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Goals for June 2012: The Cash-Only Challenge

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Photograph Credit: Flickr (Angie Torres)

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. I almost postponed this post because I dread the cash-only issue.

I’m not sure if it is fear of the unknown, learning something new, or changing a system that is not broken. Whatever the reason, I question my choice in making this goal to follow Crystal’s 12-month plan as outlined in The Money Saving Mom’s Budget.

Though unmotivated, I may find peace and contentment far greater than I know it now with a new system. So, I press on with the goals I made to challenge myself. I am not a quitter, and I will continue even if I fall on my face. 🙂

The following is a recap of my progress from my May goals and my goals for June:

Physical

Drink 3 glasses of water per day.  Success! I now drink 3 glasses of water each day. Aiming for 8 glasses of water each day, I will “take the plunge” 🙂 and increase this goal to 4 glasses of water each day.

Eat breakfast each morning. Finding ups and downs with this goal this month. With a new schedule for summer, I sometimes eat an early lunch and not breakfast. With each day a little different, our morning routine fluctuates. I will need to focus a bit more on this goal this month.

Exercise for 20 minutes at least 3 times a week. Back to the drawing board. I am experimenting with time slots for exercise again. With my kids home all day and the different schedules, I struggle with a consistent time to exercise. From my success during the school year, I know that the key for me is that block of uninterrupted time. For June, I will continue to work on carving out a time slot.

Family

Plan at least one family outing/activity each week. Accomplished! Finished soccer season and spent last weekend tubing and paddle boating. Love this goal, and keeping it all year.

Spend 10 minutes with each child each day. Much improved. Right now, my son enjoys snuggling on the couch, my older daughter want to work on her letters and numbers, and my youngest daughter wants to play with the Daddy, Mommy, and baby figurines. Taking time to play and enjoy my children brings peace and calmness to our home.

Allow children to help with a household task each week. Still discussing our allowance system, but I am enjoying my helpers. In taking turns, my older children bake and cook with me, help me clean and organize, and run errands. My youngest daughter enjoyed shopping at CVS alone with me. She pushed the cart (into the shelves) and chose the items from the shelf. The 15-minute errand turned into an hour, but we had a blast.

Financial

Follow Crystal’s year-long plan to reach my goals. I’m a little behind on this goal. I still have our bare-bones budget and need to create a full-fledged budget. This goal will carry over into June. Last month, I shared how I refused to use cash. Well, that decision was premature. I cannot make that decision until I have a full-fledged working budget and know how much I need in each category. Though I really hate the idea of cash-only, I do not have enough information to make that decision yet. I still need more time – lots of time. 🙂

Purchase dressers for my daughters’ room. This goal is ongoing. No progress made on this goal for May. Not sure when we will move our girls into the same room. Right now, there is no hurry.

Purchase upgraded computers for hubby and me. This goal is also ongoing. After dealing with our Internet providers’ change of contract, our computer issues might be network-based and not equipment-based. More research may point us in the right direction. At this time, I do not want to raise our utility allotment, so patience is the key.

Business

Write posts one week in advance. Bombed this one again! Continuing with scheduling post topics one month in advance is working, but I am not writing any faster. I’m still keeping this goal because one day I will get ahead. 🙂

Make one improvement to the blog this month. Accomplished! Still need to update the Facebook landing pages, but I organized and updated all the posts in the Document category when repairing my web site after a file corrupted.

Read two chapters of blog book each month. Failed! I’m concentrating on summer reading with my kids. For my summer reading program at the library, how-to books do not qualify. To reach my summer reading goal, I am reading other books. I hope to get back to my blog book soon.

Besides really stretching me, these goals are hard work. In using time wisely, I sometimes have to choose one goal over another. When that happens, I embrace it while making progress. If I fail, then I get up and try again next month.

These baby steps are slowly inching me closer to completing my goals. By starting, I have a better chance of finishing than if I just plan. Keep going!

Question: How are you doing on your goals this year? 

2012 Live History Fair – Part 2 of 3

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Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

When planning any event, organizing is the key which is the part I love. Working through the learning and gathering phases fuels my energy to the organization step. 🙂

Last week in Part 1, I started explaining my process in planning our school’s live history fair. With an understanding of the type of event and then knowing the information to present at the performance, my mind began formulating a plan.

STEP THREE: ORGANIZING

Besides my favorite part of the process, the organizing step is the core of the event. If I emerge from this step with a general idea, then I will waste time and energy re-organizing, re-delegating, and backtracking.

My goal in this step is to reach the end with a clear itinerary, program, or sketch. With this plan, I can funnel all suggestions, recommendations, and changes to fit within the framework. Having this step nailed down tightly removes confusion from the big picture.

Knowing this step’s importance, I spent the bulk of my time organizing our live history fair. I sat with a stack of blank copy paper at my dining room table, which is a large 60’ x 60’ area with lots of space. I began to jot down all the components:

    • Page 1: The list of players by group (e.g., K4 and K5 presentation, K4 and K5 music, Grade 1 presentation, Grade 2 presentation, Grade 1 and 2 music, etc.)
    • Page 2: A list of all the geography students and the area chosen for their presentations (e.g., John Doe – Bermuda, Plain Jane – Philippines, etc.)
    • Page 3: Compiled another list of the American history students with their chosen topics.

With the basic lists written, I went back to page 1 and added in the details. I included the dates of each presentation, the material used (stories, play, poem, etc.), and the titles provided by the teachers.

With all the information in front of me, I started organizing the program on separate sheets:

    • Sheet 1: Grade order beginning with kindergarten working up to the upper school students
    • Sheet 2: Alphabetical listing of titles and locations
    • Sheet 3: Date sequence beginning with the earliest date and working toward modern times

With each option, I hit a snag. The program seemed disjointed working in grade order and alphabetical order. The date sequence worked best, but I lacked true dates for the origin of countries for the geography students.

Since I was not sold on any one idea but I liked parts of each order, I chose to combine them. I used the date sequence for the presentations, the alphabetical order for the geography students, and grouped the music selections by when the students were on stage.

For variety, I interspersed the geography classes’ individual presentations and the group music selections among the group class presentations.

Once I had the program outlined, I took a break. I came back later and reviewed my options. Satisfied with this plan, I asked Paul (my sounding board) and a close friend to look it over. After getting their reaction which resulted in no changes, I forwarded the information to the teachers, staff, and volunteers and waited for the questions to come.

STEP FOUR: DELEGATING

While answering and responding to questions, concerns, and suggestions, I chose to delegate some of the tasks. This program involved more than the time spent inside the auditorium, so I needed some help. Having a list of volunteers and good friends who help, I assigned the following tasks:

    • The class presentations: lower school teachers
    • Costumes and props: parents (The teachers communicated with the parents.)
    • The music presentations: music instructor
    • Art displays: a teacher and group of parent volunteers
    • Reception: our Student Life Committee

Sneak Peak: When I got to the next step, I hit a hiccup and added transition items which I later delegated to others.

In using time wisely to execute our live history fair, I prepared by organizing alone and then delegating to others. Throughout this process, I moved forward with my planning while fielding phone calls, e-mails, and car-line chats. 🙂 With the plan in place, I stayed focused in the midst of distractions.

My plan for organizing an event may not work for you because we are different. The key to any successful event is knowing where you are going, planning how to get there, and making your path as straight as possible. Happy planning!

Question: Do you organize your ideas with pen and paper or use another method?

Scheduling: Keeping It Together (Sort of)

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Cascading Laundry Pile

In between trips to the water park, bounce houses, and day trips boating and tubing, I am back to switching out my children’s clothing.

With the totes piled in the hallway and stacks of clothing in each bedroom, I also have a bathtub filled with stained clothes soaking in OxiClean. Though progress is slow, I am enjoying summer with my children.

I have a l-o-n-g to do list of cleaning projects that will probably take most of the summer. Without stressing, I am just taking the summer one day at time.

In looking back over the last two weeks, I joy in completing my son and older daughter’s closet and dresser while using time wisely with my children.

Besides the piles of laundry (many thanks to those who pass down clothing to my children), we have kept the downstairs picked up, the kitchen cleaned, and a pathway upstairs. 🙂

Does our home need cleaning? Yes! However, I am choosing to schedule summer fun throughout our week while fitting in the cleaning, laundry, and organizing.

Usually very stressed when my home is in disarray, I am learning to accept that I am not supermom. I cannot be everything to everyone, and there are only 24 hours in the day.

By staying organized, knowing what needs to be done, and following through on priorities, I joy in having my children home and enjoying our summer.

If you find summer busier than the school year, then you are not alone. Work from what is most important (your children) down to the nitty-gritty (for me, ironing). Realize that some things are not important now. In using time wisely, do what you can without sweating the small stuff. Happy managing!

Question: What are you letting go this summer? 

Special Health Policies: Critical Illness and Cancer Protection Policy

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Last week, I gave an overview of the special health policies category. These policies are optional, and some experts advise against carrying them.

I am not an expert, but I research our options before committing our family dollars to an insurance premium.

In finding policies that fit our family’s needs and budget, we apply and place the documents within this special health policies category.

The first set of documents in our special health policies slot is paperwork for our Critical Illness and Cancer Protection Policy.

Defined

Our Critical Illness and Cancer Protection Policy provides a single cash benefit upon the first diagnosis of a covered critical illness or condition (as defined in the policy). We can use our benefit any way our family needs, and the benefit amount is paid in full even if treatment costs are less than the benefit.

The policy we hold covers our entire family. If any one of the 5 of us receives a diagnosis of a covered condition (e.g., heart attack, stroke, invasive cancer, kidney failure, etc.), then this policy will pay the full lump sum for us to use for income replacement, medical treatment, child care, transportation, or any way we need.

Though this policy is not a necessity, we choose to protect our family with this group policy which almost pays for itself with the health screening benefit.

Benefits

Our policy carries a health screening benefit which pays up to $100 for the cost of a screening test per person per calendar year. Since our family has annual physical exams each year, this benefit reimburses our family a total of $500 for the year. (I shared in this post the details of this benefit.)

With this benefit and the added protection to choose experimental or out-of-network medical treatment should one of us get seriously ill makes this Critical Illness and Cancer Protection Policy worth our hard-earned dollars.

Documents

For this policy, I keep the following documents in this ninth file opening of our insurance file box:

1. Summary Page

This one-paged document holds vital information about this policy.

2. Policy

3. Endorsement

These documents explain changes made to the original policy (e.g., adding a child, increasing our coverage, upgrading a rider, etc.).

4. Correspondence

Copies of my submissions for the health screening benefit and the checks received and the reviews of our current coverage makeup the correspondence part of this policy.

All these documents are paper clipped together and housed in this seventh category of our insurance documents.

If a cancer policy is an option and you have heard that this type of policy is not worth the annual premium, then research. In using time wisely, I weighed the cost of the premiums with the benefits available. Our policy is worth every cent we pay, but not all policies are equal.

When you do the research you might find your policy does not have these benefits. If the policy does not fit with your family’s needs, then don’t waste your money. However, don’t overlook a great option because someone lumped all the cancer policies together and stamped “refuse” on the top.

As you continue working through your piles of paperwork, keep organizing and labeling your categories for quick access in the future. Happy organizing!

Question: Do you read your insurance policies from front to back?

Couptivate: Saving Money by Organizing Daily Deals

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Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

The daily deal sites, to which I subscribe, continue to offer multiple options for family summer fun. The surplus of deals can overwhelm me in the midst of choosing options that fit my family’s level of fun and our budget.

During this delightful process, I focus and ground myself by viewing the options, reading the fine print for expiration dates and limits, and checking my Couptivate account before purchasing the deal.

My Couptivate account organizes all my daily deals for one e-mail address in one account. By checking my Couptivate account, I see all my current vouchers.

Earlier this week, I found a great deal on bounce house passes. My kids love jumping in bounce houses, so I purchase a variety of offers for indoor fun.

Before purchasing the deal, I viewed the offer, read the fine print, and then checked my Couptivate account. To my surprise, I found in my Couptivate account a voucher for the current deal offered. Since I did not need another voucher for this activity, I did not buy the deal.

By organizing my daily deals, I quickly see what vouchers I have to prevent buying duplicates. In using time wisely to organize my daily deals, I saved our family money which helps in stretching our dollars.

In stretching your dollars, create a Couptivate account for your daily deal vouchers and check your account before purchasing new deals. Using tools, like Couptivate, to stay organized may save your family money, energy, and time. Happy savings!

Question: How does organizing stretch your dollars?