15 Minute Challenge

Go here to see a good post about just taking 15 minutes a day to get organized and get a routine going. Small goals are the key!

Later this week I will be posting our schedule up and wanting advice with our new routine here.

Tuesday's Tip: $150 Grocery Challenge/ Schedules

My new challenge weekly for grocery and out to eat is $150. This does not include diapers.

This week spent $99.97 on out to eat
$102.80 on groceries
Total of $202.77

What went well?

• One morning we got up early and took two cars to Walmart. Charlie went with me to Walmart because the kids were fussy and we need a lot of stuff. He kept track of how much we were buying and our goal was $70 for groceries (this included $24 formula). We did not have a calculator and ended up spending $71.67. Charlie is very accurate...I was impressed.
  
• We never went to a restaurant where we had to pay a waitress fee.
• Knowing I would be writing a blog post about how I am doing kept me motivated not to overspend too much.
  

Went went wrong?

• I bought $15 worth of candy.
  
• We went to way to many fast food places (even though they were all $10 for dinners and $5 for lunches).
• Took out money for the fair and have no idea where exactly that money went.

Do you have any tips on how I can actually meet my goal of $150 for groceries and out to eat for this week?

Revising The Cleaning Schedule

I have found making a cleaning schedule some things have worked and other things have not worked. So I have revised is based on what is realistic for us.

Week A Weeks have specific chores every day and Week B has different chores on that same day. You really do not need to vacuum every week in my opinion.

Mondays: Our laundry all day
Tuesdays: Kids Laundry all day
Wednesdays: Week A: Clean All hardwood floors clean bathrooms. Week B Clean tubs/organize bathrooms. Wednesday is clean the bathrooms day
Thursdays: Week A: Clean kitchen Week B: Dust kitchen and living room. Thursday is mainly clean the kitchen day
Friday: Week A: Vacuum the entire house (takes 30 minutes) Week B: Dust the kids room and our room clean rooms. Friday is clean up all the rooms day.
Saturday: Week A: Organize and clean the inside of the house (closets especially) Figure out what need to be given away. Week B: Clean out cars, clean outside Or just catch up on whatever I have not gotten done during the week.

I only do laundry two days a week so I do not feel like my entire weeks are spent washing clothes. I also have figured out that on the days I do laundry it is impossible to find time to clean so this is why this schedule is working for us. What about you? How do you keep your house clean?

Also you can click here to see different weekly schedules for a friend of mine who went to my youth group. She has four little ones under the age of five (I think), and I am pretty sure she still homeschools all of them . She is very inspirational!

Tuesday's Tip: New Cleaning Schedule

For saving money:

• The best advice I got when I first started couponing was: always know what the items you buy week after week cost. For instance, we usually eat Pillsbury cinnamon roles twice a week for breakfast, and I know that they should cost about $2 each. At Piggly Wiggly, they cost $2.30, which is too much. So, I will not buy them at Piggly Wiggly even using a coupon. Additionally, many times I will use a coupon for Tylenol, and then realize that if I had just bought the generic Tylenol I would have saved a lot more money.

For being a homemaker:

I have a new Cleaning Schedule (I actually have some motivation to clean after the stomach flu)

Mondays: Our laundry, clean bathrooms
Tuesdays: Kids laundry, clean kitchen
Wednesday: Make up day for whatever did not get clean on Monday and Tuesday
Thursday: Dust the entire house
Friday: Vacuum, straighten up all the rooms
Saturday: Make up for whatever did not get cleaned the days before, organize
Sunday: OFF

For laundry, a new trick I have found is that I get a load completely ready to go, everything shouted out, and then first thing Monday or Tuesday morning start the load (this is so less stressful...otherwise getting a load in might not happen till they go down for a nap at 2 pm)

Advice Wanted:

• Do you have any suggestions on how to really clean bathtubs well? Or bathrooms in general? Is there any cleaning tool that works well for you? I feel like I never really get our bathtubs clean.
  
• Do you have a cleaning schedule? How do you get motivated to clean? It is so hard, when I know it will just get dirty again very quickly.
  

New Cleaning Schedule

I have a new cleaning schedule based on our new house and our new schedule here. We do have three bedrooms and two baths, but one bedroom is not being used right now.

Mondays- Clean and dust off the master bedroom and Jackson’s bedroom

Tuesdays- Wash two huge loads of laundry so there will be no planned cleaning (right now I am teaching a Bible Study on Tuesday night, so this is a very busy day for us)

Wednesdays- Clean both bathrooms very well (this only takes about half the amount of time it used to take me since we have a new house!)

Thursdays- Mop (with the swifter) floors in the mudroom and in the kitchen. Clean both the kitchen and the mud room. This is the day devoted to cleaning out the refrigerator as well which seems to always need cleaning. I also wash Jackson’s clothes on this day or on Fridays.

Fridays- Clean and dust the living room

Saturdays- Vacuum the entire house, clean the guest room and clean out Jackson’s clothes and get them organized. Any other projects that need to be done, we will do this on this day

Sundays- No cleaning…way too busy of a day! I might clean out the car on this day if I have any time.

* Note: Some days I do not get the cleaning done during the day, so while Charlie has alone time with Jackson at night, I clean then using a timer so I can stay on track or better yet Charlie helps me clean at night before bed. I have such a wonderful, selfless husband!

If I were you I would try to make your own cleaning schedule out on what days are the busiest for you. You can make out your own schedule by looking at mine and starting with the rooms that you feel are the most important to be clean for health reasons. For me dusting our rooms actually is the most important aspect to clean since we all struggle with allergies - so that is why dusting is on Monday. If you are a mom, you know that it seems like you are always cleaning, loading and unloading the dishwasher etc. I remember the days when the biggest task was making up the bed. Now, sadly, the only time the bed is made up is at night before I go to bed to get the covers all straight…

Additionally, I am giving myself a treat on Saturday if I have tried hard to stick to the cleaning schedule. My treat is that on Saturday, I get to go shopping (not necessarily buying anything) for decorative items for the house. We are slowly turning Jackson’s room to a Gamecock themed room. This theme he will have for a very long time. I just do not want to keep on changing his room and he already says “Gamecocks” a good bit. Charlie’s mom made him a beautiful “Gamecock” bookcase this week using items from our rehearsal dinner. I cannot wait to post a picture of it…it really is unbelievable!

I would love to hear about your cleaning schedule!