Menu-planning

Sorry I haven't been writing this much - I was getting the kids back to school and changing my website and little time-consuming things like that.  The agendas are working well and I've managed to stick to the chore lists since school was back in so it's moving along.  I've completely fallen behind with fly lady though and now that things have calmed down a bit I will be back on that too. 

I'm only four weeks into this new habit of menu planning but so far I can see a major difference in our monthly food costs.  At first I was shopping for one week at a time, but last time I did two weeks because I thought I could - it worked.  According to a website focused on Newcomers to Canada, the average cost of one month's worth of groceries (for one person) is between $200 and $300.  We have six people in our family; myself, husband, and four children aged 3 to 11.  According to this figure we should spend between $1200 and $1500 per month. HAHAHAHA! No.

For simplicity, let's assume that the youngest requires about $100; the other three are school-aged so we will add a little more to their monthly need at about $150 each.  Myself and my husband will each take $200.  That's $950 per month.  It's possible we were spending this until I began menu planning.  I've started a blog for the cooking as well and the first posts went up on Friday.  I've stopped ordering out for pizza because I knew we needed to reduce that cost.  We still do pizza Fridays though, just using a kit instead.  After four weeks of menu planning, I am pleased to say that we've spent a grand total of $570 - a major difference from any of the numbers mentioned previously (this number also includes some non-edibles like laundry detergents and sandwich or freezer bags and other household needs).

Aside from the monstrous savings, we are eating so much better in terms of both nutrition and taste - I don't think I'll ever buy pre-packaged foods again.  I don't clip coupons and I don't hit five different stores when I shop.  I get the bulk of my list at No Frills and anything I can't find there I can usually get at either Co-Op or Sobeys.  I also cannot buy fresh chili peppers anywhere in this town.  Weird.

Today is my grocery shopping day and I will make up my menu with both Ramsay's book and a new one I just picked up.  So far, these are working beautifully and I'm certainly learning a lot about basic techniques.  Win/win/win.  It's also been nice not having to wonder what I'm going to cook for dinner.  Preparation is easy because I know when we're going to have certain things so if it's frozen I'm able to make sure it's taken out in time to thaw.  Everything is coming together - slowly, but surely.

Day 24

Man, organization is time-consuming!  I tried to finish off back-to-school shopping yesterday so I was barely in the house.  The only thing I managed to do at home was a couple loads of laundry.  Hunter is not helping out with his room as much as I hoped he would.  The other day as I was tidying it up, Hunter sat on his bed, pouting.  When I finished I asked him if that was better and he said "You messed it up!!"  So - okay then, agree to disagree.

I've purchased the kids' agendas to put their organization list into and I've barely finished my own.  I don't know how people do it - how do you suddenly organize your life?? I'm sure one of the answers is "baby steps" but I am extremely impatient with myself.  Do it now! Finish it now! And when I can't because I have other things to attend to - well it gets me grumpy.  Somewhere though, I have this optimism that perks up and says "it's okay, one step at a time".  Breathe.

I've completed the last of the laundry so that I, too, can have tomorrow off.  The weekly home blessing is complete and so that is out of the way as well.  I think one thing that we Moms need to try our best to do is work for that day off.  Especially if we're out of the house.  I used to like it (and even suggested to the hub that we do it more often) when we were expecting company on a Friday night.  It forced us to move along during the week and Saturday was truly our day off.  Granted, I usually had school work to do, but it beat laundry and vacuuming.  And if the house was already clean, I definitely felt less guilty about doing something else.

And speaking of something else, I have some kid's agendas to get moving on so have a happy weekend and I will see you in the living room next week.  Or in my case, since the living room is still very well organized, back at the Master bedroom.  That is nowhere near complete and as luck would have it, this month's InStyle magazine focuses on purging your unused clothing that is taking up way too much space in your closet and dressers.  Still don't want to do that, but kind of getting tired of looking in my closet and thinking "I don't want to wear that"... so, don't - get rid of it!  Wise words...

Day 23

Apparently today is "Anti-procrastination Day" so before I began my control journal, I went into the master and did a fifteen minute declutter.  I have had the kids' school year memory books on my floor by the bed for the better part of a year (I'm guessing). Since I tidied out the closet yesterday and found that nifty fabric box, I discovered I had a place to put all four of the binders and then placed it up on the top shelf of the closet. And since they are now in said nifty box, there will be a place to put momentos if I run out plastic inserts or whatever I need to put new things in - everything in one place.

I also tidied up a small pile of my own school books and took them to the bookshelf and filed the papers that I'd brought into my room from the kitchen during a declutter there.  Voila.  Fifteen minutes and my side of the bedroom floor is actually passable (and I forgot to take a before picture - but I highly doubt you think it was already tidy if you've been reading this the whole time).

Again, this was done in the AM and I'm totally giving that credit.  Plus my apparent acceptance that fifteen minutes is good enough - I don't feel that way all the time, certainly, but I also want to put my control journal together and decided to do fifteen minutes only so that I could get started on that.  This post is going to take longer to complete (not that it will be noticeable) because I'm going to start it now.

Heading to FlyLady's site. Woohoo! And twenty minutes later I have had a lightbulb moment.  While entering in the home blessing (what some of us may remember as Saturday chores) I realized that Fridays would work better for me.  Then, as I was writing down the home blessing to-do list, I realized MY KIDS CAN HELP!  So I will change the sheets, and mop the kitchen and bathroom floors and each of the three older ones can take turns with vacuuming, dusting and mirrors because they're home at 12:30 every Friday! Super!! Sometimes I hate how easy this whole planning ahead thing seems.

FlyLady only publishes one month's worth of zones at a time, so I will have to check back to get September.  Still, I can look at my new journal and see which zone we are in.  It's not like there's fifty-two zones either; we will be back to each one and that is what will make the true difference.  I am not optimistic about getting into my own dresser this week (was going to say drawers... hope you see the humour), but at the same time I think I've danced around them all I can with only two sessions so maybe I will.  I am going to continue with the control journal and write again tomorrow.  Happy organizing!

Day 22

Well, I decided to stop procrastinating since I hadn't been writing and hadn't even noticed - even though I noticed I hadn't done anything overly productive.  I started reading some of FlyLady's emails today (because I've ignored those too) and the first one reminded me - again- about something called a control journal.  This is a journal for us disorganized folk to remind us of what we have to do in a day.  I feel like a true dumbass for having to do this but what the hell - if it will help...

This week, FlyLady has us in the master bedroom.  I so did not want to go there.  However.  I tidied the closet a bit.  Well - a bit means a lot in my world.  I had school supplies in there (kids'), purses were everywhere, bags of mismatched socks, a nifty box that held - surprise - crap, a fold up poker table... and probably some more crap.  I folded all my scarves and got rid of about seven. I put purses in the shoe holders because apparently my shoes are elsewhere.. probably the front closet because it's summer.  I might have to take those spaces back soon but for now, they're being utilized.  The closet doors  open with ease (even though I'm still bugging Geoff to make them open up like a proper door so I can see everything at one time) and that's made me feel pretty smug.

I also had a couple of bags of giveaway stuff in my room.  I sorted those and had half a bag of Hunter's stuff for a friend.  This reminded me to clean out Hunter's drawers.  So I headed into Hunter's room and went through the two drawers and now I have a full bag to give away and two impressively tidy drawers.  In the end it took me about an hour and a half and I'm glad I started in the morning because otherwise I bet it wouldn't have happened.

Now for the control journal.  FlyLady has one but I'm much too impatient to order it.  My daughter is bugging me to go shopping so I imagine I will find something adequate if I remember to stop at the dollar store.  I also have to pick up the Mom's Calendar for school stuff.  FlyLady apparently has one of those as well and maybe I'll break down and get one for next year because hers is big enough to fit dinner menus also.  Right now I'm using a piece of loose leaf with the menu stuck on my fridge with a magnet.  It worked well last week too. 

Again, thinking of the control journal makes me feel like a dumbass.  I know what I have to do in a given day... but I admit that organization is not my strong suit.  I also have a lot of distractions until next week ... at the same time, I know I need help so I will take FlyLady's advice and get one started. Keeping up with my blogs is hard enough some days and I'm beginning another soon as well - family fare - just have to get the chef on board with making me a book.  I'm persuasive.  It will happen.

Day 14 - actually Day 21

I sort of suck at this whole organization thing. I mean, I can do it, obviously I was on quite a roll there, but ... well I hate to say it but I think it was easier when I only had two kids for those two weeks. NOT that I want to say that it's easy having two kids... but perhaps just a tad easier than having four.  Of course, even if I was able to organize around two, at the end of the day, I have four.  So it's just going to have to take a little more ... work.

 However.  I have kept up with menu planning - that has been awesome; my pantry is not nearly as full since I haven't written down potato chips on my shopping list.  Without the frequent trips, I'm not buying any (not trying to lose weight, just trying to eat healthier).  I have also relatively kept up with laundry... again, slightly easier when I was missing two. 

I have kept on Ethan about his room and he has tidied it each day.  This has also required me to keep checking on his room regularly throughout the day, so that's new but it's worth it to never have to clean up that kind of mess again.  And I've got them putting their shoes away still, so that's helped the entry way stay tidy. 

Each night after dinner I've been getting the boys to empty the dishwasher and then I can pack it up after supper.  Ocean helps to set and clear the table.  On the whole though, I'm still okay - just haven't made any significant headway since the linen closet ... a week ago.  I think I might have to do my fifteen minute declutter in the morning.  Night time does not work for me.  I'm just too .... finished by the end of the day.  I like to get up early in the morning because it's the quietest time in my house.  So I will start that.  Tomorrow.  New plan - should work. I will let you know.   

Day 13

Well it's actually Day 15 but I didn't want to ruin the flow of the post titles.  I haven't actually stopped working, I was just too busy fighting with build your own website stuff.  On Friday I only kept up with everything (which is still fabulous progress and I am not ashamed).  Saturday, which is reserved for "family day" was a little more productive.  I don't think this is a bad thing from the perspective of those who work outside of the home.  Keeping up will allow you to eventually have that weekend family day, but for major work, like the garage thing, well that's just going to have to be done when you have more time.  Little by little though, those precious days together will become more fun - not that there were any complaints at all from anyone :)

In my house we have certain... areas.  Though I used to complain about what I felt was some sort of male chores vs. female chores thing that Geoff kind of made me feel existed in the home, eventually I took on the responsibility - prompting my Organization Evolution.  We still sort of have this, but I must say that he has been super helpful in the last couple of weeks, at first with little things like helping to clear up after dinner.  And he totally cleared off his dresser on Saturday night. I'm not saying there's a pattern emerging, I'm just putting this out there. 

On Saturday Geoff built some stuff in the garage, with the boys' help of course.  I organized my linen closet for some reason.  I say "some reason" because there was a weird push to suddenly do this.  It took forty five minutes and I was able to remove a reasonable amount of old towels, baby blankets (that the kids never attached to - I kept the rest) and some sheet sets that we don't use.  Well that made a difference.

There are two reasons I was able to actually clear out this closet.  One, I'm keeping up with laundry so I noticed that we didn't actually go through all of the towels - therefore we don't need them all.  Two, everything else was kept up so starting something that wasn't screaming to be done - haha, other than the complete disarray which would have given the most organized of people a panic attack upon discovery - could be done.  And who knows, maybe it was in the back of my mind because it was beginning to look so out of place compared to the rest of my house.  In either case, it's done.

I also made my dinner menu for the week. That was a lot more planning than perhaps it was supposed to be, but I'm only recently becoming interested in eating better and trying new things.  Hunter and Aaron will take some work - neither of them ate last night's dish.  Unfortunate because it was pretty good.  I'm working out of cookbooks mostly because I really wanted to try some new stuff. 

Have you ever watched an episode of Til Debt do us Part? One of the first things she always does when trying to get people on a budget is forcing them to meal plan and only shop once a week.  With four kids, you know I'm going to be out again for milk and the like but I've done my best to stay away from convenience stores anyhow because milk is about $7 there and I can get it for $5 at any other store.  A week's worth of groceries, plus a couple of extra things that I knew we needed, like ketchup and syrup (and something we didn't like raisin bread), my total cost was $129.  For a family of six, I saved twenty bucks.  And there are some things I picked up that will last a little longer, like cheese - I will be able to use those again for meal planning next week without having to buy more.  However, it wasn't all unicorns and rainbows and you can read that on Facebook at the Mom Evolution page.  I'm not a professional yet; I'm creating new habits.

This week with FlyLady we are in the "bathroom(s) and one other room".  I still need to declutter my own drawers and closet.  I'm not procrastinating, it will get done... but I know I don't need so much of what I have for clothes.  I don't wear much of it.  I know this... I will get to it.  And I have a drawer in my dresser that is filled with ... stuff.  Not clothes, but pictures and I don't even know what else.  Clutter, I assume.

For anyone dealing with this clutter issue, FlyLady posted an email she'd received about the same. The woman writing in was asking what do with all the "leftovers"; stuff that didn't have a home.  FlyLady's response was "if it doesn't have a home then get rid of it." End of story.  I know that's what's coming for me too - if I haven't opened that drawer in, oh let's say six years, then do I have any sort of attachment for what's inside?  Probably not.  Yet there it sits.  And I will agonize over where to put things.  Maybe.  I'm just being presumptuous here. I will get to it.  The kids go back to school in the last week of August so I don't have much time.  Everything must be done in order to begin our new organized lives.  Fifteen minutes at a time.  Happy organizing!

Day 11

Well, I decided to make use of FlyLady's golden rule today: declutter for fifteen minutes with a timer.  I'm still well ahead of the other chores this week and I have spent a lot if time out of the house, fighting with computers and programs and I'm done. 

With that being said, I knew I had to do something today and so I went with the only thing FlyLady really expects of us anyway- fifteen minutes.  The rest if the house is still great.  I've kept up on laundry and tidying the living room, kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms a of course it's easy because I do it every day- but I hadn't gone further.

So I picked a cupboard- a nasty one we've been using as a junk cupboard. I pulled Geoff in on this because half the papers and mail belong to him. Two piles, recycling and filing. But it was the batteries and the Christmas decorations (??) and unused school supplies and supply lists for September that I don't want to lose... and frankly I'm incredibly surprised I have at all!  

I have to admit, it looks better than it did  (sorry no before shot, i just up and decided to set the timer and then I began).  Sad, I know, but I just didn't feel like doing more than fifteen minutes. Point is, I did it and I stopped. I put everything that wasn't figured out back in to sort tomorrow. And I don't feel bad because this is my clutter. The stuff I don't know where to put and I'm going to have to throw stuff out. 

I'm not sentimental about it really, just unsure if I will need it or want it.  With that being said, the first run was okay. I'm not sure what to do with the battery chargers and box of rechargeable batteries- hey, maybe if I use them instead of the box of non-rechargeable batteries (why wouldn't I have both? I'm disorganized) I could put everything in one spot. It will happen; fifteen minutes at a time. Happy organizing!