Managing to a budget requires discipline. No matter how well thought out the plan, if you can´t resist impulse spending on personal or even needed household items, you won´t be successful. This article draws on research that shows consumers who use cash tend to spend less and who think long term are much less likely to waste resources on impulse purchases. Making personal entertainment a part of your budget also helps remove the temptation to spend wastefully. Finally, automating savings offers an "out of sight, out of mind" strategy that ensures we pay ourselves first.

This articles describes how to organize a frozen pantry so the home cook will have complete meals at hand that can be assembled and simply heated through.

Appetizers offer an easy way to make low-cost healthful fruits, vegetables, and beans part of a meal even if you´re serving finicky eaters. Attractive healthy snacks offered before a meal will also suppress the appetite or simply fill up the stomaches of the hungriest eaters with, well FIBER. A frugal cook can use this strategy to advantage, buying and preparing smaller portions of meat, fish or other expensive entrees and sides. Most of all, appetizers are a simple, low-cost way to add elegance to the most humble meal.

Being on your own at a party or a professional event can be extremely uncomfortable. Judging who is (or isn´t) receptive to conversation is difficult and it´s easy to worry about coming across as socially inept. and risky. One proven solution is to seek out others who, like you, are at loose ends and are looking to connect for a pleasant conversation. This article provides tips on how to introduce yourself to others and make connections.

Want to get the very best customer service out of your employees? Here´s a team-driven training and management approach that will your empower employees while making them more accountable for customer service. Stop micro-managing your staff; instead, let coworkers support (and manage) one another through training that puts them in the driver´s seat!

Here´s a three-step game plan for training staff to handle irate customers. In these situations, it´s of the utmost importance to defuse emotions by keeping the customer focused on issues that can be solved right away. This article describes how these difficult situations can become opportunities to showcase your business´s customer service when your employees work as a team to handle difficult customers.