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Archives for May 2011

Our Lemonade Stand – Part 1 of 2

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Have you ever been asked to donate or support a charitable cause only to realize you don’t have the resources available to do so? I have and so have my children. When this dilemma occurred recently, I loved my son’s resourceful solution to helping others.

At the beginning of April, our family received a letter from my son’s next-year’s teacher. This letter informed us that she would be leaving on a mission’s trip this summer to help other teachers. She asked for prayer and financial support for her trip. Upon hearing this news, our kind-hearted son asked if we could sell lemonade and cookies again to raise money for her trip. When I recovered from the emotion of the moment, I fully embraced this idea, and encouraged him with help and support. The support came as Using Time Wisely sponsored the lemonade stand.

Waiting for customers

THE PRELIMINARIES

With a plan of preparing lemonade and chocolate chip cookies, we needed a great place with lots of people and a date for our event. Having a jammed-packed schedule, I wasn’t sure when we could fit it in. I kept the idea in the back of my mind and proceeded with our planned activities. While checking my e-mail one afternoon in May, I discovered that our HOA Board had scheduled a community-wide garage sale on a Saturday morning. My immediate response was “perfect!”

Two years ago we had a community-wide garage sale. Our family sold lots of items as we decluttered our home, and my son had a lemonade stand. He did really well that morning making over $40 selling lemonade, tea, M&M cookies, and chocolate chip cookies. This year I was not quite that ambitious as we planned our lemonade stand.

THE INGREDIENTS

The next week, I found the Nestle’ Toll House refrigerated cookie dough on sale at Publix which I paired with coupons. I purchased 4 packages of the mini cookies which make 40 cookies each. Yeah, I saved myself money (sale with coupons), energy (stirring the batter), and time (mixing the ingredients for a homemade batch).

On my next trip to Aldi, I picked up 4 containers of the instant lemonade mix, lemons, and napkins.

Then the week of the event, I purchased the craft materials to make our signs. I then visited my neighbor, who allowed me to use her Cricut (pronounced: cricket). This neat machine looks like a small printer, and it cuts out the letters. Having a number of cartridges for her machine, my neighbor helped me choose a font, then graciously spent her time creating the letters for our signs. This was time well spent. I was able to visit with her and accomplish a task quickly (about 30 minutes) that would have taken at least 2 hours to cut out each letter with scissors.

After deciding on the lemonade stand, setting our home as the location, choosing the date of the sale, and purchasing the ingredients (supplied by Using Time Wisely), we were ready to prepare for our event. Come back next week for details of our preparations, event, and the results of our creative way to raise money for a teacher’s mission trip.

Organization: My Pantry

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As I continued to grow my stockpile with all the great deals to be had at my local Bi-Lo and Publix, I found my pantry overflowing and in dire need of organization. Since I could not find a place for the items I had purchased, I decided to rearrange and reorganize my pantry.

Overflowing, disorganized pantry

When I begin an organization project, I follow the same basic system. I work top to bottom and from one side to the other. In this case, I opened my pantry and started on the top shelf.  I removed all the items on the shelf. I then decided how much space was needed for those items, and then I neatly placed those items on the shelf. The top shelf of my panty houses all the extra spices, flour, cake mixes, frostings, brownie mixes, powdered sugar, brown sugar, and other baking needs.

I used this opportunity to rid my pantry of expired foods. On the second shelf, I found expired salad dressing, and later on the floor, I discovered expired juices. These items were removed from my house and disposed of.

Since I was removing all the items, one shelf at a time, I organized the products when returning them to the pantry. I chose to place the newest item (the expiration date is the farthest away from the dates of similar items) at the end of the line for those products. This way, I was placing the older items purchased in front of the newer items. Then when I need a jar of mustard, I will reach in the pantry and select the first mustard I find.

After completing the organization for the top 4 shelves, I came to the floor of my pantry. I again removed all the items. While I was sorting the items into like categories, my 15-month-old went exploring. She found a nice hiding place in the pantry where I was working. She enjoyed sitting and watching Mommy work.

Learning how to organize

All the items had been removed from the shelves, sorted into similar piles, and placed back neatly in the pantry. The finished project allows me access to the product quickly which helps me use my time wisely. I love knowing what I have in the pantry and what I am missing. I kept a grocery list handy while I organized, and I wrote down items we had used and needed to replace.

Completed organized pantry

What happens when your pantry needs to be organized, but you cannot work on this project for an hour? Try organizing one shelf at a time. Just like organizing the bookshelf, you can complete this task by using your time wisely. You will also save money, energy and time as you will know what you currently have, get what you need easily, and quickly get your products in hand. Wow . . .  multitasking, you can organize and get your grocery list started. What are you waiting for? You can complete another project. Just take it one step at a time. Happy organizing!

Personal: Voter’s Registration Cards

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Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

How are you doing with your organization? If you feel that you are being pulled in every direction and cannot get to your document organization at this time, then do what is important and use your time wisely. This category of Important Personal Documents is comprised of many quick-to-file items once you have the documents in your hand. Finding the document may take some time, but you might find a few of these items at once when you get to this project.

Continuing with Box 1 and the fourth file slot in the accordion filing system, I have our Personal Important documents. After our marriage license with copies, I have copies of our voter’s registration cards. Paul and I carry our official cards in our wallets, but I keep copies of the entire form/card that is mailed to us. The card has limited information whereas the form specifies our Congressional district, Senate, House, County Council, and Water Shed numbers.

I have referred to the full form when I hear of an election coming to one or more districts in our area. To find our district numbers, I open up Box 1, go to the fourth file slot, and get our voter registration copies. I can then find our district numbers and determine if I need to arrange my schedule to go vote.

The copies will be handy if our wallets are stolen or if our cards become illegible. If I need to obtain another card, I can quickly find our local office address and can supply the registration number for quick replacement.

Keeping the Voter’s Registration copies together with your other personal documents will help you access that information. Spend time getting organized. In the long run, you will save yourself money, energy, and time. Next week, I will group together the rest of the items I have in this file slot. Happy organizing!

Gas: Murphy USA Coupon and gasbuddy.com

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With the fluctuating prices of gas, most individuals are looking for ways to stretch their dollars at the pump. For the last two weeks, I have shared how I maximize the fuelperks! program to stretch our dollars: Part 1 and Part 2. Another option for saving on fuel is to find coupons. Though I have not found many coupons, there are some out there.

Jenny over at Southersavers.com posted how to get $2 off a $20 gas purchase at Murphy USA gas stations in her post Major Gas Discount from Murphy USA. To get this coupon you must register with Foursquare, a web site that allows you to ping back your location via a downloaded app on your phone. If you are comfortable signing up for this free web site to get the coupon, then go for it.

Since I don’t feel comfortable “checking-in” with my exact location and I want to stretch my dollars at the pump, I check www.gasbuddy.com. By searching by state and zip code, I can locate the best gas prices in my area. If you will be traveling this summer, this web site can help you stretch your dollars while you’re away from home.

Please leave a comment with other ways to save and stretch our dollars while filling up our fuel tanks.

Movies: Cinemark Theaters and Regal Cinemas

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Wow . . . summer is around the corner. If you are near a participating Cinemark Theaters or Regal Cinemas, then you can purchase tickets to select shows for $.50 to $1 each. What a great inexpensive family outing! To help you take advantage of these summer movie programs, here are the details:

Photograph Credit: Cinemark

Cinemark Theaters

This chain of theaters includes Cinemark, Century Theatres, CineArts, and Tinseltown. From June to August, Cinemark will be offering select movies for as low as $.50 to $1 per ticket. To get the tickets for $.50, you must purchase a punch card now. According to the Cinemark website:

For 10 weeks this summer, participating Cinemark Theaters will be showing fun films for kids. A different movie will be shown each week during specified weekday mornings, and the price is the same for children and parents.

  • All 10 movies can be purchased in advance for $5.00, or can be purchased separately at the box office for $1.00 per show.
  • $5 Series punch cards are limited and are now available only at the theatre box office while supplies last. Admission with a series punch card is limited to one person per card per movie, and valid only at the theatre where purchased.
  • All films that have been selected are rated either G or PG

To find a participating location and the movie selection schedule, please click here to visit the Cinemark website.

Photograph Credit: Regal

Regal Cinemas

From June through August, participating Regal Cinemas will also be offering children-appropriate movies for $1 per ticket for select movies on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Here is the information from Regal’s website:

Welcome to Regal’s Summer Movie Express 2011. Moviegoers of all ages can climb aboard to enjoy a great selection of films. During this 9-week festival, select Regal Cinemas, United Artists and Edwards Theatres will offer selected G or PG rated movies for only a dollar on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10:00am.

To find a participating location near you, please visit Regal Cinemas’ website by clicking on this link.

My kids will be so excited to head to the theater to watch some of their favorite movies. I just hope the baby will make it through the experience. She may do fine for the first 30 minutes, but then she will be ready to get down to play. Have any of you attended a theater showing during one of these summer events? If so, were there toddlers at the presentation? I’d love to go as my older children would enjoy the movie, but I’m not sure about taking my 15-month- old daughter. If you have any tips, suggestions, or opinions, please leave me a comment.