This February 7, you can throw a Super Bowl party that guests will rave about—without breaking the bank, says Erica Boeke, co-author of Gameface: The Kick-Ass Guide for Women Who Love Pro Sports. Start by…

* Hosting a chili cook-off: Sports fans love to compete! So ask guests to bring their favorite chili recipe and you supply the fixin’s, such as cheese, sour cream and tortillas. Make ballots and offer a fun prize—like a Nerf football or a referee piñata. Not a chili fan? Ask your guests to bring a dish that represents their favorite team—for instance, Philly cheesesteaks for the Philadelphia Eagles and deep dish pizza for the Chicago Bears.
* Rocking out to “jock jams”: Make a mix CD full of classic sports anthems, such as We Are the Champions by Queen, Whoomp! (There It Is) by Tag Team and Pump Up the Volume by Martyn Young. Burn a souvenir CD for each of your guests to take home.
* Giving football makeovers: Get nail polishes inspired by team colors for all your female sports fans. And get the kids in on the action by creating temporary tattoos from your inkjet printer expressing their love of football. Temporary tattoo paper can be found in Staples, Office Depot and other office supply stores.
* Warming up with a football movie: Place your Netflix or RedBox order now for The Replacements, Rudy, Jerry Maguire, Friday Night Lights or Remember the Titans.
* Playing football trivia: Download free questions from nuttyaboutsports.com—such as “What is college football’s ‘holy war’?” (It’s used to describe the rivalry between Boston College and Notre Dame, the only two Catholic Universities in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision.) “What is the oldest continuously run football team in the U.S.?” (The Arizona Cardinals, which was founded in 1898 and have operated from 1898 to 1906, and again from 1913 to present.) ”As of January 2009, what is the youngest NFL team?” (The Houston Texans, which joined the league in 2002.)

Chances are, someone you know—a sister, daughter, cousin, friend or co-worker—is busy planning a wedding. Well, there’s good news: Wedding pros have discovered surprising ways to trim the cost not by hundreds, but thousands of dollars—without skimping on quality. That’s money that can go straight into your piggy bank. To start saving…
* Fake a cake. A multi-tiered wedding cake can cost well over $600. Luckily, you can rent a Styrofoam wedding cake that looks just as beautiful as the real deal for as little as $175 plus shipping. Each faux creation comes with a hidden compartment to stash a real piece of cake that you can “cut” during the cake cutting ceremony. Then, you simply serve guests your favorite sheet cake from the kitchen. The cake taste and quality will be exactly the same so no one will ever know the difference. Pick from dozens of gorgeous cake designs at cakerental.com. 
* Book a BYOB venue. “Instead of paying the exorbitant alcohol mark-up that many restaurants and catering halls charge, find somewhere that allows you to bring in your own alcohol. You just pay a small fee to have the caterers serve it—which can save you well over $1000!” says Donnie Brown fro the television programs Whose Wedding is it Anyway? and Married Away on the Style Network.
* Make your own invitations. Save hundreds by designing your own beautiful invites and response cards in MS Word and printing then on card stock paper that you can get at any office supply store. (Hint: Check out wedding invitations online and in stores for easy design ideas.) Or skip paper invites and go “green” with e-vites. Pingg.com offers a wide selection of elegant custom wedding email invitations at absolutely no cost.

[photo: nola.agent]

Baby powder! Whether you’re attending a party, going on a job interview or visiting your in-laws, you may want to consider dabbing on a bit of the powdery stuff instead of perfume—when others get a whiff of baby powder, they become instantly more drawn to you, according to a study by neurologist Alan R. Hirsch, M.D., director of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation. Why? This nostalgic scent  triggers a flood of positive memories in others—about their childhood or their own children—making them feel more secure, comfortable and upbeat while in your presence.

[photo: trancesendentalhippie]

Going to an event where you need to make the best impression—like an office party, networking event or high school reunion—and the music is blaring? Then keep in mind this recent discovery from behavioral scientists at the Université de Bretagne-Sud in France: Loud music makes you drink more alcohol and drink it faster. The proof: When the researchers  randomly turned the music volume up from 72 decibels (as loud as a vacuum cleaner) to 88 decibels (as loud as a kitchen blender) at a bar and monitored the drinking behavior of patrons, they found that when the music was lower, people took 14.5 minutes to finish an eight-ounce glass of beer, but when the music was loud, people drained their glass in just 11.5 minutes—and then ordered one more.  The researchers theorize that loud music makes us more excited, which leads to drinking faster. Plus, it makes it harder to have a conversation, so we’re more likely to focus more on sipping than gabbing.

[photo: kerryvaughan]