The time it takes to coupon.

Many people I know have told me that they just don't have the time to coupon. It takes to long to look through all the websites, print the coupons, cut them out, and organize them. Plus then there are the newspapers to buy and go through, then more clipping and organizing. I personally do not buy any newspapers, I can get better inserts for free at my local commissary so I will be talking only about the time it takes to do printable coupons.

My kiddos take a 2-3 hour nap every day, those that are too old for a nap have "quiet time". I normally use this time to bake muffins for the next day or catch-up on my vacuuming (one of my little ones is terrified of the vacuum). One day a week however I use this time to do my couponing. Today decided to track how long it took me to get everything done from start to finish.

It took me 2 hours to go through all my websites and get everything printed out, clipped, and organized into my coupon binder. Granted I did take a few timeouts to resettle a little one who didn't want to nap and check my facebook messages. Plus this week I took the time to add up the amounts from the coupons I clipped so I could give you the total. I would say on a day when I have no distractions I could get it all done in a hour and a half, but who are we kidding I am a mother of 4 children 6yrs and under, my life is rarely distraction free.

So this week I printed and organized coupons totaling $67.30 that would be $33.65 per hour. I don't know about you but I think my time is worth $33.65 a hour! Now that is just printing the coupons I will use: the granola bars, yogurts, toilet paper, crackers, etc that we actually use on a weekly basis. Added to those coupons are the ones that we may use: laundry soap, medicine, cleaning supplies, etc. that are normally cheaper when buying a alternate brand. You never know though when something is going to go on sale and be cheaper with a coupon than the product you normally buy without a coupon.

I need to get a picture of my new coupon binder up. I outgrew my previous coupon organizer and had to go to a three ring binder to keep everything organized. My binder is not quite as detailed as The Krazy Coupon Ladies (check out her day 5 for coupon virgins to get her details on her binder), but it works for me.

New Year New Resolutions!

So it seems everyone makes New Years resolutions and I thought I would follow the masses and give it a shot myself. I am not usually a New Years resolution type of person but with some major goals in place for this year this seems like the right time of the year to rededicate myself to fulfilling them. Since we will be moving to Japan in 6mths I think I will make my resolutions for 6mths at a time to make everything simpler to understand.

So here it goes!

*Save up $10,000 for our PCS and COT leave coming up in June
*Pay off our van ($4,900) by June
*Clean out all closets and get them organized
*Sell anything removed from closets and add to our snowball.

Obviously each of these resolutions will have several steps involved to complete them and will be the subject of several posts in the future. I am hoping that by keeping myself accountable here I will be able to keep my momentum going and fulfill these pretty lofty goals :)

Busy Busy Busy....how do you manage?

We are all busy...we all have things that have to be done and only so much time to do said tasks, but how do you do it? I thought I was busy before the twins arrived...man was I delusional! Now if I have time to go to the bathroom alone I think I have it made :) As I type this I have a million tasks that need to be completed around the house but I also have a fussy baby who needs her momma so I am sitting on the couch with a baby on my chest staring at me and making cute faces (good thing I learned to type without looking at the keyboard along time ago!). I though since I was bolted to the couch I would list some of my tricks I have learned over the last few weeks for getting it all done when it seems like you are in constant demand.

Let me start by saying that my twins were to small to breastfeed the normal way so we are pumping and bottle feeding the milk so that affects how I budget my time. It takes 2min to warm the water in the microwave for the bottles of milk per feeding then another 3-4min per bottle for the milk to reach the proper temperature. So every 3 hours I have 8-10 min of available time to either stare into space or do something productive.

Per 10min available time I can:
* Put dinner in the crockpot. I obviously do this at the 8am feeding and it is a lifesaver by the end of the day! Even if the actual dinner isn't crockpot appropriate there is always some part of the dinner that is. Take tonight's dinner for example I am making a chicken pot pie, now this isn't a crockpot meal but I was able to use my crockpot to cook the chicken breasts so that they will be done when I am ready to assemble everything. (simply put the frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot in the morning with a little chicken stock and cook on low all day).
*Hand wash anything that can't go in the dishwasher (11am feeding)
*Gather up the laundry (2pm feeding)
*Start the dishwasher (5pm feeding)
*Clean up after dinner mess (8pm feeding)
*Start the laundry (11pm feeding)
*Fold a load of laundry (2am feeding)
*Empty the dishwasher (5am feeding)

There you go my daily ritual to keep up with my housework and still be able to take care of my kiddos.

I also have to pump after each feeding (takes 20min) and use this time to do things that I have to be stationary for such as online banking, returning calls, making up my meal plans for the week, writing out my grocery lists, etc.

What about you all? What are your tricks for saving time and getting everything done when there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day?

What to do with all those bulk items?

I wondered this very thing when I was wandering down the huge isles at the bulk store. Where would I put all those tomatoes? How in the world was I going to find room for that huge container of ziploc bags? After all we live in military housing and the room available for storage is very limited especially in the kitchen. At the time I told myself well it is to good of a deal to pass on I will figure it out when I get home. Yeah, that can of 100oz of tomatoes doesn't get any smaller once you get it home! Now we use a lot of tomatoes but there was no way I could use this much tomato product in the 5 days it would take it to go bad once opened. My solution? To freeze it of course....but how?

I needed an option that wasn't going to use all my Tupperware and that wasn't going to take up my whole freezer. Plus I had all those Ziploc bags just sitting there....OK you know where I am going with this. I put one cup of tomato's in a sandwich bag and then layer the sandwich bags into a freezer bag lay flat in the freezer for 24hours till set and then "file" them standing up in the back of my freezer. Takes up very little space, the sandwich bags were really cheap and I can reuse the more expensive freezer bag as many times as I need to.

All well and good but what about all of those Ziploc bags, the 25lbs of flour, the huge container of animal crackers....the list goes on and on. There really wasn't any room in my pantry for all of these items but I needed them close to the kitchen for the ease of cooking or refilling containers. My solution was to buy a freestanding garage shelving unit and install it in my laundry room in an unused nook that was intended for a free standing freezer....Great vertical usage of space and since it is free standing I can take it with us every time we move with little drama.

Spring Cleaning

OK ladies and gentlemen I am about to share my dirty little secret with you all....I have the messiest closets on the planet. I am terrible about throwing it in and thinking I will deal with this later, then it all piles up and I can't bring myself to start working on any of it. Well today I decided I had had enough and I was going to get it cleaned up.

Here is a picture of my laundry room storage area. This is where all bulk items are stored as well as my bread maker, mop, broom, and vacuum cleaner....you can see it is quite a state!

And here is the finished product....yes I know it doesn't look that different but it makes everything so much easier to find.

Now on to the REALLY messy part of my house...the garage storage area. This is where EVERYTHING goes. From holiday decorations, garden stuff, the kids outdoor play stuff, you get the idea. (yes I am horrified by this picture)

After 2 hours of cleaning and lots of "help" from the kiddos here is the after pic....

MUCH BETTER! I showed it to hubby and he said it was very nice "but lets see how long it stays this way" now he is not trying to be mean he just knows me! Lol, I am really going to try here folks to keep it this way. All the random holiday and baby stuff got taken upstairs to join the rest of the holiday and baby stuff I still have to work on that closet and I may put up a picture of that one as well once I get it finished.