Organizing

Basic Budget Tips

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Are you stuck in a rut with your budget? How many times at the end of each month do you feel you could do it just a bit better? Sometimes going back to the basics is the best way to do it and I have ten simple tips that I like to follow. Why not try something new and see if this would help.

TEN SIMPLE BUDGET TIPS

  • Pay your bills on the first of the month and get them out of the way.
  • Look for ways to make extra money and sell off some of the items that you have been decluttering to put money back into the budget.
  • Always do a pantry inventory before you decide to go food shopping.
  • Try and cook double and freeze a meal so those nights when you’re tired and hungry…and you have the urge to eat out, you have something already in the freezer to warm up.
  • Consider buying everything used.
  • When you need to buy something new, check into three places that sell that item…. and see who has the best price.
  • Make sure you were always checking your phone bill. Cell phone bill and cable bill before the contract will expire… so you can negotiate a new plan before the expiration date of the old contract.
  • When you’ve made a major mistake with your money, don’t sit in pity.  Sit down and find a solution and a way to make things better.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help get some good mentoring or counseling if you need budget help.
  • Be realistic with your budget and don’t create a budget you wish you could have.  Base your budget on your current income and strive to always leave a little wiggle room.

Lynn A. C. Wilson – Resume of a Mother

Youtube: 

  • At Home with Lynn Wilson

Contact me At:

  • resumeofamother@gmail.com

FaceBook:

Pinterest:

A free Printable for your planner or to use to keep you thinking!

30 Day Quick Cleaning Cycle List

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Do you feel overwhelmed sometimes with all that you need to get done? Somedays I feel like I will never see the end of cleaning my home. Just when I get one room done I turn around and see a thousand other projects. It is those little things that sometimes trip us up and those things also get forgotten too. Here is a simple little 30-day list of getting those little things done.

Take one day a month and clean that item listed and then at the end of the month you can look back and realize how much you did.

I hope this list gives you some fun new ideas of things that can make your day, week, and month a little lighter and cleaner for you.

Lynn A. C. Wilson – Resume of a Mother

Youtube: 

  • At Home with Lynn Wilson

Contact me At:

  • resumeofamother@gmail.com

FaceBook:

Pinterest:

30-day-cleaning-cyleDownload

House to HOME…Declutter with me

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In the world that we live in ….do you find your life feeling cluttered?  We have so many things on your plate from social media, activities, children, family, friends, school, church, and then there is our house.  Do you ever feel like your house is no longer a home?  Do you feel like your house is being taken over by stuff and clutter?

I have decided to eat that elephant called my house and eat it one bite at a time.  How am I going to do that you ask?  Well….currently we are 20 weeks away from Christmas.  So, over the next 20 weeks, I will aim to declutter only one area at a time or one bite at a time. 

This will break things down so that it is not as overwhelming, and I can set each week aside for just one extra task.  The great part about doing it this way…..is that after 20 weeks, I will have 20 areas of my life cleaned up.  Also, I can also look at this that I can do this in the next 20 weeks and look forward to Christmas and know that my house is retaking shape as my HOME!

If you would like to join me, I will have a series on my YouTube channel called “House to Home…Declutter with Me”.  Over the next 20 weeks, we will declutter an area together and you can follow along by printing a copy of the PDF of the 20-week journey. Also, there is a 52-week list if you want to be adventurous and have a full year’s worth of decluttering your house.

Ok, let’s do this together!

I will post the first video in the series to give you a taste of what we will be doing and then you can follow each week on YouTube for the next video in the series.

I hope you enjoy it!

Lynn A. C. Wilson – Resume of a Mother (Blog) At Home with Lynn Wilson (YouTube)

52-week-declutterDownload
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Master Shopping List

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Many times, I talk about having a stockpile, overflow pantry, and a full pantry on my YouTube channel. So many have asked for a copy of my master shopping list that I have created for myself. Here is a copy of the document form that I use on a regular basis…..so that you can print a copy. Having a stockpile and an overage of food for those emergencies that come up and or when you can’t get to the grocery store is so important. Master Shopping List

Prepping and Organizing a Pantry….

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This has always been something that I have wanted to do.  I think overall I have had small sections of my kitchen and/or a closet or two with some pantry items.  But over all I have never had a full and complete set up for a pantry.

Well, now fast forward.  After 30+ years of marriage and raising a family, I decided in January of 2020 to create one.  First of all, I did not have the time to create a pantry and the space for one, or at least I didn’t think I did. Now we find ourselves with more time then we realized we would have, and a situation that makes us realize that a pantry is so needed.

I have to admit that I had a rude awakening, along with a bit of panic shopping.  I did not think that I had certain things on hand, so I went right out and spent funds from our budget to accommodate what I thought we needed.  After we had all these goodies piled on our dining room table, it was time to now set up our pantry.  So, we gathered all our items from every little spot that we stored things in, and brought them to one place in our home.  Then we cleaned out our one and only closet to make a pantry where we could store everything.  After setting it up and putting things away, we realized that we had spent money on things we already had, and had items in large amounts (like extra cans of tomatoes that we did not need).

This taught me a BIG lesson in life, and one that I will hold onto for a very long time.  I wasted money on things I don’t need, I am using up space that I could use for something else, and I probably wasted time in buying these items too.  Now it is time to make a change!  I have a pantry set up with an inventory list of my staples, how many I want on hand, and then how many I need to buy for the next time.

Have you found yourself without a pantry?  Or are you well organized in this area?  Either way leave a comment below with pictures of what you have set up or what you would like to do.

These are trying times in our country; it is a good time to reevaluate what we do and why and how to make things better for ourselves.

I would love to hear from you.

Lynn A. C. Wilson – Resume of a Mother

Cleaning out the freezer/freezer and pantry challenge #2020

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I love watching You-Tube channels on home and organization.  How about you? I sat one day and watched two of my favorite channels….Jamerrill Stewart and Parsnips and Parsimony.  They are two large families, but the overall idea is the same. One family will fill their pantry once a month for the next month’s menu, with a few extras. The other family will fill their pantry with extras for when the budget is tight.  They then have food in the pantry to pull from.

After watching the two of them, I took one look at my freezers and realized….what a mess!!! Not only was it a mess, but I would buy doubles of things I did not need, and not enough of what I needed because I was not organized.  Another You-Tube channel that I love is Coupons to Provide.  She goes on to say how she is a visual person…and oh how I could relate to that.  If she puts it away in a closet, etc…and she does not see it….she forgets she has it.

Bingo…that gave me an idea.  What I need is a place for a pantry that would be organized, simple (with my busy schedule I need this), efficient for the family to use, and visual for me. I need to know quickly what I have in order to work for meals.

So, I emptied my pantry….what a job.  I sorted what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to give away. I was able to bless someone else with the things I will not use, and I created a great little nook.

Now every time I enter and exit my kitchen….I get to see my pantry stash of stuff, and I love it.  If you are not a visual person, and/or a practical, functional homemaker….this would probably drive you nuts.  But for me it is perfect.

So now it is time to clean up, and clean out my two freezers. Creative cooking will be happening in our home from now until Easter. Come and join in the fun; clean out your bits and pieces in both your pantry and freezer.

Lynn A.C. Wilson – Resume of a Mother

 

Welcome to my home and life…

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Life is definitely a journey and an adventure if you know anything about me. Every day brings new and exciting things and also some overwhelming moments. For the past two weeks my husband has had two major falls from having seizures which led him to be in the chiropractor’s office 2 to 3 times a week plus having to have physical therapy and wear a back brace.

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Because of this we decided to take a quick weekend away that we called a Saturday vacation. While on this vacation he had a seizure, his scooter that he uses to get around in large places died in the middle of the museum. This led to us having to push it out of the museum, to loading it in the car manually, and causing me to be completely overwhelmed and having to have a good cry.

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If you asked me is it all worth it I’d say 100%. If you asked me what I marry this man again I would tell you absolutely 100%. He is the man of my dreams and if he comes with an extra package called epilepsy …I wouldn’t change a thing. Now having said all that… I have stated over and over it many times that I have found “my new normal and it’s a moving target”. so what does all of this mean, for me there is no normal, normal is only for a moment and that changes again. And I am OK with that. I’ve had to learn to be OK with that… Otherwise I would not have survived life and all that has been part of it.

This is made me in the long run realize how precious life is, it is giving me the desire to encourage other women and their walk and their journey, it is also encouraged me to invest in peoples lives whenever I can.

But having said all that… I have a new journey in life and an adventure and that is my YouTube channel. Come and join me and come and visit me and see what this crazy life entails. I hope you will find encouragement along the way, maybe some new ideas that you’ve never thought of before, maybe a few laughs, but most of all I hope that you leave feeling a little bit better about yourself, a little bit more encouraged than when you first started to visit with me.

Lynn A. C. Wilson – Resume of a Mother

YouTube Channel name: “At Home with Lynn Wilson”



Autism and Routine….

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Routine is something hard to create and stick with in our lives….but it is a necessary thing.  I watch a You-Tube channel with “Andrea Mills”.  She talks about doing things routinely if they are important enough to you. Check out her website and channel for this topic and more.

https://www.andreamills.tv

With any type of special needs and we have two types in our family, I find as a homemaker that I need to create a way of organization for them; and not necessarily for me.  With epilepsy and Autism in our home, I find that this affects everything that we do!  For example, just leaving the house to go out for the day…we need to make a list on the back door of what we need to bring with us.  This way my husband who has Epilepsy, whether it be a good day or not, does not have to think about what to bring. Especially when it is an “off” day for him, he just looks at his list on the door.

(example list for the door)

  • travel bag
  • pills
  • water bottle
  • phone
  • phone charger

For our son has Autism.…so for his needs we have created labels in the refrigerator and also a routine of where to put things.  This way there is no frustration of where things go.  We also labeled where all of our coats go.  Again, this way it keeps things simple and organized!

We have created a “white board” system to help with all those daily questions that you find Autistic kids always asking.  They want to know what the next days meals will be 24 hours ahead of time. Our board includes 3 meals, 3 chores, 3 school events (we homeschool), and whatever the special event of the day is also.

This has proven to relieve many meltdowns, and crazy evenings in our home.  When he asks the questions that he always does by 5pm sharp, we can just refer him to the white board.

Special needs can be a struggle to the caregiver as well as the person who struggles with it.  Why not make life as routine as you can to avoid any chaos and confusion.  There will always be other issues to deal with, but when things are routine it helps out a great deal.

Lynn A. Wilson – Resume of a Mother

Frixion Pens…..The erasable pen.

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Well it is “Planner Tuesday”!  This will be a simple post….as simple as, “I love Frixion pens”.  I first saw these pens on a You-Tube channel.  I had never heard of them and I was intrigued with having an erasable pen for my planner.

I just had to find them right away…so where else would I look but Amazon Prime. Sure enough I found them, and I was able to get them in many different colors.

I am not a big color coder in my planner; I found that using too many colors can be confusing for me.  I do however use red for family, blue for work and green for anything unusual.  (KISS – Keep it simple). But there are lots of choices that you can choose from if you do like to color code.

With my crazy busy life…..my planner keeps me in check and sain.  But now that I have erasable pens to match my ever changing schedule. So when life changes as it does, I can just erase and reschedule.

What is your favorite pen for your planner?

Lynn A. Wilson – Resume of a Mother