Destination Florida: Tourism Before Disney the new permanent exhibit at the Orange County Regional History Center is now open. Travel back in time to the 'Golden Age of Tourism,' nearly a century before Disney. See why visitors came to the Orlando area to vacation. Peek at some of Orlando's original landmark icons

The Orange County Regional History Center, housed in a restored historic five-story 1927 county courthouse in downtown Orlando, showcases the vast collections of the Historical Society of Central Florida, Inc. The museum features three floors of permanent exhibitions that take your on a journey through the region’s fascinating transition from Indian settlement to small town surrounded by citrus groves and cattle ranches to today's tourist-centric community.

Experience the Plaza Theater's family friendly performance venue located near downtown Orlando. For the opening night of Disney's Aladdin Jr. the Plaza Theater invites you to see the show and is letting you name the price!

For this Friday’s (08-08-08) show only, you can call the box office at 407-228-1220 to make a reservation and name your own price for tickets… whatever you can afford. The face value is $23/ticket, but you can call and say you want to pay $5… or even $0… Again, whatever you can afford and want to pay! This is for the opening night this Friday ONLY, and tickets must be purchased in advance.

Many 'Native Central Floridians' may remember the Plaza 'Rocking Chair' Theater on North Bumby Avenue from the early 1960's. In recent years the theater has been renovated as a performing arts venue showing a wonderful selection of Family Friendly live performances. See what else is coming to the Plaza Theater this season.

It seems like everyone is cutting back this year - including the State of Florida. For the past decade the state has offered a 7 to 10 day sales tax holiday on back to school merchandise. This year's budget cuts eliminated both the August Back-to-School and the June hurricane sales tax holidays.

Looking for ways to save? Check out area malls for upcoming sales and specials.

Did the elimination of the Sales Tax Holiday change how or where you purchased back-to-school items? Post your comments below.

The Orange County School system, the 11th largest in the nation is facing as much as $70 million in cuts. In an effort to reduce spending wherever possible, the School Board came up with a plan for reworking school starting times hoping to save as much as $15 million (paper and operating costs) in the first year. The plan calls for swapping the starting times for middle and high schools. High School will now start at the later time of 9:30 am while the Middle School starting time will be 7:30 am. Read the Orlando Sentinel article.

What do you think about the school schedule swap? Post your comments below.

Here are a few recommendations that the county has come up with to reduce costs:

• Eliminate middle school sports
• Reduce the number of varsity girls soccer games from 25 to 12
• Elimination of 14 buses carrying 1 student

Preview the complete list of Cost-Cutting Recommendations

Do you have any suggestions on cutting costs? Post your comments below.