Proof That I'm An Old Soul, A Homemaker, & An Old Woman Trapped In A Young Person's Body

Whoa. That title is a doozy. So, I think you know where this is going. Instead of overwhelming you with a lot of words, I'm going to put it in list format for your speed-reading pleasure.

1. I enjoy reading about organization.
2. I enjoy organizing things.
3. I have a recipe binder I continually update.
4. I make lists like nobody's business (seriously, I'd list it as a hobby).
5. I have a Home Management Binder for just me (even though there are 2 of us living in this tiny, tiny apartment).
6. I literally dream of having my own house, complete with my incredibly organized kitchen, phenomenal laundry room, my own office, and a crafting room.
7. I started my retirement fund 3 years ago (I'm 23 now).
8. I love BINGO.
9. I'm basically Betty Crocker when I have the time.
10. I can also cook pretty well.
11. I'm already saying things like "When I was growing up..." or "When I was a kid..."
12. I love crossword puzzles.
13. I love jigsaw puzzles.
14. I really prefer going to bed early.
15. I'm a morning person.
16. I'm incredibly forgetful.
17. I'm basically a hermit.
18. I'm always cold.
19. My fiance thinks I consider grocery shopping a hobby (it's not a hobby, it's a process).
20. I have a blog (I'm not 100% sure how this fits into this list, but it feels right).
21. I'm trapped in a relationship and I can't get out (Joking. He's pretty cool, but I'm not going to pretend my relationship is all sunshine and roses).

I hope you enjoyed that.

With Love,
Elli

HMB Afterthought

I realized I forgot to mention that I'm left-handed and the result of that is that my binder runs from right to left (or the traditional back of the binder to the front). Just in case you couldn't quite figure out what was wrong with the pictures.

With Love,
Elli

Meal Planning Links

Hi there, beautiful! I figured before I went out to drool over organizer porn I'd stop in and provide you guys with some links I have read over and over again about meal planning.

Meals Matter
Dinner Planner
Dinner Planner-Tips
Simple Mom
A Bowl Full of Lemons
The Peaceful Mom
Bold Turquoise
Life in Yellow
RobbyGurl's Creations
The Homes I Have Made
iHeart Organizing

Forms:
The Project Girl
Life In Yellow


I hope you find those articles helpful!

With Love,
Elli

Home Management Binder: Finances Section

Hello friends! Prepare yourself for a lot of words and word vomit to come.

My Finances Section is my favorite, and most important, section in my HMB. Like my Food Section, I have 2 subsections within this section.  Before I describe either of those, however, I'd like to explain more about how I organize our finances all together.

First, when we receive a bill, I write the due date on the outside of the envelope and pin it to our bulletin board next our fridge. Then, after I mail a check, I write the date I mailed it in on and the check number and put it in the back of my HMB in the document envelope.

Alright, with that being said, I'll explain my Finances Section, starting with subsection 1.

Subsection 1: Managing Money
Important Account Numbers
This is a list of all of our important account numbers. It is pretty all-inclusive.

Bill Pay Checklist
My bill pay checklist has a list of our bills to double verify payment and track changes in price. There is a spot to check if it is auto-pay, what day of the month it is due, and a place to check that it's been paid.

Irregular Incomes and Payments
This (single) document provides space for me to record any extra (or irregular) money made or expenditures. That's pretty much it.

Budget
My budget is actually a 3 month budget. I feel like my income and whatnot changes pretty substantially every 3 months or so this allows me to make any necessary adjustments for the upcoming months. I also think it saves paper by putting 3 months of budgeting onto one page.

Debt & Savings Trackers
This document looks very similar to the Irregular Income & Payment sheet. It allows me to record savings deposits made and any payments I've made on my student loans. I like convenience.

Student Loan Repayment Log
I found a loan repayment log made by The Nest Effect (found here) but had to modify the format because my loans are not consolidated and have varying interest rates and what have you. Basically, I'm still actively a student and got my loans through Sallie Mae.

Dave Ramsey Worksheets
I typed up a sheet with Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps for a better financial future or whatever. I think they're pretty decent financial tips and guidelines. Following the Baby Steps, I have a copy of his Debt Snowball form that I intend to use to pay off my student loans when I do finally get a real job.

I also have a couple extra items in this section. I have a copy of my tax return from 2011. I have a copy of all of my MPNs from my grad school student loans at the end. I have a copy of the loan repayment log, receipt, and notice of final payment for my private student loan from my undergrad career. I have a Student Loan Tracker that's an overview of each sub-set loan I have. I also have a sheet with a weekly savings (or what I'm using as a loan repayment) plan to acquire approximately $1400 over the course of the year.


I feel like my Managing Money section has quite a bit of overkill in it but I'd rather have multiple sheets that say I paid that bill than one unchecked sheet that says I didn't. That's just me. I may find a way to streamline my life a bit more in the upcoming months. I guess we'll see.


Now subsection 2.

Subsection 2: Big Investments
Vehicle Maintenance Log
I keep a list of all repairs done on my car, the mileage, the company that performed the service, and additional comments I have about the repairs/symptoms/etc.

Vehicle Maintenance Checklist
This is a handy-dandy reminder of when scheduled maintenance should be performed. Find it here.

Car Insurance Information
I've only had to file one insurance claim when someone busted my passenger window over the summer. That claim and all information associated with it can be found in this area.

Leases
Finally, a copy of my lease from each apartment I've had while in grad school can be found at the very end. This also includes the stub from my first security deposit, a copy of all rental applications, additional information given with the lease, and information on our service providers. I know that probably seems like odd placement, but when we signed our lease for our current apartment they gave us several sheets with information on local service providers and I figured I'd rather keep that all in one area.


Well, that's all I've got for you today, lovelies. I hope you have a fantabulous Friday!

With Love,
Elli

Throwback Thursday #1

So this is a series I've been wanting to do for quite a while. I'm very nostalgic and this is definitely aimed at other late 80's/90's kids. Basically, it's going to be me posting about a bunch of stuff I miss from elementary/middle school. This can range from random foods to activities to whatever.

Today's focus is on Dunkaroos.

Look at that beauty.

I miss Dunkaroos. SO. FREAKING. MUCH. This was like the highlight of lunch for me in elementary school. They were the shit. I really wish they were still more widely available. You can still find them but I have had minimal luck with that. However, there are a couple solutions I've found to help curb my longing desire for Dunkaroos.

The first option is making your own Dunkaroo dip.

The second is to buy Dunkaroos over the internet. eBay has proved to be helpful in the matter, locating such items as this one. (Side note: Is anyone else sketched out by the idea of buying food items off eBay?)

The third option is to travel to a place where Dunkaroos can be found. Apparently obscure small towns carry them still.

Finally, I have been informed by my beloved fiance that Dunkaroos can be found at some Dollar Generals and Big Lots.

This concludes my ode to Dunkaroos. Have a nice night.

With Love,

Elli

Home Management Binder: Food Section

Alright, let's go for Round 2. My Food Section has a lot more in it. I have it divided into 2 subsections: Planning and Shopping. Let's take a look at subsection 1.

Subsection 1: Planning
Meal Planners
Here you'll find some blank meal planning forms (again, I'm using this form at the moment and will be creating my own version to better suit my needs) at the very beginning. Find out more about meal planning in this post.

Meal Ideas

Next, you'll find a list of meal ideas, made up of foods Coleman and I frequently eat as well as our other meal ideas. I have quite a large collection of recipes I've gathered from Pinterest. I've found it's best to try the idea before you print it off and save it for later.

Inventories
A new thing I started this month was taking inventory of cabinets, refrigerator, and freezer. I know we have a lot of non-perishables that we'd had for quite a while. When I went through our kitchen and took inventory (I included name, quantity, and expiration date), it was a good opportunity to clear out expired foods. It also helped me by creating an easily referenced guide for upcoming expiring foods. It sort of makes planning meals a bit easier, too. This past time I taped a copy of the cabinet inventory to the inside of the cabinet, a copy of the fridge inventory taped to the fridge, and the freezer inventory sheet taped to the freezer. That way it was easy for me to cross off items used at the time. When it was time for me to plan our meals for the next 6 weeks, I took them down and moved them to the binder.

Recipe Reference List & Guide
Finally, you'll come to my (very blank) recipe reference list and guide. This is a project in the works for a more varied meal planning experience in the future. Essentially my goal is to have color-coded sections that correspond to types of dinner meals. Then instead of planning for specific meals, I can just write something down like "Green" or "Purple" or whatever. Don't judge me. I'm ambitious.

Nutrition Information Guide
This explains exactly what each piece of a nutrition label means. Find it here.

Now on to subsection 2.

Subsection 2: Shopping

Grocery List
Alright, so one of the things I do when I meal plan is I make a list of required ingredients as I plan. The meal planner I mentioned earlier provides a space for that broken up into specific sections. This makes it easily transferable to a single grocery list. This past shopping trip (spent $425 for 2 months worth of food) honestly probably took about 3-5 hours of prep work. I won't bore you with that here. I'll save it for a later time.

Inventories
When I'm ready to go shopping again, I move my inventory sheets from the first subsection to the second subsection so that when I see something I think we need, I can double check. This has substantially cut down on my acquiring like 6 of something we happened to already had like 3 of. This is definitely a good system for me.

Best Time to Buy List
This is a list I created, compiling several lists I had already found of the best time to buy certain items.

Nutrition Information Diagram
This explains exactly what each piece of a nutrition label means. Find it here.

Coupons
Normally I find coupons online and add them directly to my card. However sometimes I print off coupons or find them. I place a list of coupons here and have a separate coupon filer that I use. I may not continue to do this, but it did work quite well last time. It's just a bit of extra work that I may burn out on doing. Just trying to be realistic.

Anyways, I hope you guys are finding this helpful. I know my system is quite a bit different from other HMB posts I've seen, but that's because my life is quite different from those authors as well. If you're still interested in reading, I'll be posting about my finances section (my favorite section) tomorrow. At the end of the series, I'll post pictures and possibly some free downloads of my forms.

With Love,
Elli

Youtube Treasure Chest #22

For those of you that do not know, this lovely lady writes Hyperbole and a Half. Enjoy.

My Home Management Binder: General Overview Section

Hello again, loves! I promised more information on my Home Management Binder (HMB) so here we go. I figured I'd start at the beginning with what you see when you open it up. I don't have a lot in the section so don't get all prepared to read a bunch or whatever.

SO... Yeah. The very first thing you see when you open my HMB is a TON of scrap paper from outdated  lists/to-do lists/other printables. After that, you come to my typed divider page.



There are 5 things I keep in my General Overview Section. There's:
1. To-Do Lists. I typically make lists when I'm on the go so there's nothing too fancy about my to-do lists. They're all hand-written on notebook paper.
2. A two-week super basic schedule that basics lists things that deviate from the ordinary. I'm currently using a schedule I downloaded from The Project Girl, however I need something different that suits my needs a little better. It's a work in progress.
3. There's a 2013 calendar I made. It has one page per month.
4. And finally, there's a list of upcoming projects and deadlines. This includes everything from school projects to crafting ideas to our lease renewal deadline.
5. I also have some Blog Brainstorm sheets (available here) however, I have yet to use them. Remember when I said I make a metric shit-ton of to-do lists? All of my blog ideas, and I do actually have quite a few, are listed in lovely red marker on a sheet of legal notepad paper. I'm classy like that.

One idea I'd really like to be able to follow through with is having a binding machine and creating mini manual-type notebooks so that I could take each section with me easily. However, I don't feel as though it's a very realistic, practical approach. My love of binders comes from my ability to reorganize it repeated. Knowing me, I'd bind something and then immediately find something that was supposed to be in it. I'm kind of rash like that.

Um... I'll take pictures of everything at the end? I'm feeling really lazy and tired today.

With Love,
Elli

The Home Management Binder

So, if you're even remotely like me (and I'm sorry if you are), you have scoured the random ends of the internet universe and come across a variety of interesting concepts. One concept I've come across is the Home Management Binder. For those of you that don't know, a Home Management Binder is essentially a go-to binder for running your household (or in my case, just me). They are customized to each family's need and you frequently see meal planning, shopping, bills and other finances, daily planning, birthday/important date trackers, coupons, cleaning checklists and schedules, home school curricula and worksheets, and for the religious: scriptures/daily devotions.

At first, I was really overwhelmed by this idea. I really love organizing but this seemed a bit like overkill, particularly for my life. I'm still a student, don't have children (and won't for a while), am currently renting an apartment in a town I do not plan to stay in, and I don't even have a full-time job.  That being said, the idea tossed and turned in my head for probably 9 months before I decided to give it a try. I mean, it's never too early to be well organized and financially prepared and all that jazz. So I've slowly been putting my Home Management Binder together for the passed 8 months. I believe I've come up with a system that works for me. I've looked at a lot, and I mean A LOT of Home Management Binders. I looked at what each set included and took bits and pieces from what others had done to create my own system.

Here's a list of my saved Home Management Binder posts I reviewed to come up with my system:

The Nest Effect

Life in the Green House

Blue Eyed Bride Part 1 & Part 2

Emily is the New Black

The Corral Connection

According to Nina

Honey We're Home

Clean Mama

Sunny Side Up

Finding Home/Mandi Cresswell

Building A House of Love

Carlson Family Corner

A Bowl Full of Lemons

Professor Poppins

Simple Dimples

I Heart Organizing

Simply Organized

Let's Meet for Lunch

The Inspired Organizer

My Sweet Nest

Domestic Serenity

Delightful Order

Here's a basic overview of what my Home Management Binder looks like:

(Please note: I'm left handed and so my binder is "backwards" to the right-handed folks out there)

My Home Management Binder includes what I've called my "General Overview" section, Food with subsections Meal Planning and Shopping, and Finances with subsections Managing Money and Big Investments. I really should make a cleaning section because even though I enjoy being organized, I do not enjoy cleaning and often let it fall by the wayside.

I often find that I either am not detailed enough with my categories or I am overly detailed with them. I think this is the best of both worlds for me and my life.

I will be uploading pictures of my system over the next couple days and going more into detail in those sections. I'm currently missing dividers, though I need to go back through my school supplies to see if I have any extras. I went to Walmart and bought some dividers with pockets (for $1.24). Life is good.

 

Looking back, I find this really funny for a couple reasons: 1) If you ask anyone I know, they will tell you I am the most organized person they know, 2) I'm a raging feminist and having a Home Management Binder essentially meant accepting the role of a housewife so I strongly resisted, and 3) I honestly didn't believe I had enough stuff to even justify having a binder.

I hope you enjoy learning about Home Management Binders. If you have one or decide to make one, please let me know! I'm always looking for new tips and tricks!

With Love,
Elli