Menu Planner Template Update

We are all on Spring Break at the same time, so it is even more chaotic than usual.  I am getting Ryan to help out with projects that have been piling up, so I will have more wonderful things to share with you.  I am currently waiting on paint to dry for one of those projects.

In the meantime, I spruced up my meal planning template to help myself get a little more excited about planning out our menus each week.  As tedious as it can be, I have learned that it really does help save money and my sanity.  Since we are on our budget, it helps save on the amount we use for food.

Weekly or Monthly Menus

The menu gets clipped to my refrigerator with any recipes from magazine tear-outs attached to the back.  If the recipe comes from a cookbook, I make sure to list the title and page number with the meal.

Visit the wonderful hosts of the Link Parties where my posts might be found: 
The Prudent Pantry, Here Comes the Sun, Jane's Adventures in Dinner, Project: Inspire, Melting Moments, The Artsy Girl Connection, Confessions of an ADD Housewife, The NY Melrose Family, Someday Crafts, The Dedicated House, Adorned From Above, Organize and Decorate Everything, Six Sisters' Stuff, I Heart Nap Time, Positively Splendid, Heatherly Loves, Kayla Creations, Debbiedoo's, A Stroll Thru Life , The Thrifty Home, Beyond the Picket Fence, Stone Gable, Mom on Timeout, Dear Creatives, Or So She Says

House Ideas Binder

This weekend, I added a House Ideas binder to the Family and Coupon binders. Being on a budget limits what you are able to do as far as decorating goes. Keeping a binder full of potential ideas allows you to hunt for bargains and put together rooms as you find what you want. Not only do I look for ideas on pinterest, I also look for ideas in magazines. The problem was, my collection looked like this...

I created a section for each area of our house. My goal at this point was just to get my clippings organized and out of a big pile. Each section is a different color paper, and I simply wrote the name of the room on the top of the first page. I can also add notes on the pages.

Some sections are more detailed than others, depending on our plans. For example, our kitchen is pretty much complete, so I don't have a big section for it. For our bedroom, I have colors and fabrics already in the room included in that section.

Eventually, I want to record measurements for each area. I might not include everything that I put into this binder, but it allows me to keep track of what I've found and liked.  
In the end, I had a few clippings that didn't fit in any of my rooms. I made a section in the back for "Tips and Other." That is home for those ideas. Sometimes, magazines will offer information on how to measure for things. For example, I have drapery measurement guidelines, how to hang a picture easily, etc. Keeping track of them in this section makes them so much easier to find!

This book also becomes very important during yard sale season. It is always so much better when you can find what you want for a fraction of the price! You can reference your binder to see if something is appropriate for an area of your house.  
The measurements will also let me know quickly if something will fit. I make sure to carry a tape measure in my purse so that I always have the option to measure furniture or other items. Right now, I measure what I find and call my husband to measure the space at our house, which isn't always successful if I can't get him or he's not at home. Having the measurements on hand will eliminate that need. That prevents purchases not working or being really happy that you know it's going to be perfect.
Go pull out all of the magazine clippings you've been saving... Happy planning!

Visit {HERE} to see the link parties where you will most likely find me.  Thanks to all of the wonderful hosts!

Or check them out from the links here: The Prudent Pantry, Here Comes the Sun, Jane's Adventures in Dinner, Project: Inspire, Melting Moments, The Artsy Girl Connection, Confessions of an ADD Housewife, The NY Melrose Family, Someday Crafts, The Dedicated House, Adorned From Above, Organize and Decorate Everything, Six Sisters' Stuff, I Heart Nap Time, Positively Splendid, Heatherly Loves, Kayla Creations, Debbiedoo's, A Stroll Thru Life , The Thrifty Home, Beyond the Picket Fence, Stone Gable, Here Comes the Sun, Mom on Timeout, Dear Creatives, Or So She Says

Family Binder: Entertainment

Here's another addition to the Family Binder!  I've had piles of brochures around our office area that we got from our Visitors' Center when we first moved here.  They have been driving me crazy, so I had to come up with a solution.

Family Staples Price Organizer

One of the things I learned from Moneywise Shopper's couponing class is to keep track of the prices you pay for your staples.  This way you know that you are getting a good deal.  I'm not going to lie, this is something with which I struggle.  I don't know why I can't conquer this, especially when I have a great template for completing it.

Everything Family Binder

I have been working on the Family Binder for a little while now. I have found a lot of success in using this system, but I have also gone through a lot of trial and error. These are the things I decided were important enough for us to keep in our book. Each link takes you to a different section and explains it in depth. They also include other forms that might be needed.

Cover Pages and Tabs

Coupon Binder

We finally made it through all of the tabs in the {Family Binder}!  Now I'm going to go back and show you what got me started with the binders.

I started {couponing} a little less than a year ago.  I was inspired to start by {Moneywise Shopper}.  It is an on again, off again thing for me.  It is a little time consuming if you don't keep on top of it, but it is such a thrill when you spend $39 (including tax) for a bill that should have been over $110.  I try to schedule one day a week to clip and organize my coupons.

I have one big binder to keep all of my coupons in.  Some people use one binder for food and another for other products.  I use baseball card plastic pages to put the coupons and got sticky tabs to label my sections.  Both of these I found in Walmart. 

These are the sections I included:

For Food:

~Beverages

~Meat

~Snacks

~Breakfast

~Dairy/Refrigerated

~Frozen/Canned

~Sauces/Toppings

~Rice/Pasta/Bread

~Baking/Produce

For Other Products:

~Cleaning

~Paper/Plastic

~Kids/Pets

~Hair/Soap/Lotion

~Razors/Deodorant/Feminine

~Dental/Makeup/Medicine

Some places to get coupons include your local paper, some magazines, your local grocery stores ({Publix} has store coupons at the stores and online.  Join their clubs to receive extra coupons in the mail.  {Target} has store coupons online.  {Kroger} has digital coupons that load onto your store card.), through {websites},  on {Facebook} and Twitter, and in packaging (Never recycle the cereal box without looking inside!).

A lot of the websites require you to give your e-mail address.  I created a separate e-mail account so that I could keep any spam separate from my regular account.

Also, keep in mind that there are two kinds of coupons, a manufacturer's coupon and a store coupon.  This is important, because you can use the two together for even more savings.

manufacturer's coupon

store coupon

Let us know if you have any other good sources for coupons.

Family Binder: Auto Information

My husband and I always go back and forth about the maintenance of my car.  Since he rarely drives it, he doesn't know when something's blinking or if there's a message saying the oil needs to be changed.  I tell him when that stuff comes up, but if your husband's like mine, you know how that goes!  We also try to do a lot of the maintenance ourselves (Well, my husband and dad do the maintenance!).

Family Binder: Sitter Tab

Being close to my parents is so nice when it comes to having babysitters, so I almost didn't include the sitter section in my family binder.  I have already used the babysitter form twice since I made it!  Not only do I use this section for my boys, it is also a place for information about our dogs.

Family Binder: Contact Information

The contact information section of our Family Binder includes any personal information we have for family and friends.

Family Binder: School Information

This is a simple but important section of the {family binder}.

I keep all of our school schedules here, and since Ryan is a teacher as well, we have a lot of those.  

I keep any current newsletters and notices for Jackson in this section.  When Brady starts school or daycare,  those papers will also have  a place here.
This is also home for all of our sports schedules.  Ryan coaches football and soccer at his school, and Jackson currently participates in soccer.

It has helped to keep the refrigerator clear of clutter, which used to be the home for Jackson's newsletters.  And anytime I need to quickly look up something, I have it all in one place.

I also enter all of the schedules into our family calendar to make sure we don't miss anything or have conflicts.  I have a {calendar} in our {office nook} for a quick view that I fill out bi-weekly, and I also use {Cozi Calendar} online to keep up with all of our ongoing information.

Family Binder: Food

This has probably been the hardest section of the family binder for me, and it is still a work in progress. For some reason, planning out our meals is so intimidating to me.

Growing up, around 4:00 someone would wonder what's for dinner, and then we'd figure it out from there. I always joke that we had a 5 meal rotation, and I think that's the cause of the intimidation. We had ingredients for those meals on hand.

Family Binder: Finances

The next tab in my Family Binder is for Finances.  This isn't a big section for me, but it is important.  I have tried many different ways to organize how we keep track of our bills.  It is a way to save money by staying on time with payments.  Late fees add up!

Family Binder: To Do Lists

This section has probably been the best part of the Family Binder for me.

Because I use the plastic covers to put my lists in, I can use a dry erase marker to check off the tasks on my To Do lists as I complete them.  For me, there's just something very gratifying about that!

Family Binder Part 2

I have begun creating a set of family binders to help keep our household organized. As I go, I'm sharing what I've learned. I'll start with the main Family Binder.  Check out Part 1 if you missed it, which includes the different binders I chose to make. 

Here are the sections I decided to include for it.  I am using clear plastic page protectors for each title sheet and have tabs that attach to the outside for easy labeling and access.

Family Binder Part 1

One thing I've been working on to help save time and money is a family binder.  It has taken me a while to figure out exactly how to set this up.  It is still a work in progress, and I want to share it with you as it develops.

The first step I took was to figure out exactly what I wanted to include in this binder.  I ended up with multiple binders in addition to the sections I decided to include in our main binder.