The thrill of the hunt is compelling, especially when your grocer's ads tout "BIG SAVINGS" on favorite holiday meal fixins.

But even if you're just shopping for your weekly groceries this weekend instead of the trimmings and trappings for turkey day, it's still tough to say no to a good sale. And with most of us on strict, self-imposed budgets because of the current recession, shopping on the weekend becomes an even bigger temptation, a time to say, "But I've been so good all week, I deserve a little splurge!"

Tossing sale items in your cart can blow your budget if you're not careful. "I find it hard to resist great sales, so I'll buy far more than we need or than I can fit in my freezer," says frequent sale-shopper, Barbara Nelson.

Heart disease, it seems, doesn't discriminate, striking not only both men and women. Now, scientists have learned not even Pharaohs were spared of hardened arteries.

And they developed heart disease despite the absence of super-size fries paired with a sugary soda and greasy burgers, one of today's popular heart disease scapegoats. No doubt music to Ronald McDonald's ears.

"We think of it as being caused by modern risk factors," such as fast food, smoking and a lack of exercise, but the findings show that these aren't the only reasons arteries clog, said Dr. Randall Thompson, a cardiologist at the Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City who found signs of heart disease in 3,500 year-old mummies, told the Associated Press.

Want to avoid overspending on Black Friday? An amino acid you ingest in Thanksgiving dinners with lots of carbs and turkey could help you fight off that urge to impulse buy, according to a study by two researchers from the University of Utah's School of Business.

Aril Mishra and Himanshu Mishra suspect that the effect is chemical. Turkey and other traditional Thanksgiving foods contain the amino acid tryptophan, which increases the levels of serotonin in the brain.

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which aids the passage of messages through the brain, influencing many functions including sleep, memory, learning, sex drive, mood, and appetite. The body uses trytophan to make serotonin.

Eating popcorn at the movies used to be fun. Now it's scary, thanks to the Center for Science in the Public Interest -- the advocacy group that also has given the beat-down to Chinese food, fast food and most other things Americans love to pig out on.

The group performed lab tests on popcorn purchased from the largest movie chains, AMC and Regal, and came up with this equation: That eating a medium popcorn with a soda at a Regal theater is equal to eating three McDonald's Quarter Pounders with 12 pats of butter.

That's 1,610 calories and 60 grams of saturated fat. And, just to rub it in, CSPI noted the high profits the chain must collect for selling the combo for $12 -- given how cheap popcorn and soda actually are.

Get $1 off a sub sandwich at Quiznos, get $2 off two subs, or $3 off three subs! The deal excludes toasty torpedos and tasty bullets.

Or get 50% of a signature or classic sub when you buy a regular fountain drink. Not valid on delivery orders.

Print the coupons here. Both expire on Sunday, Nov. 29. Find a Quiznos near you.

Caveats: one coupon per order. May not be combined with other discounts.

In the world of advertising, the Tropicana disaster of 2008-09 is already legendary.

The orange juice container redesign by controversial brand guru Peter Arnell eliminated the familiar straw-in-an-orange image in favor of a photo of a glass of OJ. This killed the brand recognition developed over many years, resulting in a 20% drop in sales and the loss of millions of dollars within two months. Tropicana beat a hasty retreat to the old design.

Now, according to Advertising Age, Coca-Cola is taking a similar risky step, re-branding its Minute Maid line of juices. The company wants to eventually harmonize the images surrounding the brand and the others it owns, including Del Valle, Andina and Cappy.

The new orange juice design features whole oranges, slices, and leaves to suggest the groves from which it comes. As you'll see from the pictures above, the new packaging has more green, and the blue is gone. I like it.

Frozen waffle fans of all ages may be left scrambling, wondering what to eat (eggs perhaps?) for breakfast. On Wednesday, Kellogg's said it's facing an unprecedented shortage of its frozen Eggo waffles -- a situation it expects to last through mid-2010.

Oh, what will breakfast lovers do?

Flooding at an Atlanta plant forced Kellogg's to shut down a bakery. A move that impacted production of the frozen food favorite. Pouring hot maple syrup on the already sticky situation: equipment repairs to the company's biggest waffle bakery in Rossville, TN. which further impacted production.

But soggy weather isn't the only reason the Atlanta facility closed. The Eggo makers shut-down during much of September and October to sanitize the plant after inspectors found Listeria monocytogenes -- bacteria that can cause serious infection -- according to the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

"We are working around the clock to restore Eggo store inventories to normal levels as quickly as possible," spokesman Kris Charles said. The currently available Eggos will be rationed to stores nationwide "based on historical percentage of business," Charles said.

The "temporary supply disruption" contributed to a 3% decline in sales in Kellogg's North American frozen and specialty channels division in the third quarter, Kellogg CEO David Mackay said on a conference call in late October.

One can only imagine it won't be long before resourceful entrepreneurs start auctioning Eggo they're willing to "leggo" on eBay.

News from Illinois and other Midwestern pumpkin farms has me worried I'll have to add more security to my front walk. My front yard, relieved this spring of its burden of grass, is a wild mess of corn stalks, bean and tomato vines, sunflowers, asparagus ferns, and pumpkins. My kids have already eaten one pie and two loaves of pumpkin bread from the gourds grown right here. Come December, we could be the only ones for blocks eating pumpkin pie; food giant Nestle says a rainy Midwestern growing season means they've lost what was left of a small harvest; and there will be no more Libby canned pumpkin shipped after Thanksgiving.

Nestle controls an incredible 85% of the U.S. pumpkin crop destined for canning, and it's located on 5,000 acres of farmland in Illinois. The crop was looking 15% to 50% smaller than normal at the end of the summer; and then came the fall rains, which destroyed what remained. Typically, Nestle cans the late bloomers from the 2009 crop in October and November to stock shelves for Christmas and the first half of the next year.

The largest wine scam in the history of the United States was partly resolved this week with Mark Anderson's plea of guilty to numerous counts associated with torching a wine storage facility in the San Francisco area in 2005 to cover the tracks of his wholesale theft.

The blaze destroyed 6 million bottles of top-drawer wines worth an estimated quarter of a billion dollars.

After five years of price increases, the cost of a classic Thanksgiving dinner dropped 4% this year -- down $1.70 to $42.91 for a feast for 10.

The figures are from the American Farm Bureau Federation, which has conducted the annual survey since 1986 as an informal gauge of price trends around the nation.

One of my favorite snacks is dipping these crispy pita chips into garlic humus. Mmmmm....tasty.

Get a free sample of Stacy's Simply Naked Pita Chips from All You magazine when you share a little info about yourself. They mail you the sample in 4-6 weeks, so be patient.

They encourage you to sign up for their e-newsletters but it is not required, just remember to uncheck the boxes as you fill out the form.

This freebie won't last so sign up soon if you're interested. A limited number of samples are available.

"Mean" Joe Greene finally got what was coming to him -- and it wasn't a blindside tackle. Thirty years after appearing in one of television's most iconic ads, the former Pittsburgh Steelers player and four-time Super Bowl champion was finally given an award for his part in a 1979 Coca-Cola commercial that has been cited as one of the best in television advertising history.

The ad shows the defensive tackle limping off the field and into the locker room, when a young fan stops Greene to tell him just how great he is and offers him a bottle of Coke. After a bit of coaxing, Greene accepts the drink and shows his gratitude by flipping his jersey to the youthful admirer. The ad concludes with the brand's famous tagline at the time, "Have a Coke and a smile."

Costco wholesale clubs won't be selling Coca-Cola products any longer. The chain is reportedly dropping the brand due to a dispute over pricing.

Neither Coke nor Costco offered more explanation, but Bloomberg news quotes a statement from Costco's Web site that states, "At this time, Coca-Cola has not provided Costco with competitive pricing so that we may pass along the value our members deserve."

That statement is no longer accessible under the Coke product listing, which simply says the item is no longer available. But a Costco representative confirmed Monday to news outlets that the chain won't be carrying products from Coca-Cola.

Brands included: Coke Classic, Cherry Coke, Black Cherry Vanilla Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite and Squirt, Dasani Water and Vitamin Water along with sports and energy drinks.

Organic food advocates have turned against a once highly-embraced brand, Silk soy milk, after the company that owns it quietly altered the products' label from government-regulated "organic" to the practically meaningless "natural" without properly notifying customers.

The silence surrounding the label change has fueled a public battle between the farm policy research and advocacy group Cornucopia Institute and dairy giant Dean Foods, which owns White Wave, the maker of the Silk line of soy milk products. Organic devotees say products that are not organic can be grown with pesticides and other chemicals without running afoul of the virtually unregulated claim of being "natural."

Making matters worse, consumers have been doubly irked to find out that they were paying the same pumped up prices organic commands for the new, less-than-organic version.