Money Matters

My husband and I are trying to save a few bucks to do some renovations on the house next year.  So we have saved all our receipts from the last two months and sat down with them to see where we are bleeding money.

Our first problem is the weekend.  We spend too much money up north because I forget things and then have to run in to town to pick them up, which inevitably end up with a run to Tim Horton's. Bad bad bad.

Our second problem is last minute trips to the grocery store.  If I call my husband on his way home from work and ask him to pick up something, he will inevitably end up with a whole bunch of stuff we don't need.  That's what I get for sending a hungry man to pick up lettuce.  I take full responsibility.  "They" always say not to shop hungry.

Lessons learned.

So what does this mean to us?  How will we avoid these pit falls?

It all comes down to my lists.  I basically stopped writing lists.  I'm not sure why I thought I could organize things with out lists.  I've never been able to do it.  Ever.  I'm not even sure why I stopped writing lists.  I think I just got lazy.

So I had to think of a way that I can get back to lists that isn't as time consuming. 

My solution?

Lamination.

What's that?  What does lamination have to do with making lists and staying organized?

Well, I'd be happy to tell you.

Every time we go up north, I bring the same stuff up.  I think that is one of the reasons why I stopped writing lists.  I mean, how hard can it be to remember the same stuff each weekend?  Hard apparently, because two weekends ago we had to drive to the next nearest town to go to Walmart and pick up a baby monitor because I forgot to pack ours.  $30 down the tubes (I know that we can technically take it back but we decided to keep it up there so I didn't have to keep on packing our home unit).

Because everything is the same each week, I made a master list, laminated it and put a piece of velcro on it and a dry erase pen.  Now I have the same list each week, can check everything off and always have a dry erase marker handy (theoretically anyway, as I've already misplaced two because I walk with the marker in my hand and the list on the table.  Maybe I need to stick a piece of velcro to myself...)

This works for me.  No time needed to write up a list each week and I end up packing everything we need.

The grocery list wasn't as easy.

I have set meals each week for six weeks, but sometimes I already have the ingredients on hand, so one master list would be way too large.

My other problem is we shop at three stores within the month.  We have our weekly trips to the grocery store and corner market, and a trip to Costco once every two weeks.  I had tried separate sheets for each list, but I always ended up misplacing them or forgetting them at home.

So what I have done is stuck a magnet pad on our fridge, split the page so that the bottom part is for the groceries and the top is the growing Costco list.  That way I have the Costco list always there and not on a separate paper to lose, and I can just tear the weekly grocery list off when I need it.

There is one other part.  I need a post-it stuck to inside of our front door so that I remember to actually take the list when I go shopping.  Sad, I know, but true.

All this organization has done nothing for my scatterbrainedness (I know, not a word...)

Cheers!
Marina

Ten Minute Tidy

I think I have mastered the art of a ten minute tidy. 

Now, please know that the ten minute tidy is not a clean up, just a tidy.  Putting things back in place.  There is no vacuum, there is no dusting, there is no mop.  This is strictly picking up the odds and ends that exploded around the house throughout the morning/afternoon/day.

There are only three steps to the process.  Our main floor has three main rooms, living, dining and kitchen, and I do all three steps for each room.

1. Collect everything off the floor, couch, table, chairs, where ever there is stuff piled or dropped, pick it up and put it all in one central location.  Quickly divide all the stuff up in to like piles and then go put the contents where they belong.  This helps the process go faster because you aren't running from one place to the next back to the first and across to the next.  One direction per pile. 

2. Fluff couch cushions, push in chairs, straighten rugs or tables that have shifted.

3. Wipe down tables or counters.

Presto! A clean living space.

Once you become really good at it, you should be able to do it in under ten.  I can do the three main rooms in eight minutes at the end of the day.  If I do it a few times a day I get it done in under five because there is less stuff to move around each time. 

Try it out!  I find it really makes a difference in how the house feels each day when the clutter is dealt with and put away. 

Cheers!
Marina

Storing Art

I've recently noticed that I need to create a permanent storage system for all of my little man's art work.  Since he was about two and a half he has been actually drawing things, and here or there, he has made some pretty cute stuff.

I tend to be a bit of a hoarder when it comes to things he has created.  My mom had bins for my sister and I and I recently went through mine and laughed hysterically for about 2 hours as I dug out my creations for elementary school.  I found stories that I had written, cards that I made for my parents, pictures painted in kindergarten and my favourite, a note book journal from grade two.  The things I wrote were hilarious.

I want my monkey to have the option of reliving these memories.  I want him to laugh for 2 hours because of the size of his dad's ears on a portrait drawn when he was 3.

But the papers are starting to take over my computer table, fridge, bulletin board and bathroom door (don't ask) .  So I need to start a system.

I've found a lot of advice online.

One really neat idea was to take pictures of all the art work and put them into a photo album.  But I want the originals.  I'm selfish like that.

Another idea was to keep one picture each month, frame it and hang it on your wall creating an art gallery.  At the beginning of each year you switch out last January's picture. But we live in a small house and don't have enough wall space for that.  We'd be done after a few months.  And while I know we could switch them out, I think that only one creation a month is a little on the thin side.  My little man draws almost every day.  I know I wouldn't be able to just pick one from a month.

Another great idea was to create a scrap book with all the favourites, adding text to remind me what the circumstances were around that particular art work.  I can tell you right now that would be good for the first few, but in the end I'd just start stuffing them in there.

I know my limits.

So I have decided to get a bankers box and fill it with file folders to divide each year's work.  I always date and name the pictures he draws, so I thought this was the easiest way for me to keep them.  Plus I have a spot on the shelves in his room to put the box.

And really, this is the option that requires the least amount of work.

And like I said before.

I know my limits.

Cheers!
Marina