3 New Year's Eve Party Ideas For Kids

From Business Suits to Blue Jeans ...

Dress codes are catching up with the modern emphasis on work-life balance and the need to blend the personal with the professional, explains LearnVest human resources associate Sarah DeGrazia. “I think business casual exists to make people feel more comfortable and be their most productive selves,” she says. “It reflects a cultural shift toward being more relaxed.”

According to DeGrazia, business casual for men usually means skipping the suit and tie in favor of dress pants, a collared shirt and a belt. But when it comes to women, settling on a no-fail business casual outfit is more difficult.

Generally, women can wear any type of skirt or dress with a hem that goes past the knee, as long as the cut isn’t too revealing on top, or a tailored pair of dress pants with a button-down or blouse. Closed-toed shoes are a must, though both heels and flats are acceptable.

If you don't know what to expect in a new job, DeGrazia recommends asking a friend in the field. She also sees no harm in asking your team members or boss, as long as it's not the night before the interview. Today many companies also have websites or social media accounts that feature their employees, so do your homework.

As for business-casual don’ts? Generally speaking, “no jeans, no sneakers, no flip-flops, no sweatshirts,”  says DeGrazia. (Though, if you happen to work in Silicon Valley—or an industry like it—the opposite might be true.)

If in doubt, consider playing it safe by opting for something more formal. “I can’t imagine a situation in which a candidate would be penalized for overdressing,” DeGrazia assures us. "Even if you show up in a suit and everyone else is wearing jeans, you can always remove the jacket. Especially in an interview setting, you never want something under your control—like your outfit—to act as a distraction."

Still, what’s appropriate can vary by industry, age and even location. While tech employees can often get away with jeans and tees, a job in finance most likely means a suit and tie every day. Each industry has their norms, so we asked four professional in different fields: What does "business casual" mean for you?

The Techie

Vihang Mehta, 23, Menlo Park, Calif
Industry: Technology

As a software engineer at Facebook, Vihang Mehta's office wear is more casual than business casual. He says that jeans and T-shirts are the norm for everyone from lower-level employees to big bosses—C.E.O. and founder Mark Zuckerberg hardly wears anything else.

Outfits do vary by each employee’s personal preference, and some people opt to go slightly more formal. But the majority of employees are fairly young, and most stick with casual wear—even those who meet clients. Mehta says his office even does “Corporate Fridays” as a fun twist on the old office tradition. “People dress up just for fun, or wear a suit.” 

The Consultant

Myles Miller, 50, Harrisburg, Penn
Industry: Professional Training Development

Around the offices of education and training consulting firm LeadUp, the dress code is all about what employees feel comfortable wearing, says founder and C.E.O. Myles Miller.

But Miller points out that employees, including himself, spend no more than 10 hours per week at headquarters. Most of their services are performed on-site at the offices of other companies, which means they need to be dressed appropriately for industries such as defense, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality, government and manufacturing. “That’s something I’ve seen changing over the past few years,” Miller adds. “How you dress really does depend on who you’re going to see.”

If Miller is booked for a speaking engagement, he always checks the dress code with the event planners—although he’s noticed that even some of the Fortune 100 companies he’s worked with are moving toward more casual daily attire. But he always wears a suit and tie when he first meets a client: "I'm still somewhat of a traditionalist," he says.

The Ad Exec

Amanda Pekoe, 33, New York City
Industry: Marketing & Advertising

Amanda Pekoe C.E.O. and founder of theatrical marketing and advertising company The Pekoe Group, aims to keep her office dress code professional and fun at the same time. She asks that her employees—all under age 35—sport orange or red, the company’s official colors, when they're in front of clients. "It can be something simple, like an orange blazer or necklace for the ladies, and for the men, a tie or pocket square," she says. "I want everyone to look professional, but I don’t want them to look too stuffy.”

Her personal go-to outfits include button-down silk blouses with a pair of dress pants or nice jeans, a blouse with a blazer or a dress with a cardigan. Pekoe mostly sticks with flats for comfort, but if she wears heels, opts for wedges instead of stilettos. “I would say 99% of the time I’m rocking a big statement necklace,” she says. “Usually the women in the office are using accessories and jewelry as a way of pull the whole look together and make it feel business-y, but also hip and trendy,” she adds, while “the guys rock out really fun shoes” or spice up an outfit with colorful socks or bowties.

The Finance Guy

Julian Gilliatt, 22, New York City
Industry: Corporate Finance

For Julian Gilliatt, a financial analyst at Bloomingdale’s corporate offices, business casual means something more formal.

On any given day, he wears a dress shirt and dress pants—brown usually, black when he wants something more conservative—with a matching belt and shoes. He swaps in a linen shirt for the office’s casual Friday.

Business formal is the dress code at the VP level, with execs wearing a suit and tie. In special situations, like dinner with colleagues, choosing the appropriate attire can be tricky, Gilliatt says.

“It’s dependent on the personality of your team,” he advises. “You could be going to a nice dinner with your boss and dress business formal, but if your boss is taking you and your team out for drinks or something, then it’s much better to go casual than be completely overdressed.”

 

How to Properly Set your Holiday Dining Table

If you're hosting a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, know how to set a holiday table. A great table setting enhances your formal or casual — but definitely festive — atmosphere. Understanding how to set a dinner table is essential during the holiday season, and is also important for hosting any formal dinners.

Keep your table settings simple for dinner parties: Keep utensils, glassware, and dinnerware to a minimum. Don’t set out a plethora of utensils unless your guests will actually need them during the course of the meal.

Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Lisa Thornberg 2011

Casual table setting

This is an example of a simple table setting to use if you want to serve a salad, soup, bread, a main course, and a beverage for dinner. If you serve coffee and dessert, you can place these items on the table right before serving them.

An informal place setting can add style to your dinner party.

• Place dinner plates approximately 2 inches from the table’s edge and center them squarely in front of each chair.
• Put soup bowls on top of the dinner plates.
• Salad plates go above the forks to the left side of the dinner plate.
• Position bread plates slightly above the salad plate closer to the dessert fork.
• Flatware should be laid out in the order that guests will use it: Work your way from the outside in. Forks belong on the left of the dinner plate; knives and spoons go to the right. Knife edges should always face the dinner plate. Butter knives should be laid flat on the bread plate with the cutting edge, again, facing in the direction of the dinner plate. Dessert forks or spoons can be placed horizontally at the top of the dinner plate.
• Place water glasses above the dinner knife. Optional red and white wine glasses or champagne flutes are staggered around the water glass.
• Napkins go to the left of the plate, inside a drinking glass, or in the center of the plate.
• Place cards (perfectly optional) work best placed above the dessert utensil, centered with the plate.

Formal table setting

If you’re hosting a Passover Seder or a Christmas dinner, you may opt for a more formal table setting. For a full-blown formal dinner party, you can add more detail to your place settings as needed: The following list corresponds to the numbers in the illustration.

A formal place setting has many pieces; add or delete them according to your menu.

• Napkin (1)
• Salad fork (2)
• Dinner fork (3)
• Dessert fork (4)
• Bread and butter plate, with butter knife (5)
• Dinner plate (6)
• Dinner knife (7)
• Teaspoon (8)
• Soup spoon (9)
• Cocktail fork (10)
• Water glass (11)
• Red wine glass (12)
• White wine glass (13)

Proper table settings do not need to include every utensil. All sorts of utensils are laid out in this example table setting, but don’t add them to your table unless you intend to use each piece with a course you're serving for dinner or dessert.

Source: www.dummies.com

What is a Price Book?

You’ve been hearing about it on the news, food prices are on the rise and the drought in California only makes it worse. Here is a way to shop offensively vs defensively: The Price Book

A price book is a power tool for tracking prices, products and sales, so you'll always know when a bargain is truly a bargain.

A price book records price variations over time--and between different merchants. For each grocery item you buy, a price book shows you a target price and sets out sales cycles for products you buy regularly.

By knowing that your target price for salad dressing is $1.19, and that the sales cycle is 8 weeks long, you'll be prepared to stock up when prices are low--and rely on the pantry until the next sale, two months later.

How To Make A Price Book

First, understand that form is unimportant. Low-tech tightwads use a three-ring binder or spiral notebook to track price book info. Planner aficionados devote a tabbed section to price book pages, while smartphone power users grab dedicated price book apps to track their purchases.

Whatever the form, the heart of the price book is the product page. Each page tracks price information for a single staple product. Down the page, you'll list the date, store, brand, size and price, and unit price for that product. Over time, you'll be able to identify the best regular price, recognize special sales, and track sale cycles for that product.

Our shopper can buy 8-ounce cans of tomato sauce for a regular supermarket price of 32 cents. Her warehouse store sells bulk cans of tomato sauce for a sharply lower unit price. However, the best buy occurs when the supermarket puts 8-ounce cans on sale at 10 for $1.

Armed with the price book analysis, our shopper has learned to stock up on 8-ounce cans of tomato sauce during supermarket sales.

By continuing to track the price of tomato sauce, she can learn the sale cycle: how often to expect those 10/$1 deals to occur. In her area, that's about every 6 weeks--so she'll purchase enough on sale to cover her family's needs until the next sale.

Setting Up and Using Your Price Book

You're sold on the concept of a price book. You know it will save money, trim time and lighten shopping stress.

Now for the fun! Follow these tips to set up and use your new price book.

You've found a small notebook or printed our price book template and tucked several copies in a three-ring binder. Next step: gather and record your data.

Itemized grocery store receipts are a price book's best friend. On them, you'll find identified and itemized lists of products you buy and use.

Jumpstart your price book by recording data from every receipt you can find.

For brevity, develop a list of store codes. Use a short abbreviation for each supermarket, discount store and warehouse store you patronize.

Keep a calculator handy for unit price calculations! To find any item's unit price, divide the cost of the item by the number of units OR you can often find the unit price calculated on the shelf tag, while shopping.

On The Firing Line

You've scrounged for receipts, entered your data, and now it's time to shop. Like good wine, a price book's value increases with age. At first, you'll be filling in initial entries for many, many product pages--but as time passes, the price book's growth will give you a clear view of the sales cycle.

Build your baby price book each time you shop. See a great special at Supermarket A, but you don't need the product that week? Record it in your price book. You'll know to return next sale cycle, ready to buy.

With a mature price book, item entries slow. Once you've sampled prices at several supermarkets, the discount store and warehouse store, only enter a new price if it is lower than your existing entries.

As your price book matures, be prepared for surprises! Often, the dedicated warehouse store bulk-buyer will discover that she's been paying premium prices for bulk goods. No single traditional supermarket has the "lowest prices" in every area, no matter what their advertising jingles say. Approach the price book exercise with an open mind; you'll find surprising bargains--and high price shocks--in the most amazing places.

Be aware: some price book shoppers have reported episodes of being confronted by supermarket personnel when they make price book entries at the store. A clear and polite explanation ("This is my personal price record; I'm tight-wadding these days. You've got a great deal on white potatoes this week!") should reassure store managers that you're not a snooper-shopper from a competing store. Don't stand for harassment! Any further confrontation should be reported to the chain's higher-ups for action.

Ready, Set, Save!

Over time, you'll build an impressive data bank of local supermarket pricing information. You'll know that name-brand Mexican food products will be offered at the year's lowest prices just before Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May. You'll know when to stock up on steaks, or sodas, or diet foods. You'll understand that canned tuna will be offered at 3/$1 every six weeks--and you'll purchase six weeks' worth of tuna during that buying opportunity.

You'll also know, at a glance, when to buy in bulk from the warehouse store and when to look for a better deal at the supermarket.

Not all bulk purchases represent true bargains. Armed with a price book, you'll know to a fraction of a penny when to load up on the big bag of flour, and when to pass it up in favor of the supermarket's loss leader of the week.

Most of all, a price book will reveal your target price: a realistic, rock-bottom price goal for each item listed in your book. Whether it's cereal for $1.99 per box or detergent at 9 cents per use, you'll have the information you need to know when a bargain is truly a bargain.

Price books. They give you a leg up on the chaotic, ever-changing supermarket price game. Save time, save money and get organized at the supermarket with a price book!

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Are You Ready for Some Football?

http://www.nfl.com/schedules/2014/REG13

Here is the 2014-2015 NFL Game Schedule.