I recently lined my basement storage area with shelves, to systematically hold my large supply of grocery and toiletry items. Friends call it "Goss-Mart."A common question that I am asked is "how much [fill in the blank with a given food or toiletry item] must YOU go through?" or I get the comment "I can only imagine what your grocery bill is feeding EIGHT kids!"

I guess to a mom of a "normal" sized family (what is considered normal anyway?), our quantities are gargantuan, but to me, those large break-your-arms quantities feel very commonplace after this many years of lugging car load after car load of items in the front door!

Well I never! All this time I believed Honey Boo Boo and her family were gen-yu-ine rednecks. We all thought they were so "real" and honest with us. But guess what Alana has been doing behind the scenes? You'll never believe it.

Mama June set up trust funds for Honey Boo Boo and all her daughters.

WHAT? Why that upends everything we've come to believe about supposed "poor, simple country folk." Maybe, just maybe, some of us have been judging the Thompsons a little too harshly. Maybe we've been underestimating their wisdom just because they like to play in mud and eat unhealthy food. Maybe we haven't seen that underneath that gray frizz those lovely blond tresses, Mama June is actually a savvy business woman looking out for what's best for her family.

They crop up every year: gift fairs filled with #1 Mom necklaces that will turn your neck an unsightly shade of green and World's Best Dad mugs mass-produced in China. Every year there's an attempt to make money by convincing our kids that the way to make Christmas sweet for Mom and Dad is to beg us for our hard-earned cash and blow it on worthless trinkets. And this year, this mom has put her foot down.

My daughter brought home the "holiday fair" flyer, and I dropped it right in the recycling bin. Sorry, I don't want a crappy pre-packaged "Mom gift" from my kid for Christmas.

That's right, I said it.

I got let go from my day job on Thursday. Most people didn’t even know I had a 9-to-5. They know about the freelancing—that side hustle that in and of itself is a full-time job—but they had no idea that eight hours of my day were spent under someone else’s employ. Thursday’s debacle was just a neon flashing example of why I never bothered being too dependent on a corporate gig anyway. No sooner had I had the chance to take my coat off and reply to exactly three emails, I got The Call to the conference room. I hadn’t even gotten a glass of water and sliced my breakfast apple yet, but when the smoke cleared that fine morning, they’d hatcheted 17 of us, streamlining the company of dead weight a mere 19 days before Christmas. Ho ho ho.

A successful lawyer who happens to be a mom worked at a large D.C. firm. This week, she came to the conclusion that she just couldn’t take half-assing work and parenthood any longer. Something had to give, so she wrote a resignation letter to her employers and it found its way onto the Internet and the Internet blew up.

People get irate when you challenge their myths. Look, I wish we could all be fantastic involved mothers and have challenging and rewarding careers. But I am yet to meet the mother with newborns who has figured it out. Sure there are women who can do both. The problem we fall into, the one I fell into, was that I felt like I wasn't doing either to my standard. I constantly felt like I was missing something. The duality was too much for me. My heart was pulling me one way and my mind was pulling in the opposite direction. You find yourself always wanting to be some place else.

Kids love themselves some candy, right? Can't get enough. Never enough! Cause we're always cutting them off and making them brush their teeth and stuff. So of course the first place a 9-year-old is gonna go when he finds $4,000 hidden in his parents' couch is the candy store, right? Wait a minute ... what?! I know, I know. Seems like such a straightforward story at first: Kid finds a bunch of money, blows it all on candy, shares it with his friends, immediately becomes most popular kid ever. But when you think about it ... well, why the hell did the parents hide $4,000 in the couch? And how much candy does 4 grand actually buy?!

Believe it or not, the holiday shopping season is upon us. Even though many of us didn't even get to soak up the Halloween season thanks to Hurricane Sandy, it's time to shift gears and prepare to fill our bellies up and empty out our pockets ... and our piggy banks ... and our savings accounts. But believe it or not, there are a helluva lot of ways to beat the AMEX charges and save cash on toys.

Now, if you're anything like me, you're shaking your head and saying 'Oh yeah, sister, been there, tried that ... it just ain't gonna work', but just trust me on this one, k? There's a way to save, stay in line with your budget, and actually enjoy the holiday season with friends, family, and without all the added stress. Check out our top five money-saving tricks:

The Here Comes Honey Boo Boo clan has a hit TV show on their hands and a big raise from TLC to come. So what is Mama June Shannon going to do with all that money? Improve her kids' lives? Nah, she's putting the cash away ... for the future.

Wait, what?

June and Honey Boo Boo herself, little Alana Thompson, showed up on Jimmy Kimmel this week where the 7-year-old made her now viral announcement that she wants to see President Obama re-elected. But while everyone's talking about whether kids should get involved in politics, June's big announcement has been seriously ignored.