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elizabeth mayhew is a lifestyle expert and "today" contributor.ere are some tips, first, to get started here. before we start unpacking all of our groceries. >> make sure your refrigerator is at the right temperature which is 37 to 40 degrees fahrenheit. freezer should be at zero. that's very important. do not overstock your refrigerator. you need to have some room for the cold air to ruminate and actually keep things cold. conversely, you don't want too little in the refrigerator. you need to have items in there. like one of those people that only keeps water and diet coke, need to have stuff in there, because when you open the refrigerator, that absorbs some of the heat that comes in. when you're buying containers, make sure they are square. they fit better. >> good to know, right. >> and lastly, do not washur produce. keep it dirty until you're going to use it. >> okay. >> and then wash before use. >> otherwise it gets wilted or goes bad. >> okay. >> let's open it up and take a look at what we have in our fridge. let's start from the top down.

elizabeth mayhew is lifestyle expert and "today" contributor. marie osmond will help out, as well.a bargain shopper. >> nine kids in my family, my parents were very poor and i have eight kids so my family is bargain hunters, coupon users. we were saying we like it, because then you can buy nice shoes. >> there you go. >> all the money you save. save on some things and buy in others. let's talk about how stores come up with monthly plans and how they stock up. >> first of all, october, columbus day, that is a huge, huge selling time. a lot of it has to do with when their new merchandise comes in and seasons end. so if you think about it, we're ending summer, which is why you can get a lot of summer things very inexpensively now. so let's start with the outdoor furniture. air conditioners, grills. >> you actually see the sales when they first announce or more after the sales? >> this is the thing. it's limited stock so the faster you get there, the better off you're going to be. so sears, for example. 50% -- up to 50% off on things like grills and outdoor furniture, plus throwing in

elizabeth mayhew is lifestyle expert and "today" contributor. marie osmond will help out, as well.a bargain shopper. >> nine kids in my family, my parents were very poor and i have eight kids so my family is bargain hunters, coupon users. we were saying we like it, because then you can buy nice shoes. >> there you go. >> all the money you save. save on some things and buy in others. let's talk about how stores come up with monthly plans and how they stock up. >> first of all, october, columbus day, that is a huge, huge selling time. a lot of it has to do with when their new merchandise comes in and seasons end. so if you think about it, we're ending summer, which is why you can get a lot of summer things very inexpensively now. so let's start with the outdoor furniture. air conditioners, grills. >> you actually see the sales when they first announce or more after the sales? >> this is the thing. it's limited stock so the faster you get there, the better off you're going to be. so sears, for example. 50% -- up to 50% off on things like grills and outdoor furniture, plus throwing in

elizabeth mayhew has fun, homemade costume ideas.4:00, 4:30 so i really had to scrounge, and i just think everyone needs to know, new york is closed, like most stores. i couldn't even find a place to buy a t-shirt so i really had to scrounge my closet, through my bins, craft staff, just to come up with it. >> if you're at home saying what am i going to do, there are options. first of all, what are you? >> i am 50 shades of gray. >> i happen to recently painted a house gray, this is a free costume. wearing a gray dress, my daughter's gray sweater and i threaded the paint shades through a ribbon and tied it around my neck and there you go. >> got your clever krogs on this morning. >> caroline, come on out, and i bet we can get what she's dressed at. >> caroline, cha what can i do at the dress store, took a pair of pajama bottoms and glued smarties on them. she is smarty pants. takes a little bit of thinking. can eat them afterwards. >> a little bit of glasses to complete the look if you've got the look. >> thanks so much. >> let's brin

elizabeth mayhew is here with some suggestions.o basics. take advantage of moments like this when kids don't have their computers and get together as a family and i guarantee you if you do some of these things it will be among the best memories your kids will have. >> some of these ideas came from your son charlie. you hung up this great sheet. >> if you have a sheet or wall shadow puppets are fun while you still have electricity or if you got electricity it's fun go to you tube there's lots of video. they are quite complicated. so a swan, for example i can go like that and there's the tail of the swan. >> you can create a whole story line and be creative. >> really fun. anybody can do the bunny rabbit. it is fun. go to you tube. >> another game that is a lot of fun hide and seek in the dark with flash lights. >> this is one of my kids' favorite game. it's called flashlight tag. everybody hides in the dark. one person has the flash light and you go looking for your people. it's like playing hide and seek. when you find them shine t

today contributor elizabeth mayhew, a lifestyle editor. good morning to you. canceled. >> i mean, actually ironically this happened last year too. there was a big snowstorm, and most of halloween was canceled, so the big question is power. obviously, you're not going to send your kids into a dark neighborhood and that is the real trick, so you need to check with your town. you need to follow the local news and see what's going on. moa most malls are closed. even some places that absorb the trick-or-treating, a lot of them are shut down. sdmrooits the day before now. at what point do you tell your kids, okay, it doesn't look like we're going to have trick-or-treating this year? >> i think it's good to have a plan b, and so have something that's a substitute. make it fun. a lot of kids are happy because they've misdz two days of school. really, you need to have a plan b and start telling them that this is a possibility and maybe you can make it up. a lot of the big parties are going to be canceled. the smallest parties might be happening, so maybe gang together