Menu planning and organising

I am late posting the menu plan but it is done, I have a 4 week one on our new organiser board in the kitchen.

This week form memory (cause I am too lazy to get up right now) is

- Lentil shepherds pie
- chicken salad
- Fried rice and stir fry
- osso bucco and mash
- pasta (unsure if chicken and veg sauce or justa tomato and veg sauce)
- steak/rissoles and veg
- roast (whatever meat is on special when I go to the butchers mid week)

We've been tracking all spending in our tracking journal. The other half has been doing it diligently also which is good as he tends to be the one who spends more than rest of us. I think this will bring good change.

I was rereading over at lightenings blog about how she tracks and how she tracks backwards from what she has budgeted. This is what we are going to change to doing, going to draw up a new book.

I also did up charts for household choores/every day things needing doing and popped one on the new organiser board. There are alist of about 25-30 things needing doing every week, a lot needing done every day. Some days I feel I carry an unfair weight of the household duties and kids so this will hopefully inspire the others in the house to help. Its only been 2 days but everyone is enjoying adding their intials after they've completed a 'chore'

Its very late and I am constantly complaining that I am tired. Bed for me.

Budgeting

This weeks overdue task was to redo the budget. Re evaluate where we are at and address where we need to make changes.

Relationship wise we've been taking steps to see what and if change can work and if we can work together. Time will tell.

Back to the budget, it was daunting to write everything out, we included goals and ideals also. Now we have a plan. the next step is document all spending over the next few weeks/months and then reassess and see how accurate the budget is. Then we'll continue to reassess until all debt is removed (its not tooo daunting yet thank goodness)

So I will be browssing blogs for ideas and tips on saving money.

Cleaning fairy

Today my cleaning fairy came.

I have an ongoing barter going on between myself and a good girlfriend. She cleans my house once a week and i do her photos, including prints etc each year (and usually photograph a friend or two for her too)

Having a cleaner when you work full time makes life a little...sorry no a LOT easier.

Didn't sort through any areas today, was too tired. I did however manage to get tea on the table again by 5pm. The kids demolished it again, they eat so much more and better when fed early. I just have ot keep it up now.

Steps towards a declutered home.

I have been talking about how cluttered and out fo control messy my house has become over the past few months (probably longer really!)

So I have been taking steps to declutter. It seemed such an overwhelming task when I started and it was so hard to figure out where to start. Usually I would empty a room and focus on that, but honestly that is too overwhelming and time consuming when I work full time running my own business and take care of 3 kids!

So... I have made a decision to every day do at least 1 'spot' this spot can be small or it can be bigger. But not too big.

Yesterday I cleared out the utensil drawer, we had too many old spatulas, serving spoons and more stuff that we never use and wont use so i tossed them and washed the draer out then restocked it heatly and more organised.
I then did the plastics cupboard, this was easy as I did it 6 months ago so i only had to tos one lid that no longer had apartner and then resort it into an organised manner again.
Then I cleaned up the backyard. The lawn (well where there was once lawn) had alot of general rubbish and kids toys and just well mess. So tidied it all then swept and bagged up 3 large garbage bags of rubbish from it.

Then today after work and getting the kids from school I did 2 of the bathroom drawers and the bathroom cabinet top.
I also did one cluttered shelf in the dining room.

It might not sound much but it feels good. I am creating space within our storage. I'll keep doing this and then once a room is all sorted on the inside i can then target it completely and spring clean the room. I am hoping this way things will more easily have their 'space' and we will in the mean time also minimilise our collection of 'stuff' we simply

Menu Plan Monday

a new week, we did ok last week with the menu, ended up with take away 2 nights so moved those items to this week and we changed Sunday nights as we went to a farmers market and got a yummo whole organic free range chicken to roast instead!

So this week is:

Monday - Chow Mein/cauliflour soup
Tuesday - Fresh fish, home made chips and salad.
Wednesday - Vegiue curry/rissoles and vegies
Thursday - Beef stiry fry, w/chilli for us w/out for kids
Friday - Satay chicken
Friday - Chops and vegies
Sunday - Steak and salad.

a lot of red meat this week so will make changes to that next week!

Menu Plan Monday

Part of my getting back to (ok getting into/starting properly!!) organising my life is getting back to menu planning. Particularly now as a working mum running my own business away form the home I need to be more organised. I have 3 school aged chgildren and its important i find routine and organisation. I have anew list on my fridge and am getting a new pin board for the kitchen to put dsome of my new orgasnising tools into place. One is a 4 week menu plan, which will usually be filled in one week in advance (but having 4 weeks means if I htink of somehting for next week i can add it right away)





This weeks menu:

Monday - Pork noodle stir fry
Tuesday - Pita pizzas
Wednesday - Spag bolognaise
Thursday - Rissoles/steak and vegies/salad
Friday - Lentil shepherds pie
Saturday - Chicken salad
Sunday - osso bucco and mash/vegies.

Another thing is trying to get dinner ready earlier. I work for myself so can leave work early if I am up to date, but being a new bsuiness out of the home (run at home for the last 6-7 years) and trying to expand at present/build a base, I sometimes need to work a little later. So on the days I can leave I am planning on having dinner ready by 5-5:30pm. I did that today and found that everyone in the house was more settled for the evening, far too often do we eat at 7-8pm which is way too late for the kids. they ate well too tonight, so well i missed out on the stir fry as I was busy pottering round and they all had seconds so I had a steak salad!

knitting

do I even rmemeber how to do it?

About to go dig it all out and knit myself a dishcloth. Need to reconnect with the litle things that help me relax :)