Kitchen Organization for Cheap!

In our current situation  Daddykins and I have a small kitchen, without much storage, but with a lot of ingredients, cook and bake ware and contraptions.  And I happened to do a lot of canning last summer, so we needed to find space for that as well!  This time around, I wanted to focus on 3 things specifically... the pots and pans mess, the spices mess, and the 'pantry' cupboard.  With the help of the dollar store, I was able to make some changes, without much impact on my budget!  

Pots and Pans ::
once stacked and organized, pots and pans are not that bad, but the pot tops are obnoxious 
Easy Fix :: dish drainer from the dollar store!  Keeps all the tops organized and accessible!  Never-mind those silly store bought organizers for now, this was a quick, cheap fix!








Spices::
We love to cook, so we have a ton of spices.  But they can be hard to find, especially when they were high up atop the stove, so I moved them and sorted them into bins from the dollar store!  So now they are organized into 'everyday,' 'Indian/Mexican,' and 'baking' and I can just pull the whole bin out according to what I am working on, which is neat and organized.


The Pantry::
We have a lot of canned goods and dry goods, and every week I add to it, but some weeks it feels like we take very little out of it, so it gets filled and unorganized!  Cue the mason jars!  I have a ton of extras lying around, so I put them to good use!  I also wrote on them with a dry erase marker so I can keep track of everything.  So far, so good!  

Living and Saving on a Budget

At the start of the year, Daddykins and I started a new budget and so far, it is working well.  We have a few savings options and ideas kicking around, but what I love most is my file folder of savings.  Our amounts saved grow little by little every week and so far, so good!  

I have a few categories that were immediate needs for us, and so those became the categories we contribute to on a weekly basis (most of the time...).  All of the accounts have a capped limit, and once the limit is reached, the funds will be diverted into another account.  If I have to take money out of an account, then I will revert to building the emptied account as I did before it was full.   

• Girl's Food - Amount contributed: $20/week -  we buy the girl's food from amazon, but I did not want it sitting attached to my debit card, so I pull $20 out a week, and then put it back in my account when we need to purchase.  This is the only account that has money coming and going on a regular basis.  The account will be frozen at $200, and new incoming money will be put into their emergency fund.
• Girl's Emergency - Amount contributed: $10/week - we do have pet

  

  Just a simple file folder found at the dollar
  bin in Target!  Love my dollar finds!

  insurance on the girls, but just in case anything happens, we have something to go on.  I have the account to be frozen once funds reach $400 and then we will contribute new incoming money to our vacation fund.  
• General Emergency - Amount contributed: $5/week - this is for those unexpected dryer repairs, calls to the plumber, 'last pair of sneakers finally worn out' things that come up in our lives.  I have less contributed to this account than others because we historically have had few of these 'emergencies' and I am banking on the trend continuing.  Once the account reaches $400 and then new incoming money will be put towards our "car emergency" fund.   
• Car Emergency - Amount contributed: $5/week - I hate cars, hate hate hate them... they always break.  And cost a lot.  So I have this fund, and I hope I never have to use it!  This is capped at $400, and I am sure it will be forever in use and never actually full, but in the event that it is, money will then be diverted to my oil changes and tolls fund.  
• Oil Changes/Tolls - Amount contributed: anything extra - I couldn't justify having a real amount given to this, so when I have a mileage check come in or an extra few bucks, it goes into this account.  



The ledger I created to help keep track
of what was going in/out of the accoutns.

• Camping - Amount contributed:  My Nannying Money - we love to go camping and have most of our supplies but food and gas still cost money, and so I don't blow our weekly budget when we want to go, I have a fund!  And it is full at $300!  So now all my money from part-time Nannying will go into General Emergency!  So happy to have an account full... I never thought it would happen!

Other accounts that will be contributed to in the future... but our budget didn't allow for it now, but I have plans for it!

• vacation 
• home improvement 
• health emergency 
• wedding fund

To keep track:

• I ended up making a ledger for each file within the folder.  It allows me to keep track and add/subtract as things change, and I can easily remember how much I contribute and what my goal is so I know when I can stop.  I also put a sticker on the back of each one which tells me what I will be contributing to next, once my account is full. 

So, what does this look like on a weekly basis?  

• To do the saving I want/can do, it is only $40 a week, which fits into our budget well. 
• Pop it in, adjust my ledger and move on!  So fast and easy once I had it set up and I have a little cushion to fall back on in case of emergency. 

Dining Room Organization For Free

While our life might just be me and Daddykins, we have plenty of clutter, junk and our dining room table gets swallowed up on occasion when I get busy and going.  So, in my quest for an organized and efficient house, I tackled the dining room to the best of my abilities, while maintaining our budget.

First and foremost was the mail.  I do all I can to reduce the amount we get, but it still piles up after a few days and a small mess always leads to a bigger mess.  So to deal with our mail, I saved up cereal boxes from work and cut them at a cute angle and covered them with some leftover wrapping paper.  While the wrapping paper was a bit tricky with the slanted sides, they turned out really cute and are very helpful.  I had four and made the categories "bills," "coupons," "health," and "girls."  I file things as they come in and go through everything on Fridays and file it in a more permanent location. 

It may seem silly to file things twice, but I do not always have all my binders out at one time and this allows me to be quick about going through mail and making sure it gets to where it needs to be.  

The second pitfall of my dining room... the buffet, which houses all my gift wrapping supplies.  Silly, I know, but we have no extra dishes or linens, so putting bows and ribbons in there made sense when I had nowhere else for them to go.  But then I got more, and more, and more wrapping paper, bows, ribbons, tissue paper... you name it... and the drawers started exploding!  So I cleaned it out, threw away what I didn't want, and made what I had fit!  

Hopefully when Daddykins and I get our house, I will have my own craft room (or corner) and can make use of some dowels and boxes to make it slightly more functional.  But for now, and for my budget, this works!  

Organization on a Dime!

One of my major goals this upcoming year is organization, while also maintaining a very strict budget... two things that don't always go together.  I have been on so many 'pre-made' websites, but they aren't exactly what I want/need, plus if I printed everything just to try it out (and figure out it didn't work), I would spend a small fortune on printer ink!  So, I thought of a way to organize my life, without expensive printer ink or fancy paper, and so far, it seems to be working for me!

What is it?

Simple:  card stock and post-it notes!  Some permanent markers to make the writing pop!


Reasons why it is working:

1. It is flexible 
• if I am done with a post-it note, I throw it away 
• if I have something important that needs immediate attention, I can move it to the top with ease 
• if I find I need a new category, I can make one, without having to go to my computer 
2. It is color coded to help me differentiate between categories 
3. It holds all the major/important things in my head in 4 highly organized pages 
4. I can easily see what needs to be done/what my goals are, which helps me stay on track 
5. It is on card stock, so I will be able to use the backing for quite some time 

Total cost: $0 (I had the materials on hand!!)

A Wonderful New Year!

As Christmas is over and we are inching closer to the New Year, I have decided to take a bit of time to pen my goals/expectations for 2013.  Some of them are more personal than others, and some are just 'things I want to do.'  Most are aimed at saving money, being healthier and overall improving our lives, which in the middle of this awful winter is hard to do.  

My Goals/Expectations:

Health
During our annual health fair, I was told I have 'high cholesterol' which was befuddling to me, seeing as I have been a vegetarian for almost a decade.  Nevertheless, medication is not an option, so diet changes will have to do.  I fully intend to be vegan by May of 2013, while in the mean time, I have substantially lessened my dairy/egg intake and have been more aware of my cholesterol intake.  

Fitness
As Daddykins and I prepare for our wedding, I am working hard to return to my 'pre-dating' weight, and I will be continuing to work hard (even if I am discouraged by the total lack of weight loss week after week after week!).  I will be setting up a little area in our room to encourage before work workouts, and Daddykins and I will continue to frequent the gym regularly during the winter months.  One of our pups is old enough to run (longer distances), so come warm weather, I will be out with her, slow and ugly as my running might be.  My goal is to be down at least 30 pounds by the end of the year. :) 

Budget
For Daddykins and I to have a wedding, we require a house for our backyard affair, therefore a large chunk of 2013 will be be spent focusing on our budget, spending, income and for myself, trying to get a bit more income through 'at home' work.  Our goal is to save over $12,000 by December of 2013, as part of the down payment/closing costs on our house. 

Blogging
Although I just started this website, I hope to grow it into a useful/dependable site, like many of the awesome ones I see and rely upon daily for various things.  I hope to update it with useful posts at least twice a week, maybe even daily if it takes off enough.  I also hope to have photos in most of my posts, although I do not have a super fancy camera.  

Organization
My house is always in-flux it seems, with new furniture coming in, new pets coming in, people moving in and out, holding stuff in storage for some... it is messy.  And the beginning of my weeks are very busy between work schedules and finding time to cook, clean, etc.  So my goals as far as cleaning and organizing are concerned are:  Take 2 weeks to organize every room in the house (so in 14 weeks, I will have every room organized, with the basement and attic to be attended to once warmer weather hits), starting with the dining room (our main room of mess), and go from there.  I have created a 'what to clean when' chart, but have yet to find it useful as I cannot get through all of the clutter in my house!  

Dreaded Paperwork!

I am slightly obsessed with organization, despite Daddykins'  annoyance when I 'misplace' something while organizing.  I have used products from stores in the past; however, I have begun to make my own, more tailored binders/materials recently.  I much prefer it, even if it is a bit more costly.   Most of my ideas center around simplicity and safety; making sure I have everything I need at my finger tips or where I can quickly get to it.  Plus, I am just constantly battling clutter, as I have an internal battle between my pack-rat self and my organizational self.

My first real organizational task was to organize my bills, appointments and general life... while leaving room for change and making the whole thing portable.  I began with the following:

• A 3 ring binder, 3 inches - I used a trapper keeper... took me back to 5th grade!

• Divider tabs - I used ones that had 8 per pack and the folder in front (so I could itemize things without having to file right away) 

• Labeled:
• Basic Info 
• where I keep my running to do lists, stamps, cards etc.  
• Money 
• Bank Ledgers for accuracy 
• eventually I will have the list color coded by entry (bills, food, gas etc) but for now, I use Daddykins for that!
• I update this daily so I know exactly what we have and where it is going 
• Menu/Grocery 
• Menu planning for the week (I am quite bad at this, I go to the store daily it seems) 
• Also keep coupons in here 
• House 
• As we hope to be buying a house sooner, rather than later, I file useful information here... as the process goes along this section will grow but for now, this works
• Wedding! 
• We started small, with little tid bits here and there, but once we officially got into planning, I started a new binder just for the wedding (I will post that later!)
• Mail/Bills 
• The few paper bills we do get are filed in here so I do not misplace them or forget to pay them!  Once they are paid, they go in the "to be filed" pencil bags
• Medical 
• Thankfully we have very little medical stuff at the moment, but when needed, this divider does help keep things under control!
• The Dogs 
• I have a special binder for each of the girls (I will share at a later date) but when I am on the run, this tab is a life saver in time and hunting for paperwork!
• Plastic Sheets for regular paper 
• Plastic Sheets used for coupon collecting and sports items
• Used in:
• Basic Info 
• holds: stamps, bank info, spare blank cards 

• Menu/Grocery
• I use very few coupons (not much I want to consume is listed in the Sunday paper) but when I do find ones I want, I place them here 

•  3 Plastic pencil bags (that will fit in a binder)
• Each is labeled:
• Receipts (that need to be recorded) 
• Envelopes (so that if I ever need to mail something while I am at an appointment, at work etc, I have it) 
• To File 
• 1 good pencil bag (I prefer cloth)
• Multiple colored pens, post it notes, tabs, paper clips etc.  
• A binder calender, coordinated with our house calender and our online calendar  so we are ALL sure of what is going on when!  

I have been using this system for about 6 months now, and I find I am much more efficient and have everything I need right at my finger tips if there is a moment of 'down-time.'  All-in-all, I found the cost to be less than $40, and the system was created for me, so it has work well and I have kept it up.