KEEPING – AND SAVING – UP

As a mother of a TON of children (there are – say it with me – F.I.V.E. of them) sometimes I find it extremely difficult to keep up with, well, anything. Disorganization in a large family is a cardinal SIN… and it’s the key to wasting an unconscionable amount of valuable time. I have been a working mom, a stay at home mom, and am now a work-at-home mom, enjoying the best of both worlds – making an income while being at home with my family. While I don’t believe I have ever been so busy in my entire life until I started working at home, my life was almost equally chaotic during my experiences working outside the home and when I was at home without focusing on a career. Where I am going with all of this is to say that EVERY mother – regardless of her profession or lack thereof – is a busy woman, and we often feel as though no matter how hard we try, we never do enough to be “finished” – it’s okay, ladies … you can go ahead and say, “AMEN!”

No matter what category you fit into, there are a few simple strategies that will get you off to a fresh *productive* start each day and lead you into feeling accomplished rather than looking around thinking, “I know I’ve been busy all day… I just can’t think of one thing I’ve actually gotten DONE!” (Don’t act like I’m the only one. Come on back down here for your REALITY CHECK – haha) So, for the moms who aren’t in denial about their lack of organization and structure, read on for a few helpful tips to get you back on track to keeping up with, well, everything! The best part, it all ties into ONE simple concept – PLANNING!

I cannot emphasize enough as to how important it is that you PLAN! True enough, spontaneity is fun from time to time but seriously when you have a whole family to keep up with, you just can’t be unpredictable all the time. There has to be some structure somewhere. Not only can planning save you TIME, but it can also save you a significant amount of MONEY! How? Hmm…

• If you get accustomed to planning for your purchases, you can find better deals by making price comparisons, learning sales dates, and using price matching to get the best prices available and perhaps even compound your savings with store and/or manufacturer’s coupons or rebates. Your purchase planning allows you to do what your mom would have advised – to SHOP AROUND – and search for valuable coupons in sales papers, newspapers, or online. (I recently saved 25% off of a skirt I had to buy as a part of our summer choir uniforms at church by using a coupons.com internet clipping at Stage!)
• If you get accustomed to planning your meals, you can better consume the food you already have on hand, which reduces the chances of your money being wasted by food spoiling or expiring. Sit down at the end of each week and make a plan for each meal you will prepare for the following week. From your menu plan, make a grocery list that covers all the ingredients you will need. Check your cupboards/refrigerator and mark off what you already have available. This way, you know exactly what you need to purchase at the store. Then, check to see if you have coupons for the items you plan to buy. (You’re on the PERFECT website to stay on top of all the latest and greatest sales as well as some brushing up on your Couponing 101, courtesty of Shynea – the couponing QUEEN!)
  • STICK TO YOUR LIST! The whole purpose of planning is to restrict your impulse buying, remember? This will save you a significant amount of money each year, and most of all – you won’t be buying things you aren’t intending to consume relatively quickly. (Your wallet will thank you.)
• If you get accustomed to planning your day and prioritizing your tasks, you won’t miss bill deadlines which cause you to incur late fees or more importantly work-related deadlines which may or may not cost you money but will cost you major cool points with your clients and/or your boss. And, be honest, how many of us have gotten wrapped up in something and forgotten about parent-child lunch day or other school events? (What an “ouch” face we get from the kids at the end of the day, huh?) Those kind of things can be avoided with a little PLANNING! If you are used to looking at your schedule, then you are less likely to lose track of important things like meetings, calls you need to make, etc.
  • TIP: A great web-based task manager is Remember the Milk. It has a FireFox extension that integrates with Gmail as well as a Gmail gadget for those who use Google Labs. You can also add the RTM widget to your iGoogle page or just manage it from the RTM user interface. You can add the RTM app to your iPhone or simply manage your task list from your web-enabled cell or smart phone’s internet browser. Have several separate task lists you need to maintain? No problem. You can create multiple lists and there are even features that allow you to track locations, postpone uncompleted tasks, or delegate tasks to other RTM users. Plus, if all that doesn’t impress you, the feeling of self-awesomeness you get when you click “complete” is SO sweeeeeeet!

Have you ever taken your family on a vacation? Think about this… You can save at least $25 per week by simple planning and put it into savings… if you start right now, by next summer you would have $1300 available (plus any interest earned). What could YOU do with $1300? Hmmmm….

Next week, check back for tips on how to capitalize on your newfound planning skills by ORGANIZING your life!

Kathleen is the mom of five children and has been journaling her entire life, and thoroughly enjoying chronicling her “married mommy” life, through her blog, For the Love of Chaos. Being married to her high school sweetheart for 8 years with five kids (four girls – ages 1, 3, 6, and 9 – and one boy – age 7) they have the craziest exsistence of anyone she’s ever known.