Archives for February 2012

2012: Happy Leap Year!

February 29, 2012 by Tracy

Photograph Credit: Flickr (Youth Services Web)

The unique day, that occurs every four years, has arrived. As a way to make up the extra time of the past three years, we get an extra day on our calendar this year. In using time wisely, we are getting more time today. Woo Hoo!

After a late evening last night due to a family activity and long wait at IHOP for our free pancakes, I need a day to regroup, organize, and prepare for the rest of the week.

By scheduling a slower day in the week, I can take a breath, enjoy the break, and try to snag a nap. Staying rested overcomes frustrations. Taking short naps revitalizes my energy as I serve my family.

Heads Up

One of my business goals for this year is increasing readership. As a loyal reader, I want to let you know when I participate in events marketing Using Time Wisely. In January, I wrote a review of Crystal Paine’s book, The Money Saving Mom’s Budget. In February, I offered a giveaway of the book I received from Crystal for posting my review. Coming on March 1, I have entered tomorrow’s post into Blogelina’s 100 Comments event.

This event with Blogelina aims to get 100 comments on tomorrow’s post by grouping blog authors in groups of 100. I will be posting comments on 100 blogs this coming week like my fellow bloggers. My participating focuses on generating awareness for Using Time Wisely.

As you see the comments, please feel free to chime in with your ideas. I will be interacting through the comments and Facebook and would love your input.

As I engage in more activities, events, and guest’s posts, I will keep you updated. Thanks for reading, spreading the word, and sharing your tips and tricks. Enjoy your extra calendar day while using time wisely!

Using Time Wisely: Learning to Say “No”

February 28, 2012 by Tracy

Photograph Credit: Flickr (Laura Crowell)

Balancing hospitality, family responsibilities, and ministry opportunities is truly a juggling act. Seeing all the needs and assuming you are the answer to their problems will overwhelm you.

WARNING: No matter what activities, events, and ministries you undertake, there will always be more to do.

So, how do you choose what to take on and what to let go? That answer lies with you as you consider your priorities, time, and abilities.

Priorities

What are your priorities? Five years from now, where do you see yourself? Who do you want to become? Answering these questions to find your priorities will help in answering your question.

Five years from now, I want to have a close bond with my husband and my children. Being involved in their lives through school and church programs is investing my time into their lives. Staying available to help with field trips, science fairs, and programs keeps me connected with my children’s activities.

Will participating in this event deter you or draw you closer to your priorities?

Sometimes choosing to say “no” to a good activity frees you up for another opportunity with more flexibility.

As I stay involved in our school, I have learned to say “no” to a room mom position. Would being a room mom draw me closer to my priority of a close bond with my son? Yes, but when my daughter starts school, I would have to choose.

Instead of room mom, I choose to serve on a committee that stays involved in all the events. During class related activities, I am free to roam between classrooms without conflict.

Time

Considering your current family, work, and home responsibilities, can you take on another project? Be realistic. Taking care of your family with clean clothes, meals, and special moments with you consumes your time. Be careful about adding other opportunities to your hectic schedule. (Ahem. *Speaking to myself here*).

Abilities

Will this task be difficult for you? Substituting for our music teacher would be very difficult for me. I do not play an instrument, sing solos, or read music well. Though this opportunity would keep me close to my son and I could spare the hour, I would struggle with the task. However, overseeing recess would be easier for me to stay close to my son while fitting within my schedule and relying on my mothering skills to watch the children.

When taking on an event, responsibility, or opportunity, consider your priorities, time, and abilities. Filter your question through these channels, consult your spouse or friend, and either accept the responsibility or choose the freedom found in learning to say “no.”

Question: How do you choose which opportunities to accept and which to reject?

10 Minutes to an Organized Dresser Drawer

February 27, 2012 by Tracy

How was your 60-minute challenge? My house needs more than 60-minutes of decluttering.

With lots of help from my family, I tackled the alcove of our bonus room ridding lots of unused toys and freeing up 2 shelves of a bookshelf. Though I had great plans to return to the project, I chose to focus on other priorities.

If 60-minutes cannot be found in your schedule, try spending 10 minutes to an organized dresser drawer. For this challenge, I refrained from my unmentionables and chose my sock and hosiery drawer. 🙂

Remove all items

To organize the space, dump out the entire drawer. When the drawer is empty, keep it empty while you sort.

Sort all the items

Place all the items removed from the drawer into one of three piles.

Keep
Donate/Sell
Trash

Organize the “keep” items

Look over all the items you plan to keep, and group similar items together. For my drawer, I grouped all my white socks together, then the dark socks, and finally, the hosiery.

Designate a Space

With your empty drawer, plan where to place the groups of items.

Return “keep” items

Place the items into their designated space. If your first plan does not work, experiment until you find an arrangement that works for you. Then return your drawer to the dresser.

Toss the trash

Deposit your pile of trash into the garbage.

Remove the items to donate/sell

Add these items to your donate/sell stash and rid them from your home. Our family’s stash is in the garage, and I failed to get the items out of the house quickly. A few days later I found my toddler playing with a hat formerly placed in the donate/sell pile. Guess I’ll just have to swipe it later. 🙂

Enjoy your results

Before After

Congratulations! One organized dresser drawer complete. If the momentum takes you, organize another. Take it one drawer at a time, and happy organizing!

Question: Which dresser drawer needs your attention this week?

Life Insurance: Children’s Policy

February 26, 2012 by Tracy

Though I would not normally invest in a life insurance policy for our children, Paul and I do have one life insurance policy that covers all three of our children.

For us, the purpose of life insurance is to cover our family expenses after our deaths. Our children would not leave any debts or responsibilities, so we choose not to carry policies for each of our children.

The one policy we carry is a group policy through Paul’s employer. The cost is less than $3 per month and holds coverage for $15,000. For the inexpensive price of this coverage, we have chosen to carry this insurance for our children.

Housed in the fourth file opening of Box 2 of our important documents, the life insurance documentation for our children’s policy includes the summary page and information page.

Summary Page

This summary page has the contact information for the benefits administrator, benefits identification number, and employee number. Click here for more details about this summary page that I keep at the front of each file opening to make access quick and efficient.

Information Page

To make a claim, we must contact the benefits administrator at my husband’s office. The benefits administrator works with the provider directly. Therefore, we do not hold a paper copy of this policy.

In setting up this file, I contacted the benefits administrator and requested a detailed explanation of where, when, and how to send a claim. I typed that information creating an information page. In the awful event that we need to file a claim, Paul or I will get this document and follow the steps.

Tracy’s Tip: Waiting until tragedy strikes to get this information will add anxiety and stress during your time of grief. Researching now and writing down the instructions will save you time, energy, and stress in the future.

The information page includes:

How to Make a Claim
How the Payment is Dispersed

These two documents complete the fourth file opening and the second category – life insurance. As my children grow, we may decide to carry policies for each of them. If and when that time comes, I will place those policies in this file opening.

You may need more file openings for your insurance documents. If you carry policies for your children or parents, then you may need a file slot for each person. Keeping your file organized by either insurance type (term, long-term, accidental, etc.) or by person (Dad, Mom, Child #1, etc.) will help you in using time wisely to reach those documents.

This process is a marathon. I worked for 3-4 months exclusively on these files when I set them up. At that point, I was a stay-at-home wife and had the time to invest in organizing and researching the information. If I were setting up my file now, then it might take a few years. With three little ones, spending time training them is a top priority.

If you struggle with organizing your paperwork, then consider your schedule. I pay/schedule bills twice a month. During this time, I am near my important documents and spend 15 minutes filing, organizing, and updating my files. Find a time when you are already near those documents. Planning to organize is one step closer to executing your goal. Happy organizing!

Question: When are near your important documents, what are you doing?

Staples: Rewards and Easy Rebates – Part 1 of 2

February 25, 2012 by Tracy

Photograph Credit: Flickr (Staples)

Between my little artists and printing coupons, our household consumes lots of copy paper. At a cost of $5 to $9 per ream, the paper gets expensive, but thanks to Staples Rewards and Easy Rebates, I get copy paper for free, and you can, too.

Though there are other office supply chains, I find the Staples program easy to navigate. Now there are quirky exceptions, but overall, Staples has two great programs: Staples Rewards and Easy Rebates. In part 1, I will focus on the Staples Rewards and next week in part 2 end with the Easy Rebate Program.

Staples Rewards

The Staples Reward program offers 100% back in Staples store credit through vouchers either mailed or e-mailed to you at the end of each quarter. You will then have 3 months to use or lose your credit. Once expired, Staples will not honor the vouchers.

To receive 100% back in Rewards for the promotional items, you need to know the rules:

Requiring a loyalty card. To get your Rewards card, just ask a customer service representative on your next visit. The card is free, and takes less than 5 minutes to complete the application. You can then begin using your card immediately.

Locating the Reward offers. Within the weekly sales flyer, the promotional offers will state “100% back in Rewards.” With these promotions, you buy the product using your loyalty card and pay the full price. Your rewards are automatically processed and either mailed or e-mailed to you, depending on your preference, at the end of the quarter.

TIP: If you buy items that generate a Staples Reward and pay with a reward certificate, you WILL NOT get another reward. These rewards will not roll. However, you can use your Staple Rewards certificate to pay for easy rebate items since you get cash back, not store credit.

Receiving your reward. You do not send any receipts, make any phones calls, or take any surveys. Just wait. If your rewards exceed $10, then you will get your check or e-mail at the end of the quarter. If you did not accumulate $10, then the rewards will carry-over until your balance reaches $10. At the $10 mark, your rewards will release at the end of that quarter.

Spending your reward. Your rewards will expire 3 months after issuance. Be careful to pace yourself. You do not want to find things to buy to use up your remaining rewards. Take it slowly and enjoy the process.

Using coupons on Reward items. If you use store or manufacturer coupons on an item with 100% back in Rewards, then you will receive 100% back of what you paid. For example, if copy paper is triggering a 100% back in Rewards for $5 a ream and you used a $1 manufacturer coupon, then you will pay $4 + tax for that ream. Your Reward will include $4 for this transaction.

TRACY’S TIP: To maximize my coupon use and my Rewards, I choose not to use coupons on 100% back in Rewards. I will save my coupon for another deal since I am already receiving that amount back in Rewards.

Around Christmas, I purchased ear buds and then later two packages of batteries that were all on Staples promotion for 100% back in Rewards. After waiting a few weeks, I received two vouchers: $15 and $21 that expire on March 31, 2012. (My vouchers came separately because I had two transactions. I would have received one voucher had I purchased all the product together.)

When redeeming my rewards, I purchased items using my loyalty card and ended with $.06 remaining in Rewards. Since I used the vouchers, a coupon with my $.06 reward printed at the bottom of my receipt. I still have until March 31, 2012, to redeem my $.06 on another transaction.

The Staples Reward program is another promotional opportunity to stretch your dollars while using time wisely. Understanding this Staples program will save you money, energy, and time. With a well-stocked supply stash, you won’t need to rush to the store, paying full price, to replenish an out-of-stock office need.

Next week, I will continue this short series and share how to use these Staples Rewards with Easy Rebates to get copy paper (and other office supplies) for free. Happy savings!

Question: What office supply product would you like to get free?