Making a Home Schedule

   
Whether you are a stay-at-home-mom, a working parent, single, a student or a mixture of some of these like our family a schedule is a huge help! Between my hubby's ever changing work schedule, our daughters activities, school, outings, family affairs, date night, dinner and house work... It's can become so overwhelming that you feel lost! I know the feeling. Most of our days are full to the brim and now that school is back in session its gotten that much busier. I am an organization freak. I feel like if I have everything organized and planned I have a method for the madness. Here is how we are able to better plan our weeks out...

1st of all have a calender at the ready; this can be a planner, and wall calender, one on your cell phone, or even the computer. The main point is it needs to be something that you will check daily. This calender should have birthday's, anniversaries, upcoming events, and weekly occurrences (such as church, clubs, etc.).

2nd plan out your meals ahead of time. If Thursday's your daughter has a music lesson and your son has soccer you will want to have an easier meal planned ahead of time so that McDonald's doesn't become your go to. Also working a menu ahead helps with special occasions. The biggest thing for our family is the knowing! We know what we are having for the next week or week and a half which is great!! Also I am able to better make meals from our pantry and make a grocery list based on exactly what we need. We are able to save quite a bit on groceries because of planning ahead and coupon shopping. We aim to spend $70 a week on groceries at the very most! (We have anywhere from 4-7 people eating at each meal) It may sound crazy but we are frugal and make our food money stretch a lot with coupons.

3rd know schedules. School schedules, activities, work, etc. You will much more easily be able to work a reasonable Master schedule when you factor in all the smaller ones.

4th write down what areas of your home need to be cleaned and how often. In our home I clean top to bottom twice a week. With a dog and kids not to mention the adults our house needs a good cleaning at least that often. Then there are touch ups on areas throughout the week. And monthly maintenance, which includes; closet and drawer organization, base boards, taking inventory of our personal care and food items, and a donation bag to name a few.

Fifth your bill and pay days. Have a current bill schedule and work pay to add to your monthly schedules.

Now that you have all of the above mentioned items your ready to make your schedule. I use my phone to plan out my week. I have our bill due dates, pay days, and a loose schedule all planned into the calender on my phone. In addition I have our uncoming events and anything else I might need to remember. My day looks something like this during the week:

6am- Wake up and Exercise
6:45- Wake up girls and get ready
7:20- Take Adeline to school
8:15- Back home begin daily chores
              cleaning done
              laundry (Monday/Thursday)
11- Reading and Art time with Sarai
12pm- Lunch
12:30- Nap time (Blog work)
2:15- Pick up Adeline from School
3- Homework time and Snack
4- Play time
6- Dinner
7-Bath
8- Quiet time (reading)
9-Bed time for the kids (work time for me)

    Leave room for unexpected items... And don't beat yourself up if you don't get to everything everyday! Take it one day at a time and make sure to spend lots of time loving the kids :)!

Need a way to keep your coupons organized???

MY COUPON ORGANIZER

         I wanted to find a way to organize my coupons so that I could easily find them when was making my grocery and store shopping lists here is what I have found. This works great for my family and I am able to quickly add coupons on Sunday's from the newspaper and through out the week as I may get them as well.

 I used a plastic shoe box that we had at home and then I labeled legal sized envelopes and cut index card into strips and labeled them with the following...

Air Freshners/Candles (typically for Glade and Air wick)

Automotive (including the auto stores we go to)

Baby

Baking

Body Wash/Soap/Lotion

Bverages (juices, juice boxes, water)

Breakfast

Canned Foods

Cereal (we ALWAYS have a ton of cereal coupons so I decided it needed its own envelope)

Cleaners (household)

Condiments

Dairy
Frozen

Food Storage/Batteries (ziploc bags, aluminum foil, plastic containers, etc.)

Hygiene -dental (tooth paste, tooth brushes, mouth wash)

Hygiene- other (razors, femine care, etc.)

Laundry

Makeup

Meat

Medicine

Office Supplies

Other/Alcohol

Paper products (toilet paper, paper towels, tissues)

Pasta/ Rice

Produce

Salad Dressing/Sauce/Seasoning

Shampoo/Conditioner/Styler

Snacks

Toys/Gifts/Movies

Then a few envelopes for the most often shopped stores-

CVS

Mall

Raley's

Safeway

Target

At the back I have two envelopes for-

Activites/Entertainment

Resturants

 This system makes going through the cutting out and putting them away a snap! I also can easily go through and throw away unused/expired coupons too!

Home Management Binder

I don't know about you but when I know where everything is I feel at peace. Today I would like to show you my HOME MANAGEMENT BINDER. In our home there is chaos and confusion at times and this binder has been a life saver! Within mine I have a few sections:

1. Calender- When you open the binder the first thing you see is a calender I made and printed out. The calender has dates that our bills are due, birthdays, events and any other pertinent info that we will need accessible at a moments notice. Obviously the current month is first and I have each month through the rest of the year, this way I can add something months ahead of time easily :)

2. Current week- The first Category is for our current week. I have our menu plan, my daily schedule and any important papers I may need associated with the day right there.

3. Chore chart- Next I have chore charts printed and ready for use. The top one is for the current week. My older daughter knows that when she has had a good week of behavior and chores she gets a reward so she is all to eager to make sure everything is done.

4. Upcoming week- basically the same as current week except they are printed copies. This way if something comes up I can add it ahead of time.

5. School- I keep information from my daughters school schedules here along with permission slips, party schedules, PTO information etc.

6. Cleaning- I have a weekly guide that I can look at to make sure our home is tidy and orderly. I know that each area is cleaned every week because I can simply check it off! I don't get everything done every week. Other things come up especially being with my family but this way I know what was done and what needs to be done. I also have a list of home maintenance broken down so that is can be done quarterly. These are things that need to be done but we wouldn't remember to do them unless there was a list.

7. Finances- This is the biggest category the first page is or current monthes weekly budget with a breakdown of incoming and outgoing money. Next is our overall budget broken down so we can easily see what we have set aside to spend in each area... for example $200 for groceries, and $200 for your car insurance and auto repairs. Next is a list of our debt so we know where we stand and what we can snowball next. NEXT I have subcategories that are sleeves labeled; paystubs, bank statements, insurance, bills, and debt.

(also we use Mint.com its a great and FREE resource!)

8. Projects/ wish list- Here we have blank paper where we can add projects that need to be done and a place where we can add to our wish list easily.

I know that this is a lot of information so if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask :)