Looking for Ways to Make My Life More Efficient

www.flylady.net is a great site for organizational & cleaning tips (habits) and that kind of stuff.

I got fed up with super high grocery bills and never knowing what to make each night so I started making a weekly "menu" (main dinner items only really) and shop from that list. It does help me.

Make a dinner list and keep it on the computer. You can't lose it that way. DO NOT go to the grocery store every day. You will be amazed at how much less your grocery bill is.

On Sunday, figure out the "chores" that need to be done that week (cleaning the bathroom, mopping the floor, etc) and figure out who's going to do what. Never give yourself more than one 15 minute chore per night (excluding laundry).

Do one load of laundry per night. We break it up by colors, whites, blacks, greys and tans, sheets, towels.

I don't know what you do for work, but if you have a job that has an ebb and flow, figure out what night each week is going to be "the worst" and feed the kids a kids dinner and you and your husband order a pizza (or even cheaper, stick in a frozen one) after they go to bed.

I'm sure you'll get lots of other advice, but this is what I do to try to stay sane. Good luck.

When things get hectic, I have used in the past:

www.mealtimemakeovers.com

It is $5/month(cancel it at anytime, billed quarterly $15), but WELL worth it for me since it has 7 complete meal plans & the grocery list included. Such a time saver. It is recommended by Dave Ramsey, I believe. Anyway, I found alot of good recipes that my whole family loves.

I also do one load, at least, of laundry each day. I don't get as overwhelmed with one load and it keeps it up better. I try to pick one thing, like vacuum or dust or clean bathrooms, and do one of those each day. I used to try to get everything done in a single day, but that never works, especially with unexpected melt downs from little ones :) Hope that helps!

As a mom of two rambunctious boys aged 22 mos and 7 mos, there is NO WAY my life would function with out www.flylady.net . You gotta check it out and sign up for the daily emails!!!

I lived with a friend of mine and her husband and son... what she did was write down 25 or so meals that she knows the family enjoys. Then when she went grocery shopping she got all she needed and the family just picked out what they wanted from the list for the next night. She left a couple days out for leftovers and for trying new foods. It worked out for us real well. When I had my daughter my mom bought me a calendar that had 4 different colored rows on each day that works great for scheduling appointments, birthdays, reminders etc. I also have Cozi on my computer. You can download it at www.cozi.com and its free!!! It has to do lists, grocery lists, journals and more. Lists can also be sent to your cellphone :) As far as laundry, I do my laundry when the basket is full, same with my daughter's... and we each have our own colored baskets. Maybe the family can get in on the action with specific laundry nights.

I agree with the other posters about checking out flylady.com for cleaning and organizing tips.

I also use www.menus4moms.com for planning weekly meals. It's actually part of a website geared at SAHM, so there's a ton of other information but I haven't used it all. They have free basic menus they'll email you each week, with a grocery list and full recipes. You can also pay (maybe $5 a month?) for a menu specifically designed to cut expenses (called the Frugal Mom menus) or ones designed to be low cal.

I also use Cozi.com to keep my family organized with the calendar. It has an option to text or email reminders for appointments, and my husband actually had me add a couple of his household chores he'd always forget (like cleaning the litterbox), so he now gets an email reminding him to do it. Seemed odd to me at first, but it works, and he likes the reminder.

My friends all think I'm super organized, but I just rely on websites like this :)

Good luck!

Make 2 menus you can live with a rotate them. Also, build in a "leftovers" night. The cheapest easiest meals to make involve pasta and rice. Just make sure you balance those "Bases" out with a protein, and a couple veggies.

Sales at grocery stores follow a 12 week cycle. Especially for staple items.
If you have a freezer- use it to store meats, frozen veggies, and whatever other frozen foods your family consumes on a regular basis.

www.thegrocerygame.com is a great site if you need heads up on what coupons to clip, and when to use them for the max discount.

I use a slow-cooker to make a good chunk of my meals. It's super easy, and you literally set it and forget it till you get home. Then all you have to worry about is quickly tossing a salad, or putting together a veggie real quick.

If you want quick simple kid friendly foods- go with pastas and rices. Think spaghetti and meatballs (the Jennie-O turkey meat balls are yummy and convenient)- Hunts cans of sauce are surprisingly tasty (get the type with garlic and herbs)- I add a can of hunts garlic tomatoe paste. It reheats really well and makes a good left-over lunch. As for the rice dishes- make enough brown rice for your family with some chicken stock, add some bell peppers, little onion, maybe some frozen peas/carrots and dice up some chicken. It's simple and kids dig it.

There are sites out there that will tell you what to cook and what to buy- if you want something more structured perhaps google those and find one to subscribe to.

Also- if you go the slowcooker route- there are tons of sites out there with fantastic recipes- I spend 10-15 minutes in the AM prepping my food for the crock- and I tell ya- I couldn't live without it. I love it.

Hi! I know what you're struggling with. My husband & I both work too, and we have a 3 y.o. and a 1 y.o. I still don't have time to clean the house, but the best thing we did was to plan out EASY dinners. We like to eat fresh food and we're vegetarian, but who has time to spend an hour making dinner when we get home at 5:45 and our 1 y.o. falls asleep at 7??? So here's what I did:
1. I got a really good crockpot cookbook. I plan at least 1 crockpot meal/week. I prep them the night before so all I have to do in the morning is throw the stuff in the crockpot & turn it on. Godsend.
2. We plan out 5 meals/week. I make sure every meal is 20 min/less prep. If there's something I really want to make that takes longer, I prep it the night before or make it on Sunday or something. My favorite quick meals right now are tostadas, burritos, and pasta. You can put anything in them and they're easy to make a kid-friendly version.
3. We make huge portions (double or triple the recipe). That way we have leftovers for lunches and the other nights of the week or if a recipe goes wrong or whatever.

Go to FlyLady.com! I found the site to be a little bit cumbersome for my taste but the routines and such she teaches you to follow to keep your life in order is awesome! I fall off the wagon and do not keep up with the program sometimes, but for the most part, it keeps my life, my husband's life, and the lives of my three kids in order. If I start to fall behind, I just pick up where I left off and start again. No pressure.

Good luck!

P.S. As far as laundry, I hate it, it is NEVER done but at least with Fly Lady I keep it somewhat manageable.

Wow! Lots of great answers here that I will definitely use, too.

I am pretty scattter-brained, too, since having my daughter. She just turned 3 and I still feel a little out of control. Some things I have done to stay organized are:

Put a whiteboard calendar on the kitchen wall (found at Target for $15) so all appointments, meetings, etc. are visible.

Small whiteboard on fridge (at Target for about $6-8) so when I use up the last of something, or see I'm running out I can write it down quickly. Then when I'm getting ready to grocery shop, I make my list from the whiteboard and add anything else I need.

I make a menu for two weeks and try new recipes and keep a list of the ones we like so I can rotate them in every once in a while to keep things new.

I am an avid couponer and have my coupons organized in a little tote that I take with me to the store. There are several blogs dedicated to grocery sales and couponing that are really helpful. I live in Colorado Springs, and I use springsbargains.com to see what coupons and sales are out at the time and tailor my shopping list accordingly.

For chores, I use that same whiteboard calendar. I have a legend off to the side that has L = laundry, V = vacuum, B = bathrooms, D = dusting, etc. and then I put the letters up on the calendar so everyone knows what needs to be done each day. So, for example I have L on MWF, V on Sat, B on MWF, etc. It helps me stay on top of it and not feel too overwhelmed thinking I need to get everything done every day.

Good luck

P.S. Someone below mentioned mealtime makeovers recommended by Dave Ramsey, but that link took me to a weird site. I found the right link on Dave's site: http://www.e-mealz.com/

Ugh! I feel you, all of what you have to say is the way I feel too, except I barely work! :)

One tip that helps me...plan dinners that have leftovers you can easily make into a different meal that will be QUICK and EASY!
~ Like Baked chicken w/rice...make 2 at once if you have to...then shred the leftover chicken and save the leftover rice...next day it is easily turned into chicken fajitas w/spanish rice...then maybe even chicken and cheese quesadillias (sp?)w/soup
~Brown 3 lbs of hamburger...split it in 3, 1 night its for tacos, the next it's sloppy joes...then maybe even taco salad?

Stuff like that is a life savor for me and really helps the budget and saves on take-out!

I have no help to offer w/laundry...it is my arch nemesis!

I can't say I am seasoned, but my husband is fairly organized, and I got onto flylady.net too. I don't do all of what she has, but some has really helped. I think as I start to really get in the swing of things, and my baby is a bit older, I will get back to it. For meals, we usually shop in the morning on the weekends, so Friday night, we plan the meals for the week - main dishes mainly, and make the grocery list from that. We also list if someone is going to be late or not there for that night. We have a notebook that we keep on the kitchen counters so that throughout the week if we run out of something we can add to it too. There are those times that we forget an item or two, but that is pretty rare and limits our shopping time. Yes, it does impede on the weekend, but we aren't people that are gone every weekend either. Plus, we shop as a family, so we are together.

I am a definite procrastinator and never get around to much either. What I picked up from flylady is to take 15 minutes every night to do something, even if the job isn't done, I started it. If I have more time, I can finish it, but at least I did something. For laundry, I am blessed with a husband that is so good about that, but I do usually do the kids'. Whenever the baskets are full, I throw it in and start it. When I remember, or hear the dinger, put it in the dryer. It may then sit on the couch for a few days, but those 15 minutes are sometimes used for folding. It really doesn't take as much time as I dread, but that doesn't make me get to it any sooner. :)

Having the flylady binder can help with the list placement too.

I don't agree with those who say to do a load of laundry every day. I have a super capacity washer and drier and doing laundry daily would be a waste of money and time. You can spend one stay-at-home day on the weekend and do several back to back loads (they say this is the most energy efficient because the drier is warm from the previous load and doesn't have to work as hard) and do your chores on that day. Another option is to make a chore chart... here is an example:
Mondays- clean bathroom
Tuesdays- laundry
Wednesdays- vacuum/mop
Thursdays- laundry
Fridays- grocery shopping

You can fill in whatever chores you want on whatever days work best for you. The idea is to see it in black-n-white posted in a place you have to look at it like on the fridge and don't let yourself have any excuses for skipping the chore that day or else you will have double to do the next day. If you follow your chart and do everything on the weekdays as listed, you will have your weekends as chore free-- and if not then you have to take time away from family fun and relaxing to do chores. I think Fridays are best for grocery shopping because you have fresh foods for the weekend when you are home the most, then you can freeze the meats you need for the rest of the week and get in a habit of thawing the night before-- when you clean the dinner dishes, get in a habit of taking out the meat for the next night's dinner and placing it in the fridge for defrosting so it's ready by dinnertime the next night.

I never did this, but my mom did when I was grwing up-- she would prepare several dinners on Sunday afternoon and freeze them for the week, like casseroles and pot roast and chili and other recipes that freeze well

I also recommend the flylady for house cleaning tips. The nice thing about her website is it is free and you can do her tips in babysteps. I am not perfect at her system but the things I have added have really worked especially when it comes to the laundry.

Also as for dinners I just read an article about freezer dinners. I have done a little of this in the past and try to keep a few staples frozen and ready to use. For example if hamburger is on sale I buy a bunch and either freeze it right away or cook it and then freeze the cooked meat in dinner sized portions. Then even if it is hamburger helper for dinner the meat can just be defrosted and thrown into the casserole quickly. This is also great for a quick spaghetti dinner. The main thing you need to do is come up with recipes that you like and can make easily and buy the items for those meals when they come on sale. Even if you only have a weeks worth of dinner ideas written down and you have all the food either in your pantry or freezer you have that many meals to quickly choose from.

Also when you feel overwhelmed about what needs to be done flylady suggest using a timer. Set it for 15 minutes and work on whatever task you are putting off you can get a lot done in 15 minutes even though it may not seem like a lot of time.

Good luck

In terms of grocery shopping, I have a list of meals that are tried and true that both my husband and I like and aren't hard to make. When I make my grocery list I take that out to get ideas for dinners for the week. I then make a list of the dinners I will make for the week and buy those ingredients at the store. I think this saves both time and money in that I don't buy as many things on the whim in the store. I've noticed that since doing this my cart isn't as full at check out but I still have enough food to get through the week.

We are investing in a deep freezer to store our meat we buy in bulk. When we buy it, we seperate it into individual freezer bags. So I just pull one out at the beginning of the day to thaw, then throw it in the oven when its dinner time (we use instant marinades, shake n bake, panko bread crumbs etc for seasoning but without the fuss). We also use easy sides, instant mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, steamed vegies (from the bag), baked chips, etc. In the summertime we BBQ instead of cook, just because it doesnt heat up the house and is pretty quick. Also, I use the crock pot no matter what season. As far as the rest I am horrible at it, LOL. I try to just do something each day, except laundry. If I had to do laundry everyday I would chop my hands off to avoid it. LOL. =) Good Luck.

There are some GREAT ideas on here! I'm going to try them myself! I wanted to add that I also pay a college student a low hourly rate ($8/hour) to be my assistant! She helps watch and play with my 3 kids (ages 3, 2, and 2 mos), will run errands for me, basically anything I need help doing. Now I'm a SAHM but you could see if a neighbor kid who's old enough to be responsible may be interested in earning some money and can help you with stuff after school/work. You could work out a schedule that benefits you both. Just another idea. Thanks for posting your question though.. I learned about FlyLady that way! :)

Most everything I was going to mention was already mentioned. I love the grocery game and FlyLady! My husband is very impressed with the difference it has made in my stress level, and the cleanliness of our house. The biggest thing I got from FlyLady is starting a new load of laundry every morning. I have to do 2 loads somedays to get it all done, but 1 in the morning and switch it before leaving for the day, or do the other one when you get home. She's big on routines, and that really helps me. I love my routine, and consequently, my clean house.
I have a three week meal plan. A lot of times I put the meal together and set the oven to cook it later, or do crock pot meals. We do a mostly vegetarian meal plan, so the food doesn't spoil sitting in the oven because there was no meat or cheese. I have found fish is a quick easy meal. I have two great marinades I use. Put the frozen fish in a bag in the marinade in the fridge in the morning, and when I am ready for dinner, fry the fish up in some olive oil while cooking some veggies. Dinner is ready in 10 minutes or less. My kids love these marinades, too. They have very little sugar, and lots of taste. GL! I hope you get lots of good ideas!

I am an owner of Dream Dinners, what you're looking for is exactly what we do for our guests for their meals! Our meals are very healthy and work great for busy moms and dads! They usually take about 20-30 minutes to prepare once thawed out of the freezer. Most of our meals are 280 calories or less per serving, and less than 10 grams of fat, and they taste great (they are even kid tested at the home office)!. Often people think this is an expensive option, but it really isn't. When you have to get all the ingredients for so many different meals, and then don't use up all of it, it becomes much more expensive. We buy in bulk, so we are able to save you money. The cost per serving is about $4. Plus we do all the shopping and prep work for you so it only takes a little over an hour to do 12 meals which is enough for 3 meals already prepared every week. It will save you a ton of time! Some parents use us everyday of the week too. Of course we can assemble the meals for you too. There are 4 Dream Dinners stores in the Denver area (I don't know where you live). So feel free to check us out or contact me directly at ____@____.com can give you an intro sampling to try our service.