A few things that I love that make my life easier!
Back in 2007 we were getting ready for baby #3, and I wanted better organization and simplification, so I made up these charts & have used them ever since.
Call me silly, but I love having my very own personal chore chart. It's laminated and hangs on my fridge. Maybe it's the fact that I can cross off my jobs with a dry erase marker when I'm done, or maybe it's because I can do a few things every day and the house stays organized & clean without me feeling like I'm cleaning all the time! Every day I know what I need to do, and once the jobs are done, I have no problem feeling like I can spend the rest of the day doing what I'd like to do. The jobs change from time to time & place to place, it's easy to make a new sheet. Obviously I'm not perfect all the time, but it works great for me.
(It's also great for when your husband says he doesn't know what to do, or asks what to do, just check the list. :)
This one is pretty self-explanatory too. For some reason, just knowing what's for dinner can make life so much easier and less stressful! (For me anyways) I like having it planned out a month in advance, and then I can go shopping at the beginning of every week and I have everything I need for the dinners for that week. I switch things around if I want, but it's so nice knowing dinner ideas in advance. I don't laminate this one, I like to print out a new sheet each month to write on. The kids can give their input for meal ideas too.
Love these!
Last of all, with the beginning of a new year, we decided to try a new alternative to our normal Excel worksheet budgeting. I do the budget every Tuesday, and would find myself dragging about the time to enter all the information on the worksheets. With many recommendations from friends & family members (thanks Tom & Kristie!) We decided to try Mint.com. Have you heard of it? If you haven't, look it up!
It was designed by the same people who created TurboTax. We haven't used it an extremely long time, but for the time we have, we've loved it. I find myself wanting to do the budget a couple times a week! It's quick & easy and allows you to see everything at a glance. We'll even be able to add student loans to the mix when we start paying them off. (Well...maybe it won't be so great to stare at those numbers every time we budget...) Just another great little thing that I love that makes life easier!
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8 comments:
WE LOVE MINT! It is so great! Just finished my update (we do it ever other day) the budget part is great! Let me know if you need help there is so much more there you can use than first meets the eye!
Hey hey, how's it going? I am pretty sure that Nathan was the one to introduce Tom to mint.com, he tells everyone he knows about that website! But it is great, isn't it?! Post some preggo pics, we'd love to see them. Hope that you are having a great week :)
I really love your calendars and monthly cleaning/planning reminder sheet. That's a great idea!
We love Mint.com as well. Much better than Quicken, which we used to use.
Jorie and Steve told us about mint and we just started....but love it so far. I like the meal calendar I'm sure my husband would too, maybe then he'd have to eat less pb&j.
You have inspired me to become more organized! I just spent the last hour starting mint and am so excited about it. I do the monthly/weekly meal plans already and love that. I'm going to make myself a chore chart too, but I can see that one backfiring with me but maybe I will be better at it then i think :) Thanks!
Angela. you're a genius! I hope you don't mind if I borrow the idea for the chore chart. Its hard working and going to school and this is just what I need. I'll be sure to give you the credit though!! haha hope things are going well with you!
Hey Ang... How's life? You look amazing as usual with all your pregnancies. I am so excited that you are having a little girl. You know what's funny is I was thinking about you today and had a second to check your blog. We need to chat because your last post was awesome and exactly what I needed to read. Give me call so we can catch up. 215-435-4042!!!
I'm so impressed with you right now!! Seriously- I could use every single one of those things...I think I'm going to use your brilliant ideas to simplify my life before baby #2 comes. Thank you for this post!
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