The most beneficial way to make your weekdays easier and save money on your grocery bill, is to plan your meals for the week ahead. I’ll post an example of a calendar for you to print on the right. I explained how we use the calendar on May 31.
Other things to organize related to food are:
Using the links on Where to Start, figure which locations you can visit weekly or monthly to make sure you don’t find yourself needing something and stuck buying a fake version for convenience at the last minute. For example, the only farmer that I know with ground turkey is 12 miles away only on Saturdays. I can get there in less than 15 minutes, but that’s still at least a half hour trip IF it happens to be a Saturday. That means I need to be prepared with a pack in the freezer when it’s going to come up on the food menu.
I do have my kids each make dinner once a week (and help as needed on the other days). Actually, I got that idea from another mom at my kids’ school who also has her kids (who were in elementary school at the time) do their own laundry! I don’t really trust my kids with doing their own laundry yet, although they definitely sort and fold, but I sure was psyched to hear how another mom runs a tight ship.
Besides helping in the kitchen, I’ve also been using a chore chart for my kids for years. When I had more kids at home, I just had more columns and chores, so you can modify it however you want — I’m providing it for an example in case you’re interested. If you need help editing it email me. Against advice from some parenting experts, I do base my kids’ weekly allowance on whether they did their chores (allowance is half their age). They have all week to finish their chores and if they aren’t done by Sunday – usually aren’t – I say something like, “Finish your chore list so you can get your allowance.”
Another thing you can organize are your finances. There are a lot of ways to organize finances, for example, consolidating debts and starting a budget. You can find many resources online. An easy way to start getting control over your finances is to keep a log of every time you spend money for a month, and then look back and categorize your spending.
The top two things I’ve found to influence my finances the most are:
First, here are some beliefs you may have been taught growing up about money which are false and you can stop believing them now:
False: Money is the root of all evil <br>
Truth: “… the love of money,” especially above all else, “is a root of all kinds of evil.” But money itself is helpful, beneficial, necessary to survive in the modern world, fun, and a lot of other super things – plus it smells great.
False: Money doesn’t grow on trees.
Truth: Yes, it does. It’s printed on paper which comes from trees.
False: Rich people are bad.
Truth: Some rich people are bad, some poor people are bad, and everyone is else is good — money doesn’t have much to do with it.
False: Money is dirty, you don’t know who touched it, etc.
Truth: This may be true but a lot of things are dirty, like doorknobs, and you still touch them. Just wash your hands after you’re done playing with all of your beautiful money.
False: I can never get ahead, I wasn’t made to be rich, everything I make disappears, etc.
Truth: What you believe is what you get. If you believe you have nothing, you’re right. So believe this instead: I’m getting ahead, I’m on the path to financial success, when I need money it appears in the most unexpected ways, etc.
If you had any of the types of false beliefs above and want to seriously practice turning them around, I recommend a book called “Money Isn’t the Problem, You Are” by Douglas and Heer.
Second, every day that you get paid, go to the bank and stash ten percent either somewhere in your house/bedroom or in a separate account. For example, if you get $100 on Friday and normally take $20 out of the ATM on payday, take $30 (10% of $100 = $10), and the stash the extra $10. Another example, if every two weeks you get paid $1226, stop into the bank on payday and get $120 (rounding) to stash – in addition to whatever you have to get for your wallet. You might think you can’t afford it but have you ever actually tried it? Just do it on paydays and put it all in the same place. You’re not saving to go on a trip or pay the gas bill, but it’s OK to go into your paperclip drawer once in awhile and play with it. Let me know how you’re doing.
I’ll tell you how I’m doing so far. I don’t have enough cash to put in central air or build a garage, but I feel rich, and I’m going to live the rest of my life in abundance — and so can you.