January 2013 Challenge {Meal Planning: Week 1}

Making dinner was always a struggle us. I don't like cooking. I'm not very good at it and always seem to find a way to mess it up. Then there was the issue as to who was making dinner each night - and what we were going to have. Most of the time, we'd end up just going out. Lots of wasted money there.

We finally started meal planning on a weekly basis and agreed that Chris would cook every night since he works from home and I'm on clean up duty. I'd rather clean up than cook, so this deal has worked out well.

Why meal planning? It saves time and money each week. We menu plan - together - before we go grocery shopping for the week. We also go grocery shopping together. While shopping, we come up with new meal ideas for another week and stock up on anything that is on sale and doesn't go bad quickly. We do not plan out breakfast or lunch. I have an English muffin for breakfast everyday and usually take left overs or a salad for lunch. But if you make breakfast and lunch for your family everyday, this may be a good option for you.

Tip #1 - Choose a specific day to meal plan each week and add it to your calendar. You'll be more consistent at meal planning because it becomes part of your weekly routine. 


Tip #2 - Meal plan before grocery shopping for the week. Add ingredients needed to your grocery list so you have everything you need for the week. You won't have to run back to the store to pick up dinner anymore!

This is the grocery list I use. It makes shopping easy since everything is categorized for me already. This document {in a different font and in color} is fully customizable with your own categories and available for purchase in my Etsy store.

Tip #3 - Keep a list of your family's favorite meals handy. This makes meal planning a breeze. I have some of our favorites in my home & life binder, under the meal planning category, along with the ingredients needed for that recipe. While I'm planning, I can choose a meal and quickly view what I need to make the meal, without having to go through my recipes to find the info. I also have a list of dinner ideas that simply lists meal choices. The images below are examples of what mine look like. These documents {in a different font, but same colors} are available in the grocery & meal planning set in my Etsy store.

Tip #4 - Plan as far in advance as you need. I plan by week. Others plan for two weeks at a time or by month. I have planned out a whole month in advance before. It was last year right after Chris was laid off. We planned the whole month of April to have money. It worked wonderfully and I wouldn't be opposed to it again, but for now weekly is good.

Tip #5 - Choose a system that works well for you. You can plan online with something like Google Calendar or on paper. We plan on paper and post it in the kitchen. This way, we're always able to quickly look at the weekly menu and see what we need to take out of the freezer, if needed.

This is the page I use to write down our weekly meals. {Download}

Ultimately, meal planning is a necessity for us because it saves us time. I suggest trying it to see if it works out for you and your family.

Your challenge today is to try out some of these tips, if you think they'll work for you. Save the printables that go along with meal planning. =]

Friday Favorites: Fonts - Part 12

I love fonts! My favorites recently all come from the same designer - Kimberly Geswein. Her fonts are free for personal use. {I purchase commercial licenses to use them in my work that I sell and use in freebies.} Here are my go-to fonts for everything I'm creating.

All fonts can be found on Kimberly Geswein's website.

January 2013 Challenge {Finance: Week 1}

The most challenging part of my life: finances. Everything is up and down constantly. It doesn't help that Chris and I have unreasonable amounts of student loan debt. {You honestly have no idea.} But, there's no turning back. I can't dwell on it anymore. We just need to chug along and pay it.

I completed the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University online last year. Very eye opening. Then Chris lost his job in April and we lost track of the importance of paying off the debt. Now that we're in steady jobs, I decided to sign up for the year subscription to Dave Ramsey's My Total Money Makeover. A parent at my school had talked to me about the difference it's made in their life over the last year, and I knew that I needed Dave in my life again. I set up a budget through the website for January. I also set up our debt snowball. I used Christmas money to totally squash a small credit card amount we had. With the debt snowball, you take the amount you were paying on the lowest amount a month, and add it to the next lowest payment. You keep going and going until everything is paid off. Genius. {Read more about Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball Plan.}

I can understand and sympathize with those in debt. I get it. It just flat out stinks. But financial freedom comes with being organized first, and then conquering each debt, one by one. I'm obviously not an expert here, nor am I claiming to be. I just know from my own experience and the words of readers that having everything all laid out is eye opening and motivating to get rid of it once and for all.

Due to the sensitive information included on my financial forms that I have in my home & life binder, I don't have photos of the forms in my binder. I do have screenshots of the forms though {& some free printables for you}.

What I've included in the finance section of my binder...

* bill & payment checklist *

This form is the most popular in my Etsy store. I created a special vertical version to share with you. {It will only be available on my blog for download for one week - so download it now!}

* loan repayment log *

Now's the best time to fill out the loan repayment logs for each loan debt you carry. You'll be able to track your repayment through the whole year with this document. {Download}

* budget forms *

Since I'm now using the Dave Ramsey website for this, I print my budget from there. Dave Ramsey has some great free budgeting forms on his website you can download.

* monthly calendar *

I use a monthly calendar to lay out when all of my bills are due. I write the company and the amount due on the due date. It gives me a good idea of when everything is due. {Download}

* extra income *

On this document I log all extra income I receive each month. This includes everything other than that earned through my Etsy store. {Download}

This is all that I've included in my finance section so far. I pay all of my bills online, other than rent, so I don't have a need to file bills. If you're looking to create a bill binder specifically, check out this post from my friend, Katie, at Building a House of Love.

If you're looking for more printables related to finance, check out these sets in my Etsy store: finances & home information set and finances set.

Today's challenge is to organize your bills and/or financial info to make tracking your finances {or debts} easier this year. Create folders, binders, files, etc. - use what makes sense for you and choose a method that will be easy for yourself to maintain. Don't choose a method that will be a chore. Trust me, you most likely will not follow through if it's too much work.

January 2013 Challenge {Time Management: Week 1}

It seems like a never ending battle between time and my never ending to-do list. I used to have an amazing memory and never needed a list or calendar to remember anything. Not so much anymore - and maybe it's just because life is busier now than it was previously.

Here are some essentials I need to manage my time. I am not saying that my household or life runs perfectly - it definitely does not. My personal essentials make life a little less hectic for me.

1. Weekly Calendar
I've tried tons of planners. I loved the BusyBodyBook, but they discontinued them this year. What I liked so much about it was the freedom to assign the columns to different areas of my life. I had the Erin Condren Life Planner for 2012. It was beautiful and I enjoyed the personalized cover and bright colors. I did not enjoy the way it was set up by time of day. Being a teacher and planning my {work} day in my school plan book, I didn't have things to write in the morning/day sections. I don't want to plan by time of day or by hour {like most other planners do}. I just want to write down what I need to do and if I have a specific time for it, I'll write it in myself.

I was going to make my own planner for 2013, but life just got the best of me last year, so I didn't have the time. {Maybe for 2014?} I bought a planner from Sam's Club a few months ago, which was similar to the BusyBodyBook, but it wasn't durable and was cheaply made - that's already made it's way out the door. Last week I finally just purchased a dotmine planner. I got it on sale and just wanted something basic. My inability to read the details left me surprised when it arrived in the mail and is the size of a regular sized notebook. Not really what I wanted, but I don't tend to take my planner with me, so it will be fine. {Pro - it gives me more space for writing!} Another thing - it had August 2012 - December 2012 in the front. I tore those out. I don't really understand why planners come 17 month. Every time I purchase a new one, I have 5 months I won't use in the front because I actually wait until December to purchase. Oh well. It was an easy fix!

I use my weekly calendar mostly for planning ahead. I don't keep planners at the end of the year to look back at, so I'm only every writing down things I absolutely need to remember in the future. The first things I penciled in were online professional development courses I signed up for that start in different months throughout the spring.

2. Monthly Calendar

I use a monthly calendar to write down due dates and payment amounts of bills. I also started {for this month} planning my blog posts ahead of time on a monthly calendar. Why I never thought to do this before, I don't know. Now I don't need to think each day about what I'll blog about. I can just look at the schedule. {While writing the schedule, it felt as if I was meal planning, really.}

The calendar I'm using for blog planning is just plain black and white and is vertical instead of horizontal. If you're interested in downloading, you can get it free here.

3. Google Calendar
Why use an electronic calendar when I already have a few forms of paper calendars? Collaboration. I share my Google Calendar with my husband. We both get email alerts, 7 days in advance, for birthdays and bills. That's about all that I use it for at this point. I'd love to eventually switch to electronic planning completely since I can access it from anywhere - my Surface, iPad, any computer, my smartphone, etc. {That can be a goal for this year? Maybe...}

4. Weekly Plan
This is new to me. I've used my daily plan document in the past, but I just don't need a page a day. Last week I purchased The 2013 Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner. {It's currently available this week only as part of the Bundle of the Week with 4 other eBooks for $7.40 for the bundle. Wish I would have waited! I didn't know it would go on sale!} I really like the whole purpose of it. But, being that I don't have any kids and I live in an apartment without many household "spaces", I've taken the basic setup of it and tweaked it for my needs. I also made it straight black and white since I'll be printing it every week. What I love about my weekly plan is all of those little things I never think to do each week {change the dish towel, clean the microwave, etc.} I can leave on the document and change the things that are a one time deal. I also created my plan in PowerPoint, so I can easily duplicate the page and make the changes I need without creating multiple documents for each week. This way, I can look back at the last time I completed certain tasks. This plan is genius because I've added simple things to do each day during the week that will help keep our place tidy. Taking the 5 minutes to wipe down the refrigerator every other week will definitely keep it from having to be it's own task during spring cleaning. =] {Due to copyright, I can't share my version of it since it's so similar.}

5. A {Practical} Routine
I generally have issues with "practical". I always expect too much, too soon - and that's why things don't work out. Goals, routines, etc. always tend to fall through the cracks with me. This year, with a practical routine, they won't. My whole "mantra" for this year is "let go". I want to let go of the past, what I can't control, and stress. Things have been really great for the last month, and I only see it getting better. I've already let go of things that I was trying to stuff on my plate in my every day life - which has made my routine more practical.

Today's challenge is to choose a time management tool - any that I've mentioned or anything else that works for you - and tweak it so it works for you {and your family}. Besides, what's the point in using any time management tool if it causes stress and wastes more time than it saves?

January 2013 Challenge {Home Management: Week 1}

By now you've surely heard about home management binders {or something similar - housekeeping, family, home notebook, etc.}. I'll show you how to set one up!

I think they're a good idea to have because they can help keep you organized. I use my {newly revamped} binder to keep track of all of the info I need at hand. I've blogged previously about all of my binders. I do have a bit of an obsession with creating them. Over the last year, my organizational methods fell apart with a lot of stuff that went on in my life. I think I overwhelmed myself with the methods I had in place. This year is all about simplifying. And simplifying means consolidating - which is why I revamped my binders...all into one.

Samsill sent me some binders to try out. My favorite - the DXL binder - is for heavy duty use. It's also larger than most binders, so my tabs and page protectors don't hang out of the binder. My other colorfully designed binders that I've used in the past were getting beat up, so I'm happy to have these new binders.

I used PowerPoint to create my cover insert and the category pages. I have a ton of colored paper that I got on sale from Staples two years ago, so I made the files black and white and just printed on the colored paper. I uploaded the binder cover and categories if you're interested in downloading {for free}. I included a few more options for wording on the cover and extra categories. There are 28 pages total.

The categories I went with are: important info, planning, finances, cleaning & organizing, home, meal planning, blogs, and businesses.

I have a snap folder that I punched holes in {myself} in the front of the binder. This is to hold any important things that need a temporary home - such as event tickets, membership cards, etc.

I used Avery Big Tab Dividers {with pockets} in my binder. I like the pocket dividers because they're wider than regular ones. Plus, I can stick things in the pockets if I don't have time to hole punch them.

Because I used the dividers with the pockets, I was able to use sheet protectors for my category pages. The regular sized dividers would be covered by the sheet protectors, making the tabs pointless.

Throughout the month I'll cover the contents of my binder, though this whole month will not be all about my binder.

So today's task - if you're interested - is creating a binder. At least create the main structure for it. I'll help you fill it up throughout the month. If you're not a binder person, you can create a filing system or notebook instead. Anything that works for you that you can organize important info with - even if it's electronic. Good luck!