Category: Meal Planning & Kitchen Organzing

Money: Cards, Coupons, Returns & Rebates

Saving Money, Part 2:  Use Well What You Have

     I’m always on the lookout for ideas to organize shopping efforts, save some money and decrease stress!

     Last week, I saved a total of $59 at the grocery on a large order that cost me $133.  Coupons saved me $16, and using my Jewel Preferred Card saved me $43 off the “regular price”.  I paid my bill with gift cards I purchased through my parish school.  Buying those gift cards pays me a small percentage towards tuition and the school a small percentage.  Win-win situation (just have to remember to go and buy the gift cards)!

     I also saved over $12 on a $78 Target bill, using coupons ($2), a few small returned items ($6), $3.90 instant rebate with my Target Red Card, and my own shopping bags ($.05 off a bag).  The returned items were small things I had purchased but decided I did not need.

     I should mention that while I like having food, clothes and stuff, I don’t like shopping at all.  I am also frugal but busy, so my efforts are a continual give and take of spending time to save money, or spending money to save time.  So, do what I do, and consider time spent organizing an investment, and accept a little extra hassle to reap monetary benefits!  Here are some ideas:

Use store memberships and loyalty cards to receive savings for spending money you would have spent anyway.

    1. We went to the movies last week.  I used my AMC Stubs card, and found that I had $10 credit accumulated toward my next transaction.  The nice man behind the counter suggested that I go to customer service and swap the little piece of paper for a $10 gift card with no expiration. Cha Ching!  Stocking stuffer, birthday card stuffer, whatever, $10!
    2. Some people don’t like the hassle of loyalty cards; i.e., signing up and maintaining, remembering them, etc.  If you have a SmartPhone, I suggest the KeyRing App.  Take a picture of your membership and loyalty cards with your smart phone, and the app keeps and categorizes all the info.  Next time you want to use a card, check the App and find the right card, and the store scans the picture on your phone.  Lighten your wallet and keep your data.  
    3. All Retail: One friend buys only with cash because she doesn’t like the idea of her purchases being tracked.  I personally don’t care who tracks my purchasing, I have nothing to hide.  And if you want to give me free stuff for the privilege of noting what brand of toilet paper I choose, so be it.  I’ll take the 5% off, thank you very much.

Use coupons:  Retailers and manufacturers print the coupons, you might as well reap the benefits.

    1. All Retail: Use coupons for things you regularly buy.   Buying stuff just because you have a coupon will not save you money in the long run, if you end up spending more total, or not liking or using the product.
    2. Groceries: Compound your savings by perusing your local sale ads before you shop, and using coupons with in-store specials.  I have noticed this cross marketing in my newspaper coupons recently:  “Here is a coupon, and your local Jewel has the item on sale, too for a total savings this week of $            . “
    3. I keep my reusable shopping bags and coupons together in my car.  I cut coupons once a week, and file them in the holder while waiting in the car for my kids to get out of practice.
    4. Groceries: Please note: I am not endorsing Extreme Couponing (see “Only Buy What You Need” below). Flipping around the TV channels, I have come across the Extreme Couponing show.  I’ll just say Yikes!  Your home is a home, not a warehouse!  There is no way I can or want to eat 40 boxes of one type of breakfast cereal before it expires.  But that is a blog for another day…

Buy only what you need, and return stuff if you’re not going to use it:

    1. Groceries: Use a shopping list, post it on the fridge at all times.  Look in your cabinets and use what you have before going out and buying more stuff.  Plan to keep 2-3 weeks of food on hand, and use up the rest.  I have clients who had 2-3 month’s worth of canned goods cluttering up their cabinets before we organized.
    2. Other Retail:  Return stuff that you don’t need.  I walked into 3 stores last week and did not spend a cent.  I actually put money back in my checking account and netted a few more singles in my pocket.  To make this possible, file your receipts by month, and keep them for up to a year. 
    3. If I purchase items with my Target Red Card, I don’t need to keep a receipt to return them.

Pursue the money that belongs to you:  reimbursements, rebates, checks. 

    1. Ask for your rewards from credit card companies (we just requested a Cash Back check last week).
    2. When working with clients, we often find un-cashed checks in their paper clutter.  Cash your checks, the money is yours!  And if the check is a month or 2 old, the check-writer really wants you to cash it, to clean up their balance sheet! 
    3. We often buy items because the advertising says “Final cost after Mail-In Rebate:  Really cheap or Free!”  And that is great, so long as you actually follow-up and mail in the paperwork.
    4. If you have expense accounts or reimbursement paperwork to file, get that done, too.  Many companies are shortening their acceptable response time for submitting reimbursement, so get your money back while you can.  It is your money.

     Be organized with your shopping and spending efforts, and make the most of your money!  Cha-ching!

7 Things I Learned From My Summer Vacation

We host a weekend get-together every July, next year will be our 20th. 

It started out as a bunch of recent college grads gathering at my very gracious in-law’s lake cottage in Michigan.  Our numbers have expanded over the years, as we’ve gotten married and added children.  We can gauge our growth in advanced degrees received, mortgages, increasing car size (to accommodate our growing families), challenges met and conquered and learned from.  It is amazing how we have all evolved. 

After 19 years of hosting this event, there are some Organizing Truths I have learned and can share with confidence:

  1. Organizing Truth:  Life is not about the stuff, it is about people and relationships.  I am so blessed.  I am choking up as I write this because I have images of such good friends and conversations and love, a wonderful co-host (my hubby), my gracious and dear in-laws and my dad who brings us cookies every year.  I am so, so blessed.
  2. Organizing Truth: Quality time with friends and family is judged by enjoyment, not by effort.  I am getting better about judging event success by the fun had by all, and not by the diversity of menu options or the cleanliness of my house or how much effort I put in (because the more you do these things, the easier they get!).
  3. Organizing Truth:  You can learn from every experience.  After any experience, ask yourself to sum up what you have learned in one or two sentences.  Self-awareness is a valuable skill, tool and talent.  It helps you find worth in every experience, even the mundane, and helps you to constantly evolve and improve.
  4. Organizing Truth:  Take notes, and help your Future You out next time.   I have a spreadsheet for planning this big weekend from year to year, with guest and RSVP lists, menu, shopping list, etc.  In the next few days, I will open up the spreadsheet file and make some notes about what worked and what did not:  “don’t forget the softball game next year, ask G to bring more fireworks, broaden the lunch menus”.  I will save that information, change the dates for 2012 and be ready to go next Spring.
  5. Organizing Truth:  Technology can be a very useful tool!   I already mentioned my yearly spread sheet, and a glance at my file directory tells me I have been keeping notes digitally since 1998.  I annually update the email contact list and correspond almost entirely via email.  These are basics.  I can also send map links to emails if requested, and this year I was able to check Facebook and my email for arrival updates via my smart phone.  Maybe next year, I’ll use Evite and we’ll have a FaceBook page (but then again, maybe not).
  6. Organizing Truth:  Standard Operating Procedures make things run smoothly.  I have a list in my head of things that need to be done, but next year, I will hang on the fridge a list of kid-friendly jobs to be done, so I can defer to the list and delegate better.  Examples of tasks may include:
    1. Get the boats ready to go: load the cooler, count and load the life jackets and beach towels
    2. Meal Set Up:  clean off table, get out plates and napkins and utensils, consult menu, etc.
    3. Yard Clean Up:  soda cans and water bottles to recycling, sporting gear and beach toys to bins, etc.
  7. Organizing Truths:  Notes from Kitchen Duty.
    1. Set up for the next meal at the end of the current meal.  Meaning, after dinner clean-up is done, look ahead to tomorrow’s breakfast, and set out the griddle and pancake ingredients and frying pans for sausage.  Most critically, set up the coffee maker for the next morning, so whoever gets up first can flip the switch!
    2. It occurred to me along the way that I could save a lot of hassle for myself and my guests if I just did all the menu planning and shopping.  At first, everyone would bring their own stuff, and meals were a hodgepodge, the refrigerator was full of odds and ends, and coolers were lined up on the deck and needed regular additions of bagged ice.  Now, I do all the shopping (with a few additions, like Cinnamon Rolls from the Ohio contingent), the menu is posted, and this year, a team of kids even helped with prep and clean up.  It’s a beautiful thing!
  8. Organizing Truth:  Less really is More.  I could go on and on, but I won’t!

So, learn from my experiences, I know I do.  Think things through, review and revise, and most importantly, get out there and appreciate your friends and family and life.

Organize Your Kitchen: Tips from the Waffle Experts

     I was on vacation down South last month, and we had a great time!  We took the kids to a Waffle House Restaurant  on National Waffle Day (March 21, according to my son) for breakfast.  Are you familiar with Waffle Houses?   Ubiquitous and delicious along the highways and byways on the road-trips of my childhood. 

     Looking at the Waffle House now, though, as a mom and Professional Organizer, I admire them as a model of efficiency!   My experience in food service is limited to a summer job when I was 16, and, well, the 3 meals a day every day I have made and served for my family over the last 15 years.  But I love looking at restaurant kitchens, and at a Waffle House, there are not interior walls, so it is all out there for everyone to see.

      Spatially speaking, all the seating and tables are on one side of a half wall, and are accessible from the service / kitchen area by just reaching across the wall.  The staff can clean the table, re-set it, take orders and serve orders all without ever leaving the service / kitchen area. 

      The use of vertical space in the kitchen was great.  There was a cook space and counter space.  There was also a clever shelf above the counter and toasters, sloped inwardly towards the wall, to line up the various loaves of bread for easy access to pop slices into toasters. 

      Spices, seasonings and additions were in labeled bins above the cook surface.  Any cook working the current shift can see what is available, and what needs re-stocked.  The beverage center had a soda fountain with flavored syrups on a shelf above, coffee and a stand-up glass fronted cooler for the rest, all grouped together.

      The menu is not a broad menu, though you can get any menu item 24/7.  The Waffle House has figured out what it does well, and sticks with making just that.  My youngest son asked for a grilled cheese (why not?) and fries. The waitress said yes to the grilled cheese, but said “No Fries – how about hash browns?”  He was dubious, but turns out he loves hash browns!  The kitchen has a grill surface but no fry oil or oven.  So, hash browns it is!

      So, the morals of this story:

  1. Being organized lets you make the best use of what you have. 
  2. Use your vertical space.  Flat space is often at a premium, so use your vertical space to greatly increase your usable work space.
  3. Label things, especially if you want people to be able to help you and to put things away.
  4. Specialize, and stick with doing what you are really good at doing.
  5. You can learn from any experience, if you just pay attention.
  6. Waffles are good any day, not just on National Waffle Day.  Grilled cheese is good any time.

     And the last thing I learned?  If you order an egg white omelet in a Waffle House, you have to expect a kind smile and the label of “Yankee”.

“Hunting & Gathering” (a.k.a. Grocery Shopping)

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     My articles over the last few weeks have been about healthy, economical and convenient eating.  This requires three things – planning, know how, and….. food.   Oh, yes, food.  So this week presents more ideas on planning, sharing some knowledge, and converting the food in your kitchen converted into meals!

     If you have started using some of the menu planning suggestions from last week, good for you!  Now, on to the next steps!  When my menu plan starts to come together, I head to the fridge, freezer and cabinets to see what resources I have to work with.  Using what is on hand is the most cost-effective use of stuff.  If I can build an entire meal – carb, protein and veggie or 2 – with the contents of my kitchen, great!  Saved time and money already!  Sometimes I have parts of a meal and just require a few more items.  For example, I have frozen turkey burgers but no buns, so if I add “turkey burgers” to my Menu Plan, I have to add burger buns to my grocery list.

     My hubby and I call grocery planning and shopping “Hunting and Gathering”, which sounds more exciting.  I asked my spouse, the other cook in my house, “what are his favorite benefits of Menu Planning and Planned Grocery Shopping?”  His answers were:  “Fixed yet flexible”, “no surprises”, “everyone on the same page”, and “shopping and menu planning go hand in hand”.

So here are some tips to reap benefits from your Hunting and Gathering, too:

1.  Make your Menu Plan, then make your grocery list:

  • When planning your meals, start with what you have on hand.
  • Using what you have in stock is the best use of your money and your stuff.

2. Embrace your list, and make it work for you. 

  • Standardize your grocery list.  I created a list in MS Excel, based on what we buy all the time.  I typed it once, and now print copies when needed.  If you’d like to see it, I’ll send it to you as an attachment. 
  • You don’t have to go as high-tech as a spreadsheet, but you could write (by hand or in the computer) a regular list and post copies on the refrigerator.
  • Because my spreadsheet reflects my usual shopping (and planning) habits, I can also use it as an inventory, a suggested list, for what I might need.  For example, under “canned goods” I have 3 types of canned fruits I regularly purchase.  I can see what is in the cabinet before my shopping trip, and add items to my list if they are needed. 

3.  Always use a grocery list, but…. Go off list sometimes, to take advantage of store specials and sales.  Never buy something just because it is on sale, though, unless it is something you normally use.

4.  Balance Time and Money

  • Plan your stops:  Save money by shopping many stores for the best deal; or
  • Save time by shopping just a few stores that carry everything you need.

5.  To make Hunting and Gathering go smoother, remember, too:  Don’t shop hungry, shop alone and at off-hours when the store is not crowded, stick to your list!, remember your coupons (another blog some day) and re-usable bags (some stores offer $$ back if  you bring your own).  

6.  Strike a balance between reactionary shopping and perfectionist thinking.

  • Reactionary shopping leads you to the grocery store several days a week at 5 pm with hungry, crabby self or kids, no list and no clue what to buy for dinner.  Or worse, at fast food joints eating stuff that is really bad for you and your family.
  • Perfectionist thinking is different but still a challenge.  We find ourselves pondering elaborate and wonderful recipes for hours, making very complicated lists and plans but not actually acting on them.  Leaving us, again, at the store at 5 pm with hungry, crabby self or kids, now with a ridiculously long list and plan, but still no dinner.
  • So plan, but don’t over plan.  The benefits of these ideas include flexibility and less stress!

7.  I personally need to improve upon #6 and perfectionist thinking.  I hate to go to the store more than necessary.  I pressure myself into trying to have a perfect plan, so that I stress / get anxious when it comes down to actually doing my shopping.

8.  Plus, rising grocery costs and growing teenage boys are making me wince every time I step up to the cash register!  So, to decrease personal stress and stretch those grocery dollars, my goals for the next few weeks are to:

  • Switch from a 2 week menu plan to a one week Menu Plan, running Sunday to Saturday;
  • Use up what we have on hand in a more timely manner, better utilizing leftovers and fresh items like produce and fruit to avoid spoilage and waste.

     I’ll let you know how I progress on my own goals, and I would love to hear what you have to say, too, so please, share!  Talk to you soon, and Bon Appétit!

Menu Planning: The What, Why and How

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I have mentioned MENU PLANNING to a number of people lately, and the responses run between”we love to menu plan, been doing it forever” to “wow, that is something I have wanted to try” to “Menu planning?  No idea what that is.”  

     Menu planning is the strategic planning of your meals for the week.  The small amount of time it takes to plan our meals for the week is a teeny tiny drop in the bucket compared to how much time and money I could waste without planning, running to the grocery every day for something for dinner or heading for fast food, wasting leftovers and not using up the food I have on hand

     Menu Planning enables us to use our resources well, saving time and money, and making the most of our storage space.  If we had special considerations like food allergies or a special diet, menu planning would be even more invaluable, helping us focus on what we can eat, not what we cannot.

So, how do you Menu Plan?  On a piece of paper, blank calendar page or computer spreadsheet:

  1. List the days of the week.  Now set some themes, if you’d like, to make it easier to come up with meal ideas (my biggest personal challenge is just coming up with ideas).  For example, ours are:
  • Sunday:  Family Dinner / New Recipes
  • Monday: Soup / Salad / Sandwiches
  • Tuesday: Italian
  • Wednesday:  Mexican
  • Thursday:  Grill-ables
  • Friday:   Pizza / Lenten Friday
  • Saturday:  Seafood / Grill-ables / New Recipes

2.  Come up with a list of 10-15 Favorites for your family, perhaps in keeping with the aforementioned themes.  I try a new recipe every week or 2, and add it to our list of favorites if the family really likes it. Our Favorites include:

  • Soups / Salads / Sandwiches: Chili, BLTs, Grilled Ham and Cheese
  • Italian:  Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti, Lasagna, Baked Ziti pasta with meatballs
  • Mexican: Taco night (my family’s all time favorite!), taco casserole, chicken enchilada casserole
  • Grill-ables:  Pork Roast, barbecue chicken breasts, steaks, burgers (beef or turkey)
  • Pizza
  • Seafood:  fish tacos, fish filets, baked or broiled fish, shrimp or scallops
  • Sunday Dinner: Chicken Pie, Turkey Breast, Beer baked Pork Chops over rice, Pot Roast, Corned Beef
  • Other: Breakfast for dinner, Anything served with Mashed potatoes.

3.  Next:  Look at your schedule this week and make a note of any special events or arrangements:

  • Sunday:  Family Party in Michigan
  • Monday: CCD  – early / easy dinner
  • Tuesday: Baseball, scouts
  • Wednesday: baseball, client for me
  • Thursday: Band After school, late dinner
  • Friday: 
  • Saturday: (Daniel’s Birthday dinner)

4.  Now, put it all together:

  • Sunday (Sunday Dinner):  Family Party in Michigan – No cooking for me!
  • Monday (Soup/Salad/Sandwiches) (CCD  – early / easy dinner) – Chili / Mac and Cheese
  • Tuesday (Italian):  Spaghetti and Meatballs
  • Wednesday (Mexican): Chicken tacos (make rice and chicken in the morning)
  • Thursday (Grill-ables) (Band After school, late dinner) – Pork Chops and sweet potatoes
  • Friday:  (Meatless – Lent) – Pizza and salad
  • Saturday: (Grill-ables):  (Daniel’s Birthday dinner)  Corned Beef, Mashed Potatoes

 Tips to make it work:

  1. Realize any good plan is a flexible plan.  We use our menu plan as an inventory for what we have on hand.  If my plan for today falls through, I can look at the menu, take an idea from later in the week, and know what else I have on hand to cook.
  2. Enlist Aid: Get your family to help with planning and implementation of menu planning.  With my sons:
    • When they help me plan, they are assured of having at least one thing they really like for every meal, so it is worth it to them to help me out. 
    • In addition, they are more likely to eat a meal they had a hand in preparing.  They are less likely to take issue with a dish if the contents are not a mystery. 
    • They have become pretty good sous chefs, cleaning and peeling vegetables, shredding cheese, reading recipes or directions on boxes, setting and clearing the table. 
  3. Cook dinner in the morning (or the day before):
    • Right now, our dinner hour is crazier than our mornings, so we get creative! 
    • Anything taking  more than 30 minutes to make is relegated to the weekend or a different time of day.  We love Spanish rice with our taco night, but it takes 35 minutes to make, so I make it in the morning and leave it in the fridge to warm up at dinner time.
    • Learn to love your Crock Pot! 
    • I have gone so far as to assemble 3 casseroles on Sunday for the next three days.
  4. Double up on your prep:
    • Last week I mentioned how we clean and prep our veggies when we bring them home, for healthy snacking.  We shred a cup or two of carrots for recipes later in the week, dice extra onions or peppers, split up meat into appropriate serving sizes and add marinade while frozen.
    • We brown 3 pounds of ground turkey or beef at once, re-freezing it in 1 pound blocks, thawing as needed. 
    • We also cook or grill extra meats to put in salads or soups later in the week.  Which leads me to ….
  5. Get over your LeftOvers.
    • You may have to sell the idea of Leftovers to your family, but they are a valuable component of menu planning.  If it weren’t for leftovers, my hubby would eat out downtown for lunch every day.  At $10 a meal.  Yikes.  And there are days we would starve if not for leftovers!
    • Call them something else, or Pair them with a positive experience.  Instead of left-over night, call it Tater-Tot Night, or whatever will make your own family happy. 
    • Attach them to a reward, to make them more palatable.  Left over night is also dessert night!  (my kids love to make instant pudding.  Go figure!)
    • Pair a left over of one thing with a new side and a new veggies, or make it look different, like grilled chicken breasts from Monday sliced and layered on a Caesar salad on Wednesday.

    1,000 words on Menu planning will have to be enough, I need to warm up my previously prepared dinner and get us out the door to baseball and class.  Try this idea this week, and let me know what you think of menu planning!

Healthy Convenience On the Go, Go, Go!

It has begun.

     What is “It”, you ask?     

     “It”  is Spring Sports Season.  On any given day, we could have 3 kids at 3 games or practices in 2 sports in three different locations.  It really is fun, but it makes scheduling thing like….oh, say….. homework, dinner, orthodontist appointments, haircuts and sleeping a little dicey (that is just today!).

      With this busy schedule, healthy eating becomes much more important and much more complicated.  These growing active bodies need fuel but time is at a premium.   We need quick and healthy food at a reasonable cost.   If this is the crazy season for you, too, or maybe you just want to Make Healthy Eating More Convenient, Read on!

1.  Make your own single serving snacks.  Invest in snack-size baggies or small GladWare bowls with lids (1/2 cup size).   Check out the serving size on your snacks and dole out the snacks into single serving bags or bowls.  Some of our favorites:  dry cereal; prezels; raisins or dried cherries; almonds, cashews or mixed nuts; Chex Mix; cookies (Newtons, Gingersnaps); crackers like whole wheat Ritz and Cheez-its.

2.  Clean and prep food when you bring it home from the store.  My family will eat carrots, cantaloupe, grapes, celery, you name it.  But we have to cut it up first (the boys help me with prep, too!), and put it in single serving baggies. 

3.  Use refillable water bottles.  We all have one, we wash them often, re-fill them, and put them back in the fridge.  When the weather gets warmer and my kids actually need electrolytes (usually they don’t!), I’ll purchase the Gatorade powder packets instead of buying Gatorade at the concession stand, and add the packets to our water bottles.

4 (a).  Make your own trail mix.   We toss some of our favorite things in a bowl, like nuts, chocolate chips, dried cherries or banana chips or raisins, pretzels, teddy grahams, whatever is in the cabinet.  Then we fill up our snack bags and take our favorites with us.   

4 (b). I just started Weight Watchers and it is great, but sticking with the plan makes convenient eating even more of a challenge.  I mix my own trail mix with dry cereal, almonds and dried cherries.  I know how many points each baggy is worth, and the portable snack keeps me from eating junk food I may regret later!

5.  Plan quality, portable after-school snacks:   Add an extra bag to the lunch bag line-up in the fridge (we pack our lunches at night).  Include fruit, juice pouches or water bottles, and some of your newly created single serve snacks.  If you have a cooler bag and plastic utensils, you can add chicken or tuna salad, yogurt, hummus or ranch dressing for dipping your crackers or veggies, string cheese, hardboiled eggs, etc. 

6.  Make the rest of your life more convenient too:

Pack The Magic Bag:  This is the bag that lives in my van during sports season.  Inside you will find: Umbrellas; granola bars and extra water bottles; tissues and anti-bacterial wipes (can you say Port–o-john?); a soccer ball for little brother to play with at big brother’s game; first aid kit with instant ice packs; blanket; small plastic garbage bags for wet, muddy cleats or garbage or whatever; and an extra hoodie for me or a child who gets chilly.  Also in my van, you will find folding chairs.

Just for me in the magic bag, I have:  the master schedule for all teams; a magazine; a WW friendly snack; a notebook for jotting down all the to-do’s that occur to me while I am goofing off at the games; and some mindless busy work, like coupons to cut or blank grocery lists to fill in.

Also in my van is the Homework Bag:  clip board, pencils, pens, eraser, scissors and ruler.  Because who are we kidding?  No, they will not feel like doing their homework after their game.

     So embrace the spring weather and a busy active life style, but do it on your terms.  Maintain quality health and convenience on the Go, Go, Go!