Thursday, August 20, 2009

Weekend Starts.... Now.

My wonderful sister didn't get enough of Maryland last weekend, so she's back for more. We've got lots of fun things planned (and I'm off tomorrow!)... but I totally don't know if that includes blogging (even thogh I do find it to be quite fun), and I wanted to give you a head's up on that.

I know I still owe you a St. Louis re-cap ::wait, wasn't that like a month ago?:: and I promise I'll get that to you.... soon-ish. The pictures are awesome, and I totally promise they're worth the wait.

But before I leave you, I need some advice. I'm totally in "back to school" mode and it's sort of leaking into my personal life, which is totally great. Suddenly I am highly motivated to get all of our stuff in order... mainly our budget and our schedule. Tomorrow's agenda includes a trip to Staples and possibly the Container Store (which Im thrilled about), and then working on getting a master calendar set up so no matter who gets home first, we always know what's for dinner or who is coming home late on any given day. So what I need from you are all of your organizational tips - for the house, your budget, your schedule.... doesn't matter. I'm doing a major overhaul where the main objecive is to streamline our house, tighten up our budget, and generally be a productive household.

So, what keeps you and your house organized?

8 comments:

Molly said...

LOVE the container store!!
Okay, the thing helping me the most right now is meal planning. I have a huge list of everything I cook, and on Sunday nights, we make a schedule for the week. It takes about 5 minutes and makes the entire week easier! I love it!

Adam said...

I'm not sure if you want to do your budgeting online, but mint.com and quicken online are great (and free) places to start.

Steph said...

You might like toodledo.com

You can make to-do lists and be organized. Adam found it, and I joined today. It looks easy to use.

Kate said...

@Molly - That is so my goal for the fall. I really need to plan out dinners better, bc we are always scrambling to get to the grocery store every other day.

@Adam - I do use Mint, but I think it's kind of hard to keep up with (we use our debit cards every day). I just need to stay more on top of it. I'm going to give it another try!

@Steph - Never heard of ToodleDo, but I'm going to check it out today!

Thanks for the tips; can't wait to see more!

Kenya said...

I am not allowed to go to the Container Store anymore because I spend so much money in there! lol

Adam said...

My biggest issue with the software is its inability to enter cash purchases manually. There are also a bunch of "budget worksheets" available online that you can just fill in the data. Good luck!

Amanda said...

I have a dry erase board that I use that has the month lines already made into the board. All you have to do is fill in the dates and the month name and whatever the plans are for the month. I think I bought it at Target. I do the same Sunday sit-down with my cookbooks and look through recipes and then go to the store for the week.

Unknown said...

oh the container store....the only store i like better is sephora =). Good luck with the budgeting meal planning...i like to obsessively read articles on msn in the money section (they always have links in the articles to 10 more articles that will "help") and use the calculators on Suze Orman's website. Good luck! (and call me!)