When many couples decide to get married they are not really thinking about the costs and all of the hard work that is involved to pull off a day that they will remember for the rest of their lives. Once the plans kick into action, many couples are faced with sticker shock on how much that wedding is going to cost them and/or their families.

Once reality has set in…these same couples are looking for frugal do-it-yourself wedding ideas to help cut the costs and to save money. After all, who wants to start out their new marriage in debt? No one! Here are some ideas that might help you when it comes to planning your own wedding.

1. Shop Around – Shop around for photographers, cake makers, dresses, reception halls, wedding venues and everything else that you will need for your big day. Make a list of all providers of the services that you will need and personally interview them & check them out for yourself. Decide how much you can spend and stick within your budget.

2. Photographer – If you have to hire a professional photographer, hire only one and only for the exact amount of time you will need them. Let your guests know before the wedding day that you would appreciate them taking photos and then showing you the proofs of the photos they took. Buy only the BASIC PACKAGE that your professional photographer offers and then get extra photos from your family & friends to fill up your wedding album. Trust me, you don’t need the biggest and best package that the photographer has to offer.

3. All-Inclusive Wedding Packages – These days you can rent a wedding venue and many of these places include everything you may need. For example: Place to hold the wedding & the reception with catering, flowers, the wedding cake, table decorations, the entertainment and more! A lot of times these package deals are cheaper than you trying to put it all together yourself.

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For those who are passionate about knitting and crocheting, you already know how important it is to properly store all of your yarns and supplies. When thinking about storage options, you need to think about the room you will be storing them in, the amount of space you have to work with and what kind of storage item you are looking for.

Here are some creative ways you can store all of your knitting and crocheting supplies.

1. Canvas Laundry Bags – Look for washable bags with a drawstring closure to place all of your yarn in. If you have a lot of yarn…buy several in a variety of colors to color-code your yarn storage.

2. Plastic Linen Storage Bags – Every time you purchase new comforters or bed linens, save those clear plastic bags with zipper closures and use those to store your supplies in. What is really nice about these bags is that you can see what is inside them and they slip easily underneath your bed or in a closet if you are limited on storage space.

3. Plastic Storage Totes – A variety of plastic manufacturers make plastic storage totes (Rubbermaid is one of them) which are good for storing your knitting & crocheting supplies in if you have a lot of storage space to work with. Although this should not be your first storage choice option…it is an option to consider.

4. Over-the-Door Shoe Storage Bag – Have you all seen those shoe storage bags that fit over a closet door or on the back of a door? If you have a lot of little yarn balls or work with small amounts of baby yarn…these shoe organizers could be a storage option for you. With that said, most will not hold large, full-size yarn skeins, so keep that in mind when considering one for your storage options.

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If you are with one of the Direct Sales companies and trying to build a portion of your business online, it is very important to get involved with popular online social media networking sites like Twitter.com. When new business professionals start marketing their businesses on Twitter, they often make a big marketing mistake by tweeting out massive amounts of business spam messages instead of trying to network and get to know their followers.

When people join social media networking sites, they don’t want to be spammed 24/7 with business messages. They do want to learn more about the company or business they are following along with the products you are marketing…but…they also want to engage in meaningful conversation with that company’s consultant who is doing all of that Tweeting. In the case of Direct Sales…that means they want to engage in meaningful conversations with YOU.

When it comes to marketing your business on Twitter, here are a few important tips that you should know.

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When our daughter was a teenager, she would ask me to make these English Muffin mini pizzas almost on a weekly basis! She absolutely loved eating these. If the toppings we used are not to your liking, feel free to replace them with whatever it is that you like on your pizza.

If you like a little kick to your mini pizza, you can try adding some crushed red pepper or minced garlic to your toppings.

Alternative Pizza Toppings: sliced ham, shredded chicken, beef steak pieces, pineapple chunks, anchovies, red and green peppers or broccoli florets.

English Muffin Mini Pizzas

3 English Muffin halves
4-5 ounces pizza sauce
1/2 of minced onion
2 tablespoons of sliced black olives
9 pieces of sliced pepperoni
4 ounce can of mushroom pieces
1/2 cup of shredded Mozzarella cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

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When it comes to reading and visiting blogs, do you leave meaningful comments? Or, are you the type of person who reads a blog entry and then just leaves?

When it comes to leaving comments on blogs that you frequently read, it is important to leave meaningful comments. Why you might ask? Because leaving meaningful comments can benefit your home business by driving traffic back to your business web site or personal blog.

When I speak about leaving meaningful comments, I specifically mean that you should draft up several sentences about the blog post you just read…your thoughts or opinions on the post and if appropriate, engage the author of the post by posting your own questions to them within your comments.

Now you might be asking yourself…why should I spend my valuable time by leaving comments on an author’s blog? Well, I am going to tell you how this benefits you.

1. Leaving comments can drive traffic back to your sites. An author of a blog sees way too many insignificant comment posts or spam posts and won’t take the time to come visit your web site or blog unless you engage them in conversation. You can do that by leaving an engaging comment or question on their blog.

2. When you leave well thought out comments on a writer’s blog, you can build a relationship with them. Part of online business networking is about relationship building…commenting on posts can open the door to a new professional and/or personal relationship.

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For many of us, we purchase and use boxed cake mixes to save us time when we need to bake a homemade cake or a batch of cupcakes. However, that same box of prepared cake mix can be doctored up and used in so many different ways.

You can save a lot of time and money in the kitchen by adding a few additional ingredients to a box of cake mix. Foods like fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, canned or frozen pie fillings, shaved chocolate, shredded coconut and other ingredients you may have on hand, can be quickly and easily added to the cake mix batter.

1. Quick Breads

2. Cake-Like Cookies and Bars

3. Cake-Like Brownies

4. Muffins

5. Cake Pops

6. Cupcakes

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When it comes to making dips for parties that I host, I always find myself making some delicious tasting spinach dip because it is so versatile. You can use spinach dip with veggie sticks, chips, pretzels, bread cubes or served with crackers and cheese.

If you decide to serve the dip with a vegetable tray, I would like to suggest the following: carrot sticks, celery sticks, sliced cucumbers, broccoli and cauliflower. All of these veggies taste great with this dip.

Once you prepare this recipe, you can serve your dip in a hollowed out bread bowl, in a pretty ceramic or porcelain dish or better yet, if you have one of those chilled serving dip dishes, that would work well too. For a little extra pizzazz, you can garnish the top with a fresh spring of spinach or mint leaf.

If you keep it refrigerated, it can last for up to 4 or 5 days.

Spinach Dip Recipe

1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing
1 pkg. frozen cream spinach
1 cup low-fat mayonnaise

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These cinnamon stick ornaments are really easy to make and they smell fantastic hanging on your holiday tree. You can purchase cinnamon sticks at your local grocery store or craft supply store.

If children are helping you to make these ornaments, I recommend using all-purpose craft glue and not hot glue. You can make several of these ornaments up in only one afternoon.

Supplies Needed

1 Bag of Cinnamon Sticks (measuring 3″ in length)
Hot Glue or All-Purpose Craft Glue
1 Spool of Gold Metallic Ribbon
Faux Mini Pinecone and Berry Floral Picks
Scissors

Tips: I find that hot glue and a glue gun work best for this project but you can certainly use all-purpose quick-drying craft glue. If your cinnamon sticks are longer than 3″ in length, you can easily cut them down to size using scissors or wire cutters.

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During the months of October and November, my family really enjoys this Pumpkin Crunch dessert recipe. It takes about 10 minutes to prepare and 50 minutes to bake.

This is a really nice dessert to serve at your Halloween parties or after your Thanksgiving holiday meal. I often entertain here at my home during the fall months, so I will make this recipe and serve it with some wonderful fall flavored teas and coffees.

If desired, you can substitute the canned pumpkin with some fresh puree, although when I substitute, I also add in 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to give it additional flavor.

Pumpkin Crunch Recipe

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup butter, melted
non-dairy whipped topping for garnishing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease bottom of 9 x 13″ pan.

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If you are with any of the Direct Sales companies, I am sure that you are aware that if you want to make the big money, you need to be out there recruiting and adding new team members to your team. However, the real question is, Is Team Building Right For You?

When you are considering building a team with your Direct Sales business, there are several things that you need to consider. When you build a team, you are responsible for training, supporting, motivating and communicating with your team on a consistent basis. Before you start adding new consultants to your business, there are a few things you need to consider.

1. Experience: How long have you been with your particular company? Do you know everything you need to know about your company, their business policies and their products? If not, then you should not be recruiting. When a new member joins your team, you are responsible for training them and supporting them. If you don’t know what you need to know about the business, there is no way you can effectively help them. I suggest you work on learning everything that you need to know and get some experience before adding new consultants to your team.

2. Time Commitment: When you start training and managing your own downline team, you will need to be committed to giving up several hours a week of your time to just lead and train your team. You can not just sign people up and push them off to others. As their recruiter, it is your job to help them and that can be very time consuming. If you don’t have several hours a week to spare on just leading your team, you should not be recruiting.

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