April 20, 2024

At Home with GCH: Pantry/Freezer Challenge UPDATE – Week 1

February 7, 2013 by

Nine women signed up to do the Pantry/Freezer Challenge with me during the month of February.  It’s not too late to join us, if you are interested!  Just email me below and I will add you to our Facebook group, where we share recipes, menus, encouragement, shopping tips, and more!

WEEK 1:

This first week was all about making an inventory list of everything that was in our pantry and freezer; making a menu for the month; creating a shopping list.  It was all about preparing for the month of creating great meals with just what is in your freezer or pantry!  It was all about finding great shopping discounts and buying the groceries needed at a deeper discount than we have before.  So, how did you do?

Receipt_Feb2012Last week, after I made my grocery list, I went shopping.  I went to Aldi which is one of my favorite discount grocery outlets.  I actually should have taken a picture of all the groceries I left with just to show you how much I got!  Our cart was overflowing! When we checked out, I told the cashier that if we had purchased the same goods at any other store, we would have spent an easy $200!!  But, I walked out of the store with spending only $143.79!!  I was thrilled to say the least!

The trip to Aldi didn’t include just food.  We also purchased Shampoo, Toiletries, Toilet Paper, and Paper Towels.  We stocked up on canned goods, cereal, and things like that.  I didn’t buy any meat, as our freezer is FULL of meat!  So there was no need to waste money on meat.  We did stock up on fresh produce, and we will replace that as needed during the month.  Milk and dairy products are also something that we will restock during the month.  Anything else that fits into our Pantry or Freezer…well, we won’t shop for those items.  We’ll eat just the meat and frozen meals that I cooked ahead and stored in our freezer, or what is in our pantry!

I’m off to a pretty good start!  I hope you are, too!  I’d love for you to share your journey with me in the comments section below!  Good or bad!  Let’s talk and see if you are off to a great start, or need a little bit of help.  Either way, I am here to help!

Some ask why I am doing this challenge.  The best reason I can give is because I want to be the best steward of God’s provisions as I can be!  I don’t want to be wasteful of anything He provides!  2 Peter 1:3a“God is very powerful because He is God. So He has given to us everything that we need to live always. ….”  If God truly has given me everything that I have, and I believe that He has, then it is my duty and responsibility to be wise with what He has given me.  Right?

I look forward to hearing how your first week went!  We will continue to check in with each other through the month of February.  Below you will find a list of the meals that were created during my first week.  I am only including the dinner meals, as I usually do not have lunch, and my breakfast is always a Green Smoothie! 🙂

February:

1st: Sausage Pizza

2nd: Roast Beef / Gravy / Potatoes / Corn / Bread

3rd: Spaghetti / Garlic Bread / Tossed Salad

4th: Baked Ham / Potatoes / Carrots

5th: Dinner out with friends

6th: Leftovers

 

Be sure to leave your comments below!  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me at Christi@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com.

 

Be Blessed!

Christi

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At Home with GCH – Household Binder, Part 2

January 22, 2013 by

hb1

Last week, I gave you a tour of my household binder. (If you missed it, just click HERE.) This week, I’m giving you another peek into my binder, and am sharing my daily cleaning routine. Let’s get started!

I want to share a secret with you. It is life-changing, and is what has helped me more than anything else in keeping a clean home. FlyLady. If you have never heard of the FlyLady before, do yourself a favor and get acquainted. Just click on “Get Started” at the top of the FlyLady’s page. (By the way, making a household binder is one of the steps to get started! She calls it a “control journal”.) You will see on my daily routines, that one of the first things I do in the morning is check the Launch Pad. This is the foundation of my whole system. Another wonderful tool that has been valuable to our family is Cozi. You may have heard of it. It is a very popular web-based calendar and organizer. We’ve been using it for a long time, and last year, we switched to FlyLady’s Cozi. (They partnered up! Genius!) So between FlyLady’s Cozi (there’s an app!) and my household binder, even the most domestically challenged person can get their house clean and organized!

Let’s take a look at my daily cleaning routines.

cleaning routines

You’ll notice that each day is dedicated to a certain set of tasks…

Monday: Zone Cleaning, Menu & Blog Day 

Tuesday: About Town Day

Wednesday: Just the Basics Day

Thursday: Weekly Home Blessing Day

Friday: Paperwork & Clean Out Day

Saturdays & Sundays are my days to relax, so I only do the basics – cooking, cleaning up after meals, loading the dishwasher, etc.

If you click on the picture above (then click on the one that pops up) you will see what I do every Wednesday. Don’t let the amount of the words on the page overwhelm you! I have almost everything I do in a day on these charts. I am not a slave to my house. 😉 In fact, I find plenty of time in the day for hobbies, catching up with my friends, watching a show on television, playing games with my family, etc. The chart just lays everything out for me and keeps me on task. And should I get sick, my girls can look in my binder and see what needs to be done any given day!

Let’s take a closer look at Wednesday.

You’ll see that after I’m dressed and have my daughter fed and off to school, I check my binder, and then I check  FlyLady’s Launch Pad. The Launch Pad tells me what “zone” I’m cleaning that week (this week it is the master bedroom) and it also gives me a “mission.” For example, this Wednesday’s mission is to dust off the tops of the door jambs and windows. Easy peasy! So on Wednesday mornings, I do my everyday tasks like laundry & dishes, and then after lunch I get my cleaning done.

To see each day’s detailed list, click HERE.

And as promised, here’s another peek into my binder:

hb3

On the left is “My Monthly Bill Planner” from the “Finances” section of my binder. In the left column, I write down everything that is due each month. Then in the boxes, I write down what day each bill is due (if it’s always on the same day) and simply check it off once it’s been paid. If the payment is the same every month, I also write that in the left column.

In the middle is a picture of my beautiful daughter, Gabriella. I made a cute printable for each family member and slipped each one into a sheet protector. These act as the dividers in our “Family” section. Behind each person’s picture is important information that pertains to them. So for Gabbie, her medical, school, and cheerleading information is in her own dedicated section of the binder. This makes life so much easier!

On the right is my “Weekly Menu Planner” from the “Menu Planning” section of my binder. I do meal planning on Mondays, and each day’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner is written down on this chart. There’s a section for snacks on the far right of the chart, but I don’t police what everyone munches on when they want a snack. I simply write a variety of things at the top that I need to plan on having in the pantry.

That wraps up our household binder. I know some of you have started making yours, and others are updating theirs. I’m so glad this has been a help! It’s also fun to see what others have done with theirs as it may give us new ideas!

I’ve really enjoyed the comments that you’ve been emailing me! If you have any questions, or would like to know how I manage something in particular that hasn’t been covered, just ask away in the comments below, or send me an email.

You’re welcome to share a picture of your binder with me as well!

Love & Blessings,

Shandy

Be sure to visit Shandy’s personal blog Aprons ‘n Pearls for crafts, recipes, homekeeping tips & more!

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If you would to send a private email to Shandy in regards to this blog, please email her at Shandy@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com

 

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At Home with GCH – Household Binder, Part 1

January 15, 2013 by

household binder Recently, I’ve had several people ask me about my household binder and for help in getting a system in place that will help keep their homes clean and organized. Today and a week from today, I will be sharing my binder with you. You will get to see what it looks like, how I have it organized, and what I use to keep my home in order. Plus I will share with you where I purchased all my supplies and where I found some of the printables it contains. Grab a pen and a notepad, find a cozy spot, and read on… and in just a few minutes, you’ll be on your way to a more organized home!

The first thing you see when you look at my binder is an adorable cover, personalized with my monogram. I found this over at lee, me, and the girls. Does your binder have to be cute to be functional? Absolutely not, but it sure helps!

bcollage

Open the cover, and you will find an assortment of labels, tabs, sticky notes, and a pouch… all from the Martha Stewart line at Staples. (I also bought my big Avery binder and sheet protectors there years and years ago when I first made my binder, and it still looks new!) I just went there to replenish supplies, and I thought maybe I was in Heaven. I love, love, love this line of products! The young man at the checkout figured that out fast. The first words out of his mouth were, “You must like Martha Stewart!” Why, yes. Yes, I do. In fact, I drove an hour one way just to get these items. No Staples near me. Booo! But I digress. Inside the pouch are my favorite Paper Mate Flair pens (another Staples find.) Colorful, and they don’t bleed through the paper! A set of twelve lets me color-code everything to my heart’s content!

Next, we come to the first section of my binder… “Family Planner.” It contains:

calendar

The next section is called “Keeping House.” In this section, you will find:

  • the Homemaker’s Creed
  • my daily routines
  • detailed cleaning lists
  • many, many, MANY reference sheets regarding cleaning
  • a special section for my Shaklee product information

Then, I have a section titled, “Blog,” specifically for my personal blog. It includes planning sheets and more.

Next up is my “Ministry” section, with sub-sections for Girlfriends Coffee Hour and projects I work on throughout the year for various ministries (church, Operation Christmas Child, etc.)

Our family’s “Directory” is next. It includes:

The very important “Finances” section is next. In this section, you will find:

Our “Family” section is next. It includes sub-sections for each family member with tabs for:

  • medical
  • school/sports
  • work

The family section also includes:

  • a cemetery info tab so I can keep on top of my dad’s and grandparents’ graves (maintenance, flowers, etc.)
  • online info tab

Last is my “Menu Planning” section, which has:

  • weekly menu planner
  • perforated task list sheets (Martha Stewart line again!) – I can plan my meals on these awesome sheets, and write the ingredients I need to buy at the store on the right side, which then tears off to take to the store!
  • secure top sheet protectors (you guessed it… Martha!) – These are divided in half, so I get two “envelopes” per page, where I keep my coupons organized by category.

That’s it in a nutshell! Be sure to come back next week to learn about my cleaning routine, to find out what has been the single biggest help to me with cleaning, and to get another peek into my binder! In the meantime, you can start thinking about what you want to have in YOUR binder. Start brainstorming! Then have fun gathering or shopping for the materials you need to make one of your own. If you have any questions, just ask away in the comments below, or send me an email at: shandy@girlfriendscoffeehour.com

Love & Blessings,

Shandy

Be sure to visit Shandy’s personal blog Aprons ‘n Pearls for crafts, recipes, homekeeping tips & more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Meal Planning 101 – Week 2 – Meal Planning Binder & Menu Planners

January 11, 2013 by

 

Hello!  Welcome to Week 2 of Meal Planning 101!  I’m glad you decided to come back and learn more about being successful in Meal Planning!  Meal Planning takes some effort, and that effort takes some organization.  Once you have a “system” in place, it’s just a matter of input from that point on!  So this week I want to talk about creating a Meal Planning Binder and Menu Planners.  This binder will help get you and keep you organized in your meal planning efforts.

My Meal Planning Binder is something that I look at least a couple of times a day!  I know… I get little nuts about it… but I am always looking for new recipes to add to my binder.  I love to try new recipes!  I have discovered some amazing meals by experimenting with my own created recipes, along with ones that I have been given by family, friends, and those I find right here by our “GCH:What’s on Your Plate?” page, and Pinterest.

Instead of giving you directions on how to make my own binder, I’m going to reference a couple of Pinterest links that will give you all kinds of binder ideas!  It’s really up to YOU how you want your binder to look and feel.

For my own binder, I include sections that include my Menu Planner for the Month, and for the Week, along with a Grocery list, Pantry/Freezer List, and a Recipes section.  I also keep a zippered pencil holder (like they use in school) to keep all my coupons in.  Personally, I am not a big coupon person!  I like them, but I do not go crazy with them!  I pick out a few that I know I will use, for products that I know we love and use on a regular basis!  You may be different than I am.  I have seen women who have coupon binders that are in 3-inch 3-ring binders, and it’s loaded with baseball card protector sheets that hold their coupons.  Way more effort than I want to put into my grocery shopping!  We’ll talk about this further in a later blog!

But before I forget, here are the Pinterest links to the Menu Planner binders: 

http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=Meal+Planner+Binders

http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=Menu+Planning+binders

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Now, let’s start with the first things that will be placed inside your binder:  Monthly Menu, Weekly Menu, Freezer / Pantry List, Grocery List, and of course, your coupons.  But for now, let’s talk about your Menu Planner.

In looking through tons and tons of Pinterest links for the perfect Menu Planner, I stumbled across one located at: www.amybayliss.com.  She offers customizable Menu Planners such as the one below.  I love this because I can type this up on my computer and make it look nice and neat!  I can change it anytime I want, and create new meals each month.  Sometimes, I leave certain meals on the menu planner because they are some of our favorites!  So this is really a convenient planner for me to us.  You may choose the planner that allows you to write in the meals for the month, or the week.  Again, it’s just a personal preference.  There is no right or wrong way to do this!  It’s all about doing it, and then finding the system that works for YOU!

Monthly Menu Planner

This exact form was found on: http://amybayliss.com/2011/08/planners-goals-calendars-church-and-ministry-sections-part-2/.   I just used the “Calendar” download.  You can change the name of the month, so you have a new form to use each month.  Amy’s site offers a lot of awesome free printables!

In my meal planning, I always start by making a list of what I have in my pantry and freezer.  That way I know what I have on hand, and what I will need to purchase.

My next step is to make a list of all of the meals that we love.  Each week, I also include a “Leftovers” night and I add this to my Menu Planner!  I hate to see food go to waste!  Nothing gripes me more than to have to throw something away just because I didn’t add it into a new meal!  So I plan at least one night a week for leftovers!  Some people don’t like leftovers…again, personal preference!

We also plan for at least two nights a month for going to a restaurant.  This might include our Date Night meal, or a meal out with friends; whichever one it happens to be, it gets put on my Menu Planner.  So what that means is that I have to plan ahead for these nights.  My husband has the craziest work schedule where he works 3 days on, and 3 days off.  So we never have a normal weekend like most couples do!  We take our weekends as we can get them!  So I take his work calendar and sit down and choose one night a month for our Date Night, and leave room for at least one more night for eating with friends.  Again…put it on your Menu Planner!!

Once I have my list of groceries on hand from my pantry and freezer, and I have written down all of my favorite meals, I start making my menu for the month!  My freezer, pantry, and favorite meals lists can just be updated as I go!  This is the first time-consuming activity that you will have, but once it’s done, it’s pretty easy to maintain!  We’re getting you closer to Menu Planning success!   Trust me, once you make your binder and a monthly menu, it will make your life so much easier for the remainder of the month!  No more planning for another 30 days!

After you have completed your Monthly Menu, your next step is to break down the Monthly menu into a Weekly menu.  Here is where you will see just seven days of menus.  Write out a Weekly menu for every week on our Monthly menu.  Once you do it, it’s done for the month, and for each week; then it’s just a matter of grabbing the next weeks form to see what’s on the menu.  You can even just use a simple piece of notebook paper to do this, if you wish.  You really don’t need any special forms, etc.  You’ll be glad you took the time at the beginning of the month to do this!  Trust me!

For Meal Planner forms, do a search on Pinterest for “free weekly meal planner printables”; there are many of them out there.  I use a lot of Amy’s forms from her site because they are customizable!  I just love the way she has formatted them, and makes it so easy for me to input my own information!  Again, you will want to search for forms that are going to work for YOU!  If they don’t work for YOU, you won’t keep up with it!  So find something that works for you and one that you enjoy working with!

Now that we have our meals planned for the month and week, it’s time to put together our Shopping List.  We’ll discuss our Shopping List and coupons next week.  You will store all of this inside your Menu Planning Binder, in the proper sections.

I hope you are enjoying this series.  If you want, please share a link to the Menu Planner that you use!  You never know if someone else will find your Menu Planner convenient for them, as well!

See you next week!

Christi

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A Virtuous Woman uses her time wisely. She works diligently to complete her daily tasks. She does not spend time dwelling on those things that do not please the Lord. (Proverbs 31: 13, Proverbs 31: 19, Proverbs 31: 27, Ecclesiastes 3, Proverbs 16: 9, Philippians 4:8)

If you were interested in checking out any of our online Bible studies, click HERE. Once we receive your registration, we will email you with further details.

If you would like to send a private message to Christi in regards to this blog, please email her at: Christi@girlfriendscoffeehour.com

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At Home with GCH – Meal Planning 101 – Week 1

January 6, 2013 by

Hello, and Welcome to Meal Planning 101!

When I first began Meal Planning, I had no idea how much this new technique in my life would make such a huge impact!  Meal Planning is now part of my every week routine!

For some people, when they think of meal planning, they thing it is too time consuming.  What they don’t realize is just how simple, and cost effective, meal planning is!  When meal planning is incorporated into your home routine, you will see yourself with more time, and money, on your hands!  Meal Planning is so worth every step!

In this new GCH series, we’ll cover the reasons why meal planning is so important; building a menu planner binder; finding recipes that your family loves; coupons; and more!  I will also be sharing some free printables that I have found online that I use in my own home!!  I will share some other websites that offer some amazing tips, as well!  I’m no expert in this field.  I can only share what I have learned along the way.  That’s why I don’t mind sharing other websites with you to help you learn even more about menu planning!  It really is something that we all need to incorporate into our routines!

Let’s start this new series today by going over the reasons of why meal planning is so important:

Top 5 reasons why Meal Planning is a must in your home:

  1. Menu Planning saves you time!

Who doesn’t need more time each day?  As busy moms who are running from here to there taking kids to school, activities, church functions, and more, we need to make sure that we manage our time to the best of our ability!  Menu Planning can help you manage your time more wisely in the kitchen!  We will show you how in the upcoming weeks of this series.

  1. Menu Planning saves you money!

Who doesn’t love more money in our pocketbooks!  How many times have you made dash to the grocery store for a loaf of bread and gallon of milk, and came home with over $100 in groceries you had not planned on spending?  Menu planning can help not only save money, but it can also help you stick to a budget better!  We will also cover some tips on using coupons with your grocery shopping! We will show you how in the upcoming weeks of this series!

  1. Menu Planning cuts back on waste!

Menu planning helps you buy just what you need, leaving less room for more leftovers that end up getting thrown out at the end of the week!  Again, we will show you how this cuts back on waste, as we continue with this series in the upcoming weeks.

  1. Menu Planning helps your family eat healthier!

This is a big one!  Menu Planning helps you stick with healthier meals by not being so stressed out at the end of a work day, there is no time to cook, and you end up heading out fast food!  Menu planning helps you keep healthier meals on the table!  We’ll show you how in the upcoming weeks of this series!

  1. Menu Planning adds more variety to your meals!

How many times have you heard “Not meatloaf AGAIN, Mom”?  Tired of cooking the same old thing over and over again?  Taking the time to plan your meals adds more variety to your meals, and leaves less room for boredom!  We’ll show you how in the upcoming weeks of this series!

So, are you ready to start learning how to plan your meals, save money, save time, and use coupons to get healthier meals at home?  I am very excited to share this series with you!  If you would like to share some of your own tips along the way, I would be happy to read them!  Be sure to share them in the comments section below!  The more we can help each other save time, money, and eat healthier, the better!!

Until next week,

Christi

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