Home Mangament Binder

CREATING A HOME MANAGEMENT BINDER:

A homemanagement binder is what many women use to help more effeciently manage their home.

Here are the dividers I have in my binder (but you may want to change yours up) and what is in them.

Personal-

• A list of my favorite blogs
• My goal sheets
  My have, do and be list which are like goals (the idea comes from "Becoming the Women God Wants me to Be," by Donna Partow.

Home-

• My daily routine, daily/weekly/monthly/yearly cleaning lists
• Spring cleaning and fall cleaning pages
• Home projects such as a new bathroom and their costs
• Homemade cleaner recipes
• Daily declutter calendar
• 30 days to clean calendar (from the E-book) 

Money-

• Money plan notes
• My savings page where I keep track of our savings
• Monthly budget as an estimate
• Bills due page
• Weekly budget because my husband gets paid weekly and it is not always the same

Faith-

• Prayer journal
• Bible Verses(for memorization)
• List of random acts of kindness
• The first letter of the begining of every line of Proverbs 31 for memorization

Family-

• Emergency Information
• Family tradition page per month (per Partow's book again)
• Contact information
• Online passwords
• Birthdates
• Emergency Kit checklist
• "The Husband Project," checklist which I typed up myself.
• Wedded Bliss Challenge, also typed up myself from the Suzie Homemaker group on CafeMom.

Most people have meal plans as a tab in their binder but I am a magazine lover and always rip out recipes from them so it has is its own binder. I will go into detail about mine later with pictures. I think it might be my SD card that is messed up on my computer but it is hard to tell because my FIL dropped one of my cameras and broke the screen and the screen on the other one just went out. :(

And here is a list of free printables via my pinterest: http://pinterest.com/rocklovinggirl/printables/

Here is a lsit of some that may not be listed there:

• printables.yourway.net
• overflowliving.com
• ourfamilyplace.com/budget.html
• chartjungle.com
• everythingmom.com
• momsbudget.com
• momagenda.com
• mead.com (they have free ones under organizher and for mom)
• thehouseholdplanner.com
• organizedhome
• donnayoung.org
• tipjunkie.com -has tons of printables from all over the web...this site is amazing

I am SO happy I made my HMB...I use it everyday for different things. I love have everything in one place.


CREATING A CLEANING SCHEDULE
I have a daily routine page... it is basically my morning routine and evening routine. Here is what mine looks like:
Wake up
Get Dressed
Brush Teeth
Bible Study
Eat Breakfast and Check Facebook/Pinterest/Email
Pickup anything left from last night
Take out meat for dinner

Do lunch dishes
Sweep floor
Clean table
Do any extra cleaning or organizing project

Quick pick up
Prepare dinner
Eat dinner
Relax
Do dinner dishes
Wipe down counters
Sweep floor

Then I have a daily extra cleaning schedule or room concentration schedule:
M- Kitchen
T- Mop & Fridge
W-Bedrooms
T-Bathroom
F-Living Room including under couches
S-Organization/Catch Up/Grocery Shopping
S- Rest Day/ Avon order goes in

Then you should write a monthly schedule for things that need done only once or twice a month.
Mine looks like this:

Week 1: Clean out fridge
Week 2: Clean out car
Week 3: Clean out fridge
Week 4: Clean yard and front porch

And then a yearly plan one which to be honest, I have not started by I would do it by month. You can include things like changing out clothes for seasons.
Don't forget soon I will go over my meal planner binder, project binder and dream home binder (real simple to make). Have a great day and God bless.

 

Pantry makeover!

First off my new floor!! The first picture of course is the new floor. My vacuum broke and I was having to sweep the carpet with a broom. Did not work very well. Well I ended up getting a new floor instead of a vacuum... I have a small vacuum I can use for the master bedroom. I am so excited...with kids carpet does not last very long!
And on the bottom pic is my youngest son... his cute little smile!


Now for the pantry... here is my horrible before. My pantry was home built and it is not done yet, as you can see.

And here is the after...

Thanks to some help from Wal-Mart and the wonderful Better Homes and Gardens containers this is how my pantry ended up the way it did. I just need to work on the labels.
I got them from the aisle with canning items they cost 3-8 dollars. (8 dollars for the tall ones you see here). I spent about 175.00 for all of the ones you see here and in my cupboard (there are some stacked behind what you see).

And below my cupboard, now my baking cupboard... I moved the cans and there will be more on that new system later. I also have to redo my spices so don't think i think that is organized. The first clear container at the top has my cupcake decorating stuff (the tips, stencils, etc.) and the second has jellos and bakers chocolate. And in my spice area, I have one of those 3 level spice organizers which is a total life saver when trying to look for stuff.

OTHER INSPIRATIONS:

BHG suggests having a basket for each day of the weeks food and adding the food/ingredients you need for that day.

Some people have a pantry where they can mix and stir their items inside the pantry so you do not see the mess on the countertops...genius idea, if you have the room!

Spices in baby food jars fit nicely in a drawer! 

Better Homes and Gardens has free labels for you pantry like the ones shown:  http://www.bhg.com/decorating/storage/organization-basics/free-printable-storage-labels/?page=8#page=8

I love how this pantry has everything labeled and condensed into one container...it gives you so much more room, as you can see with my pantry!

I challenge you to clean out you pantry and make room for less processed foods; to organize you pantry in a way that will work for you; to organize your pantry so you can streamline cooking! Remember you can scout out dollar stores for some of these organization items you see.
Good luck!

Makeover your pantry: breakfast

So we are on the breakfast part of our series of eliminating as much processed foods as you can.
First off how to make homemade freezable breakfast sandwiches without all the icky stuff and cheaper at that.

Here is a link to how it is done:

http://www.macheesmo.com/2010/03/breakfast-sandwiches/

I made them but I did not like doing the eggs that way so next time I am going to mix them and then put them in the pan. I also make homemade biscuits and here is the link to the easy ones I make by paula deen. They are yummy! Tip: If you don't have a biscuit cutter you can use a clean tuna can as one but with the size of the eggs for this recipe I recommend doing it by hand or with a biscuit cutter.

Breakfast Sandwiches-Target prices:English Muffins 6 pck- 2.50 x2
Dozen Large Eggs-1.59
8 oz. Shredded Cheese- 2.69

Total price for 12 sandwiches: 9.28   Per sandwich: 77 cents

NOTE: For a Jimmy Dean 4 pack of Egg, Sausage and Cheese Muffins it cost 4.76 at HEB in TX! Yikes!
Breakfast Tacos-HEB prices
Pork Sausage-2.77
Flour Tortillas,12 ct- 1.78 (Store brand)
Dozen Large Eggs- 1.27
Total price for 12 tacos: 5.82   Per taco: .49
Pancakes:

Not everyone has time to make homemade pancakes... it is just a lot easier to grab a premade box (especially the ones that call for just water) but I found a solution to speed up the process. I found a blog with premade mixes (you can also make extra and freeze them putting wax paper in between them).http://fakeitfrugal.blogspot.com/2011/05/fake-it-yourself-bisquick.html

Blueberry Muffins:
(wrap them in aluminum foil and freeze, heat them up when you are ready to eat them).

http://www.yourcupofcake.com/2010/10/beautiful-blueberry-muffins-2.html

And here is some special ones:
creme brulee french toast

cinammon french toast bake

Next post, I am going to give you some average snack recipes and soon my pantry and cupboards reogranized (that is what I have been working on today).

Makeover your pantry:

I don't know about you but as soon as I had kids I started worrying more about making sure veggies were in our dinner...then I had a picky kid who does not eat any veggies unless I literally shove them into his mouth. So how else can I make him eat somewhat healthier? Cut out processed foods. And there is so much around these days. So here are my suggestions for cutting out as much processed foods as you can. Throughtout this series I will show you some premade mixes, veggies recipes, how to incorporate veggies, what food items you should look for and my favorite part-organizing that darn pantry and fridge!

1. Find recipe for things you can make homemade (pinterest would be very useful for this but I will also post links to some recipes in this post).

2. Make a list of things that would be cheaper and/or easy to make homemade.

3. Make a list of items you just can not give up either because you love the taste or the convenience or the price. Try to make it a must have list. For me it is Kraft Mac n Cheese (favorite since I was a kid), cereals of any kind and any snack I have yet to find how to bake such as saltine crackers.

4. Choose a meal a day to not serve any processed foods during. I do both breakfast and dinner (lunch is whatever and cereal is okay).
For breakfast you would make homemade pancake mix which you can find a premade one here on the next post as well as other breakfast faves.


DINNER MAKEOVER
For dinner here is some links to common starchy sides you may make and how to make them outside of the box or bag. Breakfast will come next post as it will contain a lot.

Scalloped Potatoes

                                                              Roasted Potatoes  

Fried Rice

Spanish Rice 

                                                 Pasta with Parm, Garlic and Olive Oil

Premade Cornbread Mix

French Fries with a Kick

Homemade French Fries

Hope you found some wonderful ideas and hope you have a blessed day!

Coupon help.

Hello internet world and friends, here is the websites I promised for couponing.

http://www.southernsavers.com   My favorite since I live in TX and it has the stores I am used to going to.
htttp://www.couponmom.com  My other favorite...shows you the items you can get and where they come from. You can look it up by store and it shows you the biggest savings first.
http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/category/video   Videos/Free Tutorials on couponing plus lots more!
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/
http://www.frugallivingnw.com/
http:///www.mylitter.com more videos, coupon store policies, etc. She lives in the Woodlands, TX and was on extreme couponing. Check out her buy it now price list here (plus other free printables).

Today I put these websites to use, as I am meal planning. If you live in Texas you can get country crock butter for free at Krogers. It all depends on how many computers you have as to how many you can get free (you can only print two per computer) and you have to purchase a total of 10 items from their list, otherwise the butter will be 50 cents each. The coupon is on coupons.com.

Dinner tonight...I am planning Olive Garden's Fettuccine Alfredo...you can find the recipe on their website: http://www.olivegarden.com/Connections-to-Italy/Recipes/Sauces/Alfredo-Sauce/.
I am so excited to try it as I love Alfredo!

Also, I am 3/4 done with my, "Becoming the Women God Wants Me To Be," by Donna Partow. It has been very inspiring... I have almost all of Proverbs 31 memorized because of it, my house is looking cleaner, my family is eating healthier, I do bible study everyday.... there is just so many ideas in that one book. I highly recommend it. You can check it out here on Amazon and read the reviews.

On my next few posts I plan to have a makeover your pantry type challenge...which I will discuss cutting out processed foods, making your own mixes, organizing your pantry, incorporating veggies, etc. I am so looking forward to it as I am still learning about feeding my family healthier, too. I hope you will come back and check it out!

Have a wonderful day and God bless.

PS. My son was watching Umi Zoomi and they said, "What shape is this?" And he said a semi-circle. I looked and that it was. He is only two and he knows all the main shapes, his ABCs, colors, numbers...I am so proud.

COUPON ORGANIZATION

Welcome to my first entry!
My blog is going to be about organizing, living frugal, cleaning, crafts, home management, cooking, the bible and more. In this first entry I would like to show you my new coupon system-I am by no means an extreme couponer but on the occasion I get free items and I am starting to stock up emergency food so coupons are a big help. (Especially when you are on a budget!)

I bought it at Wal-Mart for about 20.00 including the 10 pack dividers which were purchased seperately.

I have them different by months on each divider.

I place the coupons in the proper month after I add the date in which I recieved them because most coupon sites will tell you where a coupon came from by saying SS 01/15 which means Smart Source Jan 15.

I really needed this system because I was having to look through so many just to find the ones I needed and before that I was cutting them all out and using a little divider and again I was searching t see what I had.

DINNER TONIGHT: It is a slow cooker recipe with only three ingredients (plus the toppings for the chicken tacos).

Came from this lovely website: http://mychocolatetherapy.blogspot.com/2012/01/crockpot-chicken-tacos.html

I hope you found this post helpful. Next post I will post some links to very helpful couponing sites. Have a great day!