Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Planning

Over the past few days, I've been planning some of my upcoming creations. I just love looking at all the colors and fabrics available and imagining the endless possibilities.

The preparations got me reflecting on the idea of Planning. I recently read that the average American family wastes an average of $3,000 each year from lack of planning!
  • Buying things we already have
  • Tossing expired items that never got used
  • Making several trips to the grocery store for just one more thing
  • Purchasing items without comparison shopping
Sound familiar?
I've been guilty of all of those at one time or another.

My mom always said that the best thing God made was one day after another. So, I have made it my goal to make sure tomorrow is better than today. I've begun planning ahead, each Saturday afternoon, for the following week. My husband and I make a meal plan, grocery list, chore list, and activity list. We have a schedule for each of us and our children.

It sounds complicated, but it really wasn't much work at all! Once we made the plan on our first week, the following weeks got easier because we already had a blueprint.

Since making the adjustments we have seen improvements in many areas of our lives: our budget is reaching further, the kids get more attention from us, we feel more relaxed, and our overall satisfaction with life has improved.

Truthfully, some weeks it's already Monday, when I start to make my plan. But once I do, the whole week becomes a breeze.

If you are tired of living day to day struggling to get a break, I invite you to plan ahead with me. I can share my own family schedule template with you and see how it can help your family.

To those of you who have it together, please share your family planning secrets with the rest of us! It's great to learn from each other.

3 comments:

  1. share your plan, I'm looking for some fresh ideas!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the idea of sitting down together and making your lists! I'm not sure I have any "secrets", but just trying to keep all the clutter organized day to day helps me a great deal. I feel more motivated to clean and take care of things if I don't first have to tackle a mound of clutter on the counter, etc. Do you ever read Real Simple? They've got some really good articles in there to help simplify your life.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is a great idea!! I am quite anal at being scheduled and organized and I as well plan my week every Sunday. Meals and grocery lists get planned every Thursday as I shop on Friday. I use www.iheartpublix.com to make sure I am getting the most bang for my buck and buy the newspaper on Sundays for the coupons. On Sunday's I plan all the to do's to accomplish for the week, the evening before I make a list of the to do's for the next day. I also have a small dry erase board on my fridge for Sophia that has about 7-8 things I want to do with her throughout the day. For example, reading, go for a walk, place her in her jump and go, self-play, mommy play etc. I make sure that I check them all off before the end of the day and of course they are constantly changing as she gets older. I'm in the process of doing the same dry erase board for me with things I want to make sure I remember on a daily basis, flossing, take vitamin, read the word, exercise, etc. Yet I will have to admit I have procrastinated on that one.

    ReplyDelete