Post by reginaphalange3 on Jun 21, 2016 6:37:54 GMT -5
Oops double thread---how about this
After lurking the planner thread on parenting I'm wondering does anyone have a great way to use a planner? I especially want to do meal planning in it, but also appointments and bills and things... Share your methods, type of planner...etc
After lurking the planner thread on parenting I'm wondering does anyone have a great way to use a planner? I especially want to do meal planning in it, but also appointments and bills and things... Share your methods, type of planner...etc
hmmm my husband created an Excel spreadsheet that has all of our bills. Most of our bills are set on auto-pay which is nice. We are currently doing the snowball method to pay off our debt so he has a pretty detailed spreadsheet. We should be debt free next summer if no more big expenses come up.
I don't really have a planner for meal planning, but I pick out a couple meals before we go grocery shopping (we go once a week) and create a list based on that.
I use google calendar for all our appointments, workouts, and such. So those reminders pop up on my phone.
I have great aspirations to use planners that fall flat usually. I an excel file for finance. And I typically use my work outlook calendar to hold appts. My meal planning revolves around list making as well. I'd like to use my phone more such as for bookmarking recipes etc.
I have started soooo many planners and agendas and then wound up using them as sketchbooks/mini diaries instead of the intended purpose. Have also made several excel sheets that I fill out for one month then stop using. Right now for bills, I have a draft email saved in my gmail that I update every month with a lid of bills & how much paid, how much money I have in savings and checking before and after. It weirdly works for me, mainly to make sure I don't forget to pay a bill and to see the general trend if we're spending too much (if checking and savings dip from month to month). For appointments, I use my work outlook calendar that integrates into my iPhone calendar. Sometimes I write to do lists if I start feeling really scattered and to help motivate me to do things I hate eg calling insurance company or haggling over a fee on the internet bill. Otherwise I'm pretty disorganized!
DH uses an Excel spreadsheet to help figure out what bills are due and when. Everything is on an auto-pay system. He takes care of bills, we both take care of how much goes into savings every month. Except Target, I am a much more frugal spender and bigger saver than he is, but we're both working on it. I meal plan. Hard core. (Well, when it's just us, I do. It's impossible with his parents.) I would sit down for about 2 hours, look at the ads to see what's on sale, and then plan meals around that. It also helps that I have a DH that is willing to try new foods and expand his palette. I will leave one day open for take out (or going out) and one day for leftovers. My stores have an awesome "meat manager's special" section, so I will see if anything is good and base a meal or two off of that as well, either, for this week or next. I also keep recipes on note cards in a box, and new recipes I develop and create go in notebooks I have stashed everywhere.
{My OCD meal planning}I have a background in culinary arts. I was 4 months pregnant when I quit my job as a sous chef. We moved to OR because DH got a new job, and I never did get a new job. This is how I became a SAHP. I took my meal planning seriously to help keep my chefy skills sharp. I put this as a spoiler thinking it would be a lot longer than it is lol.
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