that has really shocked me about the state of the economy in general and my company in particular is that when people ask me if things are really as bad as they say on the news, and I say, “Well, yes,” they say, cheerfully, “Well, at least you have your husband’s salary to fall back on.”

It’s as if, in spite of everything, the concept of a breadwinning mom is still unfathomable.
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I think that one of the reasons my own work-life balance is so awful is that my husband’s is nearly nonexistent. He has a demanding job, at the same company at which I work; and he’s a journalist, same as me — which means we’re both facing with the same industry meltdown and accompanying stress. But he’s dealing with a wrinkle that I don’t: As a man, no one really expects him to be struggling with work-life balance.
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Earth Day came and went with nary an acknowledgement from me. I woke up today, realized that I missed it entirely, and felt a wee bit guilty. For about a minute.

It’s not that I’m not interested in saving the Earth or conserving resources. It’s not that I don’t want to “go green.” It’s that I reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as I can already — why should Earth Day be any different?  It’s becoming a bit like Valentine’s Day, in some ways, but with CFLs instead of cards and candies. It feels like we’re encouraged to do all sorts of little things to mark the occasion, and then we’re in the clear to go back to our wasteful ways for the rest of the year. 
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The axe is falling at my company right now. Twenty of my coworkers were notified last week that they had been laid off; more will find out today. Some of them have been there as long as I have; some even longer. Understatement: This is a stressful time.

While I sit here with my fingers crossed and my heart in my throat, I’ve been thinking about other friends of mine in other industries who have lost their jobs. I’m hardly in a position to help much, given my own precarious situation. Or am I?

Support doesn’t have to involve money, and you don’t have to be in a position to hire in order to help someone else get back on their feet. Here are five simple things you can do to help a friend who has been laid off:
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