Minimizing (Without Becoming a Minimalist)

We live in a 1,000 square foot house.  While this is by no means a one bedroom apartment, or a home with no storage, or a shack in the woods, it’s on the small side.  According to the National Association of Homebuilders, the average home size was 2330 sqaure feet in 2004.  Even by 1970′s standards, when the average square footage was 1400 square feet, we have a small home.

About two years ago, before my husband moved in, my house was full to the brimble.  I had no storage left.  The basement shelves were full, the garage lined with boxes, the closets bursting.  When Paul (and all of his stuff) moved in, I revamped my ideas of storage.  Instead of cramming items into every possible nook and cranny, we got organized.  Rubbermaid bins, storage ottomans, wicker baskets, grouping like items.  We arranged in a way that allowed us to keep the majority of both of our items.  Success, right?

Well, I suppose it depends on how you define success.

I was trying to find a few books for my classroom that I knew I had a copy of.  Copies of, actually.  I hauled out four large boxes of books, sifted through them, and didn’t find what I was looking for.  Then I realized I had four more boxes in the basement, also packed with books, that I hadn’t touched yet.  At that point I decided I’d rather just check out the books from the library.

Which leads me to the question… is it worth owning and storing something if you can’t find it, don’t use it, or don’t remember you have it?

Books are one of our biggest storage problems, but it goes beyond that.  Food, kitchen supplies, electronics, decorations, photos… it all just ends up sitting because it’s too much of a hassle to retreive.

I know I won’t end up becoming a minimalist.  I don’t have it in me.  I do think it would do me some good, however, to embrace the theory behind it a bit.

On my reading list, then?

• Monday Mission: Keep It Simple from Kitchen Stewardship
• Decluttering Questions Printable from Organizing Your Way
• The Complete Step-by Step Guide to an Organized Kitchen from The Mom Writes
• Organization’s Three Most Important Principles from Organizing Your Way
• A Thing A Day Challenge from Unclutterer
• Ask Unclutterer: Feeling guilty about parting with sentimental items from Unclutterer
• Finish The Projects You’ve Started. Or Call an End to Them. from The Happiness Project

I’ll keep updating as I read these (and hopefully internalize their messages).  This is mostly for my own good – I’ve got to be held accountable somehow – but hopefully you’ll reap some benefits as well.

The Sock Project

We have a plethora of mismatched socks.  Some of them have been in the singleton sock bag for … well … I’m not eve sure.  Years, perhaps?  Some of them are ALMOST the same aside from a slight variation in length or ribbing size, which leads me to believe that there are, in our sock drawers, some mismatched socks that are parading around as a couple.

For this reason, the sock project has been developed.

This is my plan, should my wise and kind husband agree.

1. Wear socks.
2. Launder socks.
3. Put all individual socks in a bin, including those with mates.
4. Continue steps 1-3 until ALL socks have been worn.
   1. If socks are ugly, uncomfortable, or holey enough to be thought unwearable, the may be delegated to the discard pile, where they’ll be cut up and used as rags or fashioned into sock puppets.
   2. If socks are unseasonable (i.e. hiking socks), unfold the pair and add to the bucket.
5. Group all socks into pairs.
6. Put lonely, leftover socks into the discard pile and cut them up immediately, lest they become the new group from which to frustratedly match single socks against.

The Grocery List Unveiled

And now, in all it’s glory, my completed grocery list!  Okay… so I don’t think it will ever be ACTUALLY completed – I’m sure I’ll keep updating it as the months go on.  But with the help of groceryhop.com, I managed to create my official grocery list with prices.

According to their website, Grocery Hop is “free, online, printable grocery price list to track lowest unit prices and receive instant spending tips & analysis.”  It’s a pain in the buns to remember to enter my grocery lists – typically I shove them in a little drawer until it overflows, and then I enter them all at once.  Inconvenience aside, though, t’s really helpful to keep track of grocery prices – much better than my old system of keeping track.

I blogged about my grocery list a few weeks ago, and a half a year before that.  Sad that it’s taken so long to get to this point!  But it’s finally happened, so I suppose that’s what I should focus on.  I took my last regular grocery list and the recorded the lowest grocery price that I’ve bought each item for in the last few months.  I don’t track every single purchase – I’m not quite dedicated enough for that – but it’s a pretty good sampling.  I just finished it fifteen minutes ago, so I haven’t put it into action yet, but I predict it’ll come in handy!

Grocery List

A Well Stocked Pantry Means A Well Stocked Stomach

In the past year, I’ve gotten exponentially better at cooking.  I’ve gone from a repertoire of grilled cheese and frozen pizza to … well … you name it and I’ll try to cook it.  (Successfully?  That’s another story.  But at least I’ll try!)

We’ve had dozens (perhaps hundreds) of different main dishes, side dishes, snacks, and desserts over the past year, and our grocery bill has shown it.  I’ll tell you one thing – cereal and milk for supper is quite a bit less expensive than spinach and ricotta stuffed shells or bangers and mash.  In addition, I find myself making several trips to the grocery store every week, when I’d really like to spend my time doing anything but standing in a long checkout line.

To streamline, I chose our ten favorite main dishes, and I’m going to become an expert at them.  I’ll stock up on ingredients (ideally at low prices on less frequent trips to the store) so we always have them on hand, and then have a larger base of recipes to choose from without having to stop at the market for eight ounces of mozzarella or a pound of ground sirloin. Hopefully, as I continue to make them, I’ll memorize a few recipes and they’ll be no problem to whip up.

Here are the main dishes we chose:

• Chicken Pot Pie

• 

  Chicken Pot Pie

• Shepherds’ Pie
• Empanadas
• Tacos
• Cheesy Vegetable Bake
• Meatloaf
• BLT’s
• Runsas
• Cheesy Wild Rice Soup

• 

  Cheesy Wild Rice Soup

• Pork Chops

Can you tell we live in Wisconsin?  Pretty hearty food.  Sometimes I wish we were the salad eating kind, but it just doesn’t do it for us on a regular basis.  Once in a while – absolutely.  Could I base my diet around salads?  Definitely not.  We balance things out by eating light lunches and veggies on the side.

I gave my grocery list a bit of a makeover to correlate with out new meal plan.  My next task is to figure out the best price of each item using Grocery Hop and add that to the list.

So what do you think?  Is this going overboard, or do you do something similar?

Mission Accomplished

With only 13 school days left to go, I took a sick day yesterday.  I’m nursing a nasty sinus infection, with a good dose of nausea on top of it.  While I wish I wouldn’t have needed to take a day off, I think my body is thanking me.

With all of that down time, I managed to be totally unproductive in nearly all areas… however… my Google Reader is now looking stellar.  I am down from a high of 250 blogs in February to… drumroll please…

77 !

I have an addictive personality when it comes to the computer, and I do need to reign myself in every so often.  My previous attempts at organizing my Google Reader were working well, but oh so slowly.  I was in a ruthless mood today, so I went through each and every blog that I hadn’t already assessed and looked at the last ten or so posts.  If I didn’t love it, it was out the door.

Now, the only challenge is keeping it that way…

Remembering Birthdays

I don’t have a knack for remembering dates (or names, or faces…), so I’m working on a way to track and celebrate birthdays.  I have a few ideas, so far, but haven’t settled on one.  Maybe you have something to add to my list.

1. Gift Elephant, which I’ve posted about before, will e-mail you a week before a birthday.  I added my closest friends’ and family members’ names in, but haven’t taken the time (yet?) to enter cousins, acquaintances, etc.
2. I use Google Calendar, in which you can repeat an event so it shows up every year.  I think you can have it remind you, as well.  Again, I have immediate family members’ birthdays entered, but that’s it.
3. Facebook does a fantastic job of reminding people of acquaintances’ (and in my case, some cousins’) birthdays; however, in order to use this feature I’d need to actually log in once in a while.  I know that I’m not committed enough to Facebook to log in daily just to see if it’s anyone’s birthday, but I could do a better job of checking birthdays the times I do sign on.
4. During my organization month in April, I set up a tickler file – a system of 12 file folders labeled by month and 31 slots (for days of the month) in a bill organizer.  This would be handy to keep cards in – for example, I could make an anniversary card whenever I have the time, and stick it in the August folder to plan ahead for my parents’ anniversary.  I could even attach a list of important dates in each folder, and on the first of the month plan ahead accordingly.
5. I love the idea of having a hanging paper calendar on the fridge.  I could fill in birthdays at the beginning of the year.
6. My grandma buys cards in advance, and as soon as she purchases them, addresses the envelope and puts the delivery date in the top right corner.  When the date approaches, she sticks a stamp over the date and drops it in the mailbox.  Maybe I could somehow combine this with my tickler system.

I have two birthdays to remember in May, so hopefully I’ll have my system worked out in the next week or so.  Any ideas would be appreciated!

The Camping Countdown

We aren’t RV campers, or electricity loving campers, or showering campers.  We’re the pop a tent, ditch the cell phones, bring on the pudgy-pie type of campers.  That being said, I don’t think I’d necessarily want to abandon all creature comforts.  After all, there is special equipment needed for a pudgy-pie, and I don’t think I’d enjoy filtering lake water in order to brush my teeth.

I enjoy planning for a weekend of camping as much as I actually enjoy the trip itself… which is why I’ve started dreaming about our great outdoor escape that will take place in 36 days.  Coincidence that this falls on the last day of the school year?  Of course not.  As the last bell rings, I’ll be sprinting out the door one step ahead of my students, pencils and notebooks flying behind me as I go.  This may be a slight exaggeration, but the moment my room is packed up for the summer, I’ll be ready to roll.

This past weekend, I took a good hard look at our camping supplies and came up with a plan.  It being organization month and all, I figured there was no time like the present to get things into order.  We already had three large Rubbermaid bins, and all were overflowing.  (Gosh, I wish I’d remembered to take a “before” picture.  Or an after, for that matter.  It would probably make this post better.  I promise, there will be pictures to come when the camping trip draws nearer.)

I unpacked the bins, took an inventory, and sorted to my heart’s content.  We now have extremely well organized three bins (none too full to close, either), with all supplies inside and accounted for.  I even made note of what needs to be added or changed each time we go (washcloths, for example, and my glasses).

You may ask, “Why in the world would you take the time to do this?  Doesn’t this seem like a waste of a Sunday?”  Well… number one, I don’t have kids, so I have a quite a bit more free time than many of you probably have.  And number two… let’s face it, I’m a nerd.  I loved every minute of this packing experience.  This is what I do for fun, folks.

So here it is, in all it’s glory…

Packing List

And just in case you dislike opening Word documents as much as I do, here’s a sneak preview.  The actual document contains much more info, but the list below will at least give you an idea of whether it’s worth opening.

—–

Bin Three

Meal Preparation

Small Bin

Bottle opener/corkscrew

Can opener

Collapsible cups

Dish soap

Hand sanitizer

Large knife

Large spoons

Lighter

Matches

Plastic silverware

Small cutting board

Small knives

Spatula

Spices

Large Bin

Aluminum foil

Bowls

Cancoozies

Coffee maker

Cups

Dish pan

Kabob makers

Large cutting board

Mugs

Pam

Pans

Plates

Pot holders

Pots

Pudgy pie makers

Scrub brush

Tablecloth

Tablecloth clamps

Toaster

Wet wipes

Don’t forget…

• • Coffee/tea
  • Dish cloth
  • Drying cloth

Organization Links

Here are a few links that I’ve been meaning to share.  All are focused on organization.  I’ve written a tidbit or two from each link, mostly for my own benefit, but they’re all worth checking out.

Get Organized and Gain Thirty More Minutes a Day (List Planit)

Unsubscribe from e-mail and RSS feeds that you frequently skip over.  Stop multitasking.  Don’t procrastinate.

Finish the Projects You’ve Started.  Or Call Them to an End. (The Happiness Project)

Get your projects off of your plate, one way or another.

Start Your Day by Eating a Frog (Simple Mom)

Tackle your most dreaded task first, and the rest of the day will seem easy.

10 Things to Do Before You Go to Bed (Planning with Kids)

Take half an hour at night to get ready for the next day.  The morning will go smoothly and you’ll have more flexibility.

Compounding Time: Creating More Free Time by Investing It Wisely (Pick the Brain)

Learn a tip to save some time.  Then, take the time you save to learn more tips.

Incredibly Obvious Tips to Save You Time (Unclutterer)

Work while at work.  When you’re finished using something, put it away.

Build a Pantry that Works for You (Organizing Your Way)

Make a list of meals that your family enjoys.  Make a second list of ingredients to make those meals.  Buy nonperishable items from this list when they’re on sale.

Resisting the Time Suck (Get Rich Slowly)

Identify non-satisfying activities that you tend to get sucked into.  Try to avoid them in the first place.  If you find yourself involved in one, stop yourself if you spent the last hour as intended, and what you can do now to fix it.

20 Tips for Finding Your Routine with Kids (Simple Mom)

Clean as you go.  Don’t watch much TV.  Have intentional down time.  Get enough sleep, water, and exercise.

Six Things to Do (Steady Mom)

Be realistic about what you can accomplish in a day.  Fill your to do list with six (and only six) tasks that are essential to complete that day.

Books on Organization that Are Actually Worth Reading

A few weeks ago, I posted a list of “organization” books that I picked up at the library.  They were all skimmed, shut, and returned to the library within two days.  I was at first upset – they had beautiful pictures and were full of bullet points.  They should have been perfect!  Those are exactly the types of books I love!

Then I realized my problem is just that – I love those types of books.  I don’t NEED those types of books.  I (generally) have my physical space organized, which is what all of these books focused on.  When I don’t have my physical space organized, it’s not because I don’t know how or have the wrong type of containers.  It’s because I let mail pile up, or don’t put my shoes away, or leave my magazines lying out on the kitchen table.

I went back to the library and tried again.  Instead of searching for books on organization in general, I went back and tried time management and productivity.  What a difference!  I checked out a large stack of results from these searches.  While I haven’t looked at all of them yet, I’ve paged through many and I know I’ll find them extremely helpful.  Here are two books that I have had a chance to dive into.  I’d recommend both!

Upgrade Your Life is far and away my favorite book out the bunch.  “Hacks” are time and effort saving tricks to make life a little easier, and this book is full of them.  If you’re not willing to try out the book, you should check out this lifehacker.com post – it contains many of the tips in the book.

I’m listening to The Personal Efficiency Program on Playaway right now.  While somewhat redundant, it’s message lines up perfectly with this month’s goal.  The basic theme so far has been, “Do it now.”  No procrastinating, no piles, no excuses.  I need to hear that!

April Update

We’re midway through the month, so it’s about time for a check on how well (or poorly) I’ve done on my April Resolutions.

For starters, checking of resolutions I’d kept each day hasn’t worked out.  I was faithful for about a week, but it went downhill from there.

1.   Five item cleanup.

This has worked well so far.  Putting five things away in each room is a quick and simple routine.  I’m trying hard to have a “do it now” approach to things, and frequently I’ll find that there just aren’t five items that are out of place in a room.  That’s a good feeling!

2.  Leave no nagging tasks.

I broke this down into two sections.

Clear out the day’s slot. I keep bills, letters to be sent, reminders, and such in a bill organizer similar to this:

In the past, I’d go a week without looking at the thing, and when I finally remembered, I would move all of the papers into the next week’s slots without giving a second thought.  Again, my “do it now” process has come in handy. In addition handling it’s contents daily instead of weekly, I also put less into the organizer to begin with.

Clear out my e-mail’s inbox daily. My goal is to have less than five e-mails in my inbox at the end of the day.  I use Gmail, and label and archive messages as soon as I take care of them.  I know I can still access anything I need later, but having those e-mails out of the inbox means they’re out of my head, as well.

3.  Keep a weekly to-do list.

It’s been a relief to know that my priority goals will get finished, yet not be a slave to my planner.  I’ve been using my Pocket Docket, but to be honest, any piece of paper would do.  It has ten lines, five of which I fill with must-do tasks.  (They’re noted with a little star, in case you were wondering.)  The other five lines I’m able to fill with other things that I’d like to get done but won’t worry about if they aren’t completed.  I’m going to start trying to get these done early in the week.  I still have three items left to check off today.  It’s more fun to check things off when I have some wiggle room left.  Now it’s down to the wire!

Cleaning Playlist

In order to motivate myself during the cleaning that I’ve pledged to do more frequently, I’ve made a cleaning playlist.  It consists of the following songs…

“Fireflies” by Owl City

“Hey Soul Sister” by Train

…and that’s it.  My “playlist” actually is two songs that I listen to over and over again, but that’s okay with me (for now).

I have a rarely-used iPod, so on Sunday I dug it out of the electronics drawer, charged the batteries, and bought the two songs on iTunes.  Sure, we have other songs I could have added that were already on the computer, but I thought that this would be a fun treat to cheer up my cleaning routine.

It definitely worked, but a day later I did get a teensy bit sick of listening to the same two songs, so I made a new station on Pandora (possibly the best internet site in the world, aside from Mint.com and Google Reader).  Pandora relies something called the Music Genome Project to create personalized radio stations that play only songs that you’ll like.  I typed in the two songs from my playlist, and it came up with a few songs that had similar characteristics.  I then rated songs (thumbs up or down) from there.  I wouldn’t say the station’s perfect – I still give out plenty of thumbs downs – but the more I listen and rate, the closer the station matches my tastes.

Another one of my trade secrets is the Playaway audiobook.  Playaways look similar to an iPod, but contain an audiobook.  I check them out from the public library and use them while on walks, gardening, or cleaning.  Right now I’m listening to The Life of Pi by Yann Martel.  It makes the time fly!

Life of Pi Playaway

April Resolutions

I finished reading The Happiness Project this morning, and I already miss it.  I may just pick it up and read it cover to cover one more time before I need to send it back to the library.

As I wrote earlier, I have outlined my own Happiness Project – a year’s worth of resolutions set and ready to go.  April’s resolution, organization, is off to a great start.  I’m working on organization in general (reading organization/time management books, giving myself reminders, trying harder in general), but I’ve narrowed my official checklist down to three tasks:

1.  Five item cleanup.

Near the end of the day, I go through the house and put five items away in each room.  It’s as simple as that, but it makes a remarkable difference in the way the house looks.

2.  Leave no nagging tasks.

I have a tendency to put things off because “I’m not in the mood.”  Like I magically might be later.  Instead of pushing things off for an undetermined date in the future, I’d like to do things as they come up.  E-mails, phone calls, chores, etc. all fall into this category.

3.  Keep a weekly to-do list.

Remember my daily docket?  It worked great…  when I remembered to look at it.  It was a little time consuming, and typically the time I remembered to look at it was right before bedtime, when all I could think about was sleep.  I’ve made one minor tweak that I think will help me immensely in this area.  Instead of using it as a daily to do list, it’s become a weekly one.  It has space for ten items, five of which are starred.  The starred items are must-do by the end of the week, no excuses.  One starred item is always going to be to do an inside out cleaning of a particular room.  I’ve broken it down to six areas (bedroom, office, bathroom, living room/dining room, kitchen, mudroom/front porch) , so this rule assures that every room gets a good thorough cleaning every month or so (in addition to my regular cleaning schedule, of course).

I do realize that because I’m at the peak of this idea, I’m excited, enthusiastic, motivated, and all the rest.  This is typical of my ideas.  Unfortunately, my ideas also tend to fizzle pretty quickly.  I think the idea of having a happiness project and adding resolutions monthly is one that I’ll be able to keep, but I am a little worried.  Any ideas for keeping motivation high?

Organization Resources

After scouring the library shelves, I gathered a bagful of books to help me with my first resolution: organization.  I’m still in the stages of pulling everything together, but here are general ideas for my potential resolutions:

• A place for everything
• Do it now
• Five item tidy
• Tackle a nagging task
• Five item to do list
• Stick to a schedule
• Use a cleaning soundtrack
• Focus on one room per week
• Do a little every day
• Take care of what I have
• Less clutter, less mess

Here are the books I have in my stack so far.  I’m still looking for some time management books.

The One-Minute Organizer by Donna Smallin

Simplify Your Space by Marcia Ramsland

The Complete Clutter Solution

Real Simple Cleaning

The Home Organizing Workbook by Meryl Starr

Real Simple: The Organized Home

Project Fill-in-the-Gaps (Or Not)

I stumbled across a brilliant idea while shamelessly blog surfing today: Project Fill-in-the-Gaps.  I found it on the blog “Editorial Ass,” and there it’s attributed to the author of The Spanish Bow, Andromeda Romano-Lax.  The project addresses all of those many books that I’ve always had on my list to read (or maybe even on my bookshelf).  Here’s Romano-Lax’s original plan, as described on Editorial Ass:

She collected a list of 100 books that she wants to have read in her life to fill in some of her reading gaps of classics and great contemporary fiction. She knew it was a monumental task ahead of her–we all tend to choose fun things instead of things we should read, right? At least I do–so she gave herself 5 years to try to get through the list, and gave herself 25% accident forgiveness, meaning if she finishes 75 titles in 5 years, she’ll consider herself to have been victorious.

It’s overwhelming to even begin, though.  What makes the cut?  What doesn’t?  Should I include mostly classics?  Award winners?  I started to make my list and when I got to about five, I stopped.  It was disheartening – like I was taking away free choice for the next five years.

It’s been difficult to keep track of the many books that I’m interested in reading.  I’ve used goodreads.com, I’ve dedicated a reader’s journal to the project, and I have the “on the bookshelf” posts every once in a while, but nothing’s really worked.  I think it would be handier to have an ongoing list.  (Plus, I could make little checkmarks to the books I’ve read, which is always a treat for me.)  Maybe, as I put a book “on the bookshelf” on my blog, I’ll keep track of it on a separate page as well.  Hopefully this idea will stick!

Goal Update

It’s about time … *shudder* … to check in on my goals.  All of my goals.  Which I have been “working towards.”  In theory.

It’s not so bad, really.  I think I’ll find that I’m not doing quite as well as I thought, though, which is the reason for the shudder.  Here goes nothing…

1)  Make delicious, home-made dinners a non-event

OK, this is the goal that I’m probably doing the best on (so I’m really glad it’s first!).  I’ve gone from burnt grilled cheese sandwiches and soggy PastaRoni to oven fried tilapia and martini mac and cheese.  My current goal is to find some lighter recipes to try.  Grade: A

2)  Buy and make quality pieces for our home

I’ve given more thought to the amount of time any given item will last, and if it’s worth putting in a few extra dollars for a better product.  Sometimes it’s not – a book at Half Price Books will be the same as a book at Barnes and Noble – but if it’s something that will be an obvious quality difference (for example, the watch H wears daily), I’d rather buy one that will last.  I try not to balk at spending more on an item I know we can get for less, and instead focus on the quality.  We haven’t had any major purchases in the past few months, though, so I’ve only put this into action on a small scale.  Grade: B

3)  Continuously improve our marriage

I read The Five Love Languages (and I’d highly recommend it to any person, married or not), and I’ve put a good dent in my second reading of Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus.  In a stroke of what can only be called brilliance, I put that book on the shelf behind the toilet.  Best marriage move  yet.  That may be an exaggeration, but it really has been a success – I could never convince H to read a marriage book so frequently otherwise.  Grade: A

4)  Be confident in my appearance

On the positive side, I’ve started wearing makeup on a regular basis, and I’ve started styling my hair once in a while instead of pulling it back every single day.  I haven’t been able to lose the weight that I wanted, though, so I’m disappointed most of the time  I look in the mirror.  Grade: D

5)  Be proficient on the sewing machine

I haven’t spent much time on this goal, so there’s not much to report.  I’ve only done one sewing project in 2010 (an apron), and it turned out well.  It’s nothing that I couldn’t have done in high school, however, so I’m going to have to give myself poor marks for this goal!  Grade: F

6)  Keep an organized, clean home

I’d say the house is organized.  We have a place for everything, anyway.  Everything in it’s place?  Not so much.  H is organized.  His jacket is never on the floor, his books are never left lying about, and his keys are always on the key hook.  I am a little more scatterbrained.  If I can see my desktop, it’s a good day.  I am working on it, though.  Whenever I get a spare moment, I play a game where I put away five things in every room.  (We only have six rooms, so it doesn’t take long.)  It’s made a difference.  Cleaning doesn’t happen quite as frequently as it should, but it could be worse.  Grade: B

7)  Act instead of plan

I used to waste a lot of time blog surfing.  I truly mean waste, too – I was subscribing to every semi-interesting blog that I came across, which quickly snowballed into over 250 subscriptions.  I’d fill up to 1000+ items in three days if I didn’t keep on top of it .  I’d spend hours just hitting next, next, next, next, on Google Reader.  I am very proud to say that I’ve kicked the habit!  I do still love reading posts, but I found a way to dramatically reduce wasting time on blogs that I wasn’t getting anything out of.  This left me with quite a bit more time to live in the real world, and I am getting only quality, interesting information daily.  Grade: A

8)  Keep a healthy household

After hundreds of dollars in dental and eyecare bills, I’d give myself an A just to make myself feel better about spending so much.  And that’s AFTER insurance.  We also joined the YMCA and have been regularly attending.  My $1 per half hour plan has been largely successful.  I’m still using and loving it, and H has made such a good habit of working out that he doesn’t even need to use the program anymore.  We’ve cut out chocolate and chips for Lent.  Next up: portion control and cutting the calories!  Grade: A

9)  Be confident in our finances

I use Mint.com to track all expenses, and I know where nearly every dollar goes.  That’s not to say that I rigidly follow our budget, however.  Something always seems to come up that we weren’t expecting, or that I thought would cost less.  I also would like to have a better “big picture” idea of finances.  H typically handles all larger transactions (stocks, mutual funds, etc.), and I do day to day items.  It would be better if we had a little more overlap… or at least if I had a better idea of our finances on a whole.  Grade: C

10)  Be a friend

After a long hiatus, I’ve made friends with Facebook once again.  As much as I dislike it in theory (more on that later), it does have quite a few redeeming values, and at this point I’ll use it for the purpose of being a better friend.  Also, another good mark: by the end of this weekend, I’ll have spent time with three different groups of friends – a really good weekend for me.  I’m still not making the grade, though.  One of my best high school friends moved into a duplex about a mile down the road two months ago, and I’ve seen him ONCE in all of that time.  Grade: B

11)  Give back to the community

Big fat failure.  Nothing else to say about this one.  Grade: F

That wasn’t so bad!  I think I need to check in on my goals every month – it has been eye opening, and it’s motivated me to get up off of this couch and get going!

Gift Elephant

About a year ago, my mom suggested keeping track of all gifts that I give out for Christmas so I don’t repeat myself.  (Looking back, I’m not sure if this was some sort of a hint… if so… sorry Mom!)  It really does make sense.  I can barely remember what I gave my parents for Christmas a few months ago, much less years before that.

One of the handiest tools I’ve found for tracking gifts given and received is Gift Elephant.  You type in a gift you’ve given to any given person, and when next Christmas comes around, you can be sure you won’t give them the same thing again!  It stores birthdays/anniversaries/etc., and will even send you a reminder in the week prior.  It also has some neat search features – you’ll have to check it out for yourself.

I’ve found only one drawback.  Who’s to say that Gift Elephant will still be around in 5, 10, 20 years?  What if it goes under, and all of my info is lost to the world?  I’ve e-mailed them about this concern, so I’ll update if I have an answer for you!

Does anyone else have any brilliant (or even mediocre) ideas?  How you keep track of gifts?

–

**Update** I did e-mail Gift Elephant, and here’s what I got in return.  I’m satisfied!

…We’re working on adding the ability for you to print and download the info you’ve entered into your Gift Elephant account.

We don’t have any plans of shutting down the site (in fact, we’re adding more users every day). But in the unlikely event that ever were to happen, you’ll still be able to make sure your info isn’t lost to the world. :)

Thanks again!
The Gift Elephant Team

Blogroll

I’m adding a blogroll!  Here are some of the blogs in my “Keepers” folder in Google Reader.

The Happiness Project This is my all time favorite blog – it’s amazingly inspiring.  Gretchen Rubin, author of the book by the same name, set out on a quest to be a happier person by following research, studies, and theories on the topic.

OMG I’m a Mom! I’m not a mom… nor do I have any plans in the very near future to be one… but I can’t get enough of this blog!  I love it because it’s a completely honest, upfront look at being a new mother, and really, just being human.

Smitten Kitchen Her recipes are always good, and her anecdotes along the way are so helpful.

Christopher Kimball Blog America’s Test Kitchen in a blog.  Enough said.

Home Ec 101 The categories in this blog say it all: Clean it, Cook it, Fix it, Wash it.  Full of helpful tips, tricks, and recipes, I’m constantly filing away ideas from this blog.

My Kitchen Cafe Easy delicious recipes, and lists galore.  What’s not to love?

$5 Dinners I use this blog mainly for coupon links.  Helpful, inspiring, somewhat overwhelming!

Slashing the Grocery Bill

The grocery bill seems to be inching up lately, and I’m resolved to reverse that trend. It seems like I find fabulous deals every time I go to the market… until the next week, when I realize my “fabulous deal” was just a marketing trick that I had fallen for. Some of my recent realizations:

• Endcaps do not equal savings. Look for an item in it’s regular location – then you can truly see if it’s a deal.
• A larger package may not be the best deal. The unit price is the most important number to look at – a small container may have the same unit price, and may not go bad as quickly.
• Do the math. The store I shop at has the unit price printed on most price labels. Unfortunatley, I’ve seen a misprinted unit price several times now, so it makes sense to do the math.
• Get a basket or small cart. This limits the amount that you can buy!
• Pick up the flyer. The best deals in the store are typically located on the front and back pages, so it’s worth checking out. Scan the middle too, but be wary… just because it’s in the flyer does not mean it’s a deal.
• Wasted food is wasted money. Don’t buy more than you’ll eat.
• Clip coupons, and use them wisely. Go to the market on double coupon day. Even if you only save $4 per trip, you’ll save over $200 per year.

Coupon Mom is one of the best resources I’ve found for grocery tips and tricks. Download her tutorial, “Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half,” at her website for an overview of her program. It’s based on the following principles:

1. Strategic shoppers know how to get low prices: They know what the lowest prices for their most common grocery items are, where to find them, and how to pay the lowest prices every time.
2. They know when to use coupons: They know when to use their coupons to get the lowest prices and even get some grocery items absolutely free with coupons!
3. They know where to find coupons: They know the best sources of coupons and they know how to use the Internet to get great printable and electronic coupons.

I’ve started working on number one – knowing the lowest prices for my frequently purchased items. I already know what prices to buy cereal, apples, and lunch meat at – but I can never seem to remember what a good deal for peanut butter is, or at what price I should stock up on granola bars. I’m keeping track of the prices of grocery prices that either I buy on a regular basis or are on the more expensive end of the scale. You can see my first attempt here:

Grocery Prices

I’m not sure exactly how I’ll use this information yet – I know I’ll have a hard time remembering all of these prices unless I bring the spreadsheet with me, which I’m unlikely to do. I may somehow add my “stockup price” onto my grocery list. It’ll be a bit of trial and error, but I’m sure I’ll be blogging about my system in the near future!

Organizing Google Reader

I’m a blog addict, truly and honestly.   I’d say I hit my low point when I realized that I was subscribed to about 25o on my Google Reader.  That’s two HUNDRED and fifty.  I’m not a “mark all as read” type of a gal either, so though I didn’t read each post word for word, I spent hours skimming though posts, marking favorites, tagging this and that, and never looking back.  It was certainly not a productive use of time – I spent more time planning than doing.

I’m in a self-imposed “blog rehab.”  I cut cold turkey for a little while, and let my blogs build up (it didn’t take too long!).  After trying a few systems, I’ve found one that works.  I’ve created a new folder called “Keepers.”  When a blog reaches ten unread items, I go through and star/tag/like any items that are interesting enough to want to save or refer to later.  Any blog that has even one positive reference goes into the Keepers folder.  If I scan all ten posts and none peak my interest, it’s unsubscribed.  I’m pretty stringent about this (and considering my history, you can see why!).

The eventual goal is to go through all of the blogs I’ve subscribed to and keep those that I’m truly interested in.  I’m now at 160 blogs…. still over the limit, but I’ve cut out over one third already!

My Pocket Docket

My new lifeline… the Pocket Docket!

I found this expanded daily to do list at simplemom.net. Download it, and more organizational lists, here.  There’s an even larger version with more to keep track of, but it’s a little overwhelming.  Maybe someday I’ll reach that goal, but for now I’ll be content organizing my life with this little bugger!

I wouldn’t exactly consider myself a procrastinator, but for some reason, I have several items on my list that tend to stay there for days or even weeks.  This list helps you set priorities, and that helps me quite a bit.  I can check off four items, but if that “MIT” (most important task) doesn’t get finished, I notice it right away.  In my old system, all tasks were equal, which is why it didn’t seem like such a big deal to put things off for days at a time.

Hopefully this system will stick.  It’s working for me so far!

Car Kit

A recent car accident reminded me to double-check the emergency supplies in our cars.  One car is currently in the shop, but I’m heading out to the other right now to check on the following items, suggested by Parents magazine.

• Medical Tape
• Clean Towels
• Gauze Bandages
• Water
• Antiseptic Solution
• Blanket
• Pillow
• Flashlight with working batteries
• Quick-reference card with essential numbers
• Road flares
• Jumper Cables

In a cold-weather climate, there are other obligatory items: mittens, hat, scarf, and, of course, a shovel.  I have a collapsible one similar to this:

Collapsible Shovel (source)

Are there any other essentials that I’m forgetting??