Schlafly is known for its great beer and for its two hotspots here in St. Louis: The Tap Room (down town) and The Bottleworks (Maplewood).  Each brewpub serves great food, excellent in quality, taste and price, and each brewpub offers private parties and events.  This spring and summer, head to the Schlafly Bottleworks for some fun events and some tasty beer. 

The best thing about Soulard, other than the Mardi-Gras parade, is the Farmer's Market. Cheap, healthy, fresh, and plentiful, who could ask for more? As a frequent shopper, I advise that you go on the last two weekends of the month as it does not appear to be as busy as the beginning of the month.

Generic cereal without milk for breakfast, Ramen noodles for lunch and hot dog surprise, yet again, for dinner: it's official, you're broke. Even if your financial situation hasn't hit "Ramen noodle-status", you probably want to be conservative with your cash in this dire economy. You may be a bit depressed over your bank account, but you can't afford to go out and cheer yourself up, so you spiral into a deeper funk; a seemingly vicious circle. Well, never fear! St. Louis and the surrounding counties are chock full of free and very cheap things to do for fun. Most native St. Louisans, and even most visitors, know about free entertainment staples such as the St. Louis Zoo, the St. Louis Science Center and the St. Louis Art Museum, but our fair city has much more gratis to give.

As a kid and even still, I enjoy a good festive evening car ride of “Christmas light gawking.” Its nice to know that others share my same seasonal urge, which has influenced a variety of light displays over the greater St. Louis area. Two of the most popular (outside of church hosted events) light spectacles are in Jelly Stone Park (Eureka) and Tilles Park (St. Louis).