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More of the Control Panel series here.

Before you can break chores out into routines or regularly recurring tasks, you need to know what needs to be done.  To figure this out you can use your computer, but you might find it easier to have a pad or piece of paper you can carry throughout your home.  Go to every room or area of your home, inside and out, and take a good look around.  Try to look past the things you don’t really see anymore because they’re always there.  Write down everything you need to do to make the room look the way you want it to.  Don’t worry (yet) about how often you’d need to dust or clean the windowsill to keep it looking that way, just write down each and every task.  Look for the structure of the room (windows, baseboards, door jams), permanent furnishings (ceiling fans, dressers, tables), and contents of the room (books, clothes, toys).  Everything you see needs something for maintenance – wipe it, pick it up, wash it, put it away, change it, etc.  And don’t forget your yard, car, driveway, outside storage, etc.

After you have a complete list, then go back and determine how often you think each task should be done.  To paraphrase Pam & Peggy, don’t worry about how often you are doing something, you’re not doing everything or you wouldn’t be reading this.  They also suggest putting a time estimate with every task.  If that’s something you’d like to track, knock yourself out.    When we get to routines and schedules, you’ll be parsing all this information out to the correct intervals.  For right now, take a break and relax.  That was a lot to do; congratulations are due for a job well done.

*originally created September 1, 2004

The new in-store coupon book is out for winter.  All coupons expire 1/7/12

• $.55/1 McCormick spice or herb
• $.55/2 McCormick dry seasoning mixes
• $1/1 McCormick vanilla extract or food coloring
• $1/1 McCormick Gourmet Collection spice or herb
• $1/2 Fresh Express salad blends, kits, or spinach
• $1/2 Chiquita Healthy Snacking family or multi-packs
• $1/2 Glad containers
• $1/1 Diamond shelled nuts (10oz.) wyb 1 Emerald Premium nut canister
• FREE Hidden Valley dip mix wyb 1 Daisy sour cream (24oz.)
• $1/2 International Delight coffee creamer, Silk soy milk, and Horizon organic eggnog (mix and match)
• $.75/1 Comstock pie filling
• $.50/1 Clamato (32oz.)
• $.75/1 ReaLemon squeeze bottle
• $1/1 Delizza Patisserie product
• $1/2 Nutella hazelnut spreads
• $1/2 Welch’s sparkling juice cocktail
• $1/2 Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, or white chocolate macadamia nut frozen cookie dough (1lb.)
• B2G1 Ore-Ida frozen potato products (19oz.+)
• $.50/2 Borden shreds
• $.50/1 Shamrock Farms single-serve milk product
• $1/2 Ritz crackers
• $1/1 Heinz chili sauce wyb 2 Ocean Spray cranberry sauces
• $1/1 Sunsweet D’Noir prunes (9oz.)
• $1/1 Dole blend or all natural salad kit (excluding iceberg, shreds, and classic coleslaw)
• $1.50/1 Neutrogena product (excluding cosmetics, sun care, and trial sizes)
• $1.50/1 Tide detergent (50oz.+)
• $.75/1 Downy fabric softener (43oz.+)
• $1/1 Brawny paper towels AND 1 Angel Soft bath tissue

More of the Control Panel series here.

Ultimate Lo-Tech

The very minimum requirement, in my opinion, for any household is some kind of calendar and a task/to-do list.  A wall calendar is great for centrality and getting everything in one place.  A pocket calendar is better for portability if that’s an issue important to you.  Having both works too, if you are diligent at keeping them synchronized.  And a task list is as basic as a piece of paper.

I suspect, however, that if this type of system were working for you, you wouldn’t be reading this.

Other

Some subjects may contribute so much material that none of the previous methods works for you.  While your Control Panel isn’t intended exactly as a complete storage and filing system, some very active files may be a part of yours.  A variation on the card file can easily be done with file folders in a drawer, allowing for larger and more papers to be filed for easy retrieval at a future date.  Bills work well this way.  Also, document files on a computer can be a backup or replacement for a binder system.  If you have unusual circumstances in your home and routine, you may have come up with a unique solution.  Please share!

Go over the layouts presented previously (here, here, and here) and see what speaks to you.  It is likely that no one option will answer all of your needs.  Consider all your family requirements.  Consider which categories would fit which method and vice versa, the space and money you have available, and your own personal preferences.

At the risk of influencing anyone else’s choices, I offer the following opinions: I find that binders are best for reference, card files are excellent for repeating tasks, and my computer keeps a better calendar than I ever could on paper.  Portability options are more and more available for nearly anything.

*originally created August 31, 2004

Yesterday’s grocery shopping was a bust, so a lot of this week’s menu is cobbled together bits from the freezer and pantry.  All those things I have enough for 1-3 people but not enough for 6-7.  Thursday I’ll be back at the store so a few meals after that will be pending tomorrow’s ad preview.

Monday:
lunch – leftover roasted chicken (maybe chicken salad) plus hot dog crescent roll-ups
dinner – pork chops and stuffing
reality – lunch was eggs & toast, dinner as stated

Tuesday:
lunch – garlic chicken and pasta skillet meal
dinner – turkey burgers and sweet potato fries
reality – dinner as planned

Wednesday:
lunch – teriyaki chicken wings and egg rolls
dinner – chicken parmesan and tortellini
reality – as planned

Thursday:
lunch – I’ll be gone, anyone at home is on their own.
dinner – hamburger helper
reality - 

Friday:
pending shopping
reality -

Saturday:
pending shopping
reality – hot dogs

Sunday:
pending shopping
reality – mac & cheese

I had a blast today taking some great free coupons and earned gift cards to a few of my favorite stores. I got approximately $280 in products for next to nothing. It’s by far the best haul I’ve ever had the fortune of collecting.

CVS
3 8ct. boxes Rice Krispies Treats – $1.67 each
2 16ct. Duracell AAA batteries – $10.99 each – $.75/1 coupons each
1 All Small & Mighty detergent – $3.99 – free product coupon
1 Accuvue Aviva glucose meter – $9.99
3 Schick Hydro razors – $8.79 each – 3 free product coupons
2 4ct. Snack Pack pudding cups – $1.67 each
1 CVS nail polish remover – $1.99
1 Revlon hairbrush – $4.89 – $1.00/1 coupon

$4 off $20 coupon
$2 ECBs
$40 earned gift cards from previous weeks

Total Before: $80.15
Total After: $1.29

I got: $5.00 ECBs from Aviva meter, $10.00 ECBs from $20 Schick, and $10 gift card from $30 Rice Krispies, Duracell, and All.

Petsmart
2 30lb. bags Avoderm dry dog food – $53.99 each – 2 free product coupons
4 5lb. bags Avoderm dry dog food – $13.99 each – 4 free product coupons
2 12ct. Alpo canned dog food – $9.79 each – $2.00/1 coupons each

Total Before: $183.52
Total After: $15.58

Target
1 Crayola Dry Erase Zany Activity Center – $13.39 – $10.00 any Crayola coupon – $5.00/1 select Crayola items Target coupon
1 Crayola Glow Book – $14.99 – $10.00 any Crayola coupon – $5.00/1 select Crayola items Target coupon

Total Before: $28.38
Total After: FREE with $1.62 overage applied to a purchase for my mom

Anyone with a passing knowledge of coupons has surely heard of, if not seen, TLC’s Extreme Couponing. If you are more familiar with coupons you’ve probably heard of, if not experienced, backlash in the stores because of the show. I’m not going to go into what practices shown on the show might be responsible for the changes many stores are enacting. I watch the show, and I mostly feel annoyed because I can’t manage the types of deals most of them get, and a lot of that is because no stores in my area ever double coupons. I have a feeling that perk is soon going to go away, also at least in part because of the show, but that’s not why I’m writing today.

Today is the first time I’ve personally run into any difficulty because of retail nervousness. I have spent weeks collecting some really great coupons in order to have a fun shopping trip, my own version of Extreme Couponing. Between contacting companies, redeeming various loyalty program points, and trading with other people, I have amassed quite a large pile of free product coupons. Many companies, at some point or other, really do distribute coupons for totally free items, or high dollar coupons, and with some effort I’ve collected a wide variety. Some are ‘thank you’ coupons issued in response to feedback. Some are contest prizes. Some are loyalty redemptions. Some are ‘try me’ coupons. A and I have been very excited about the day we would go and redeem them.

Knowing that the pile was likely to alarm most cashiers, I wanted to be responsible so I took the stack to the grocery store manager first. I had looked up every one – even the ones I was POSITIVE were legitimate – in a coupon fraud database online, but I wanted to give the manager the opportunity to pull any that he was uncomfortable with before I was standing at checkout with carts full of groceries. After explaining to him what I was about I waited for the floor manager to confer with the sales manager. And then I got the bad news. I don’t know if it was the sheer volume, or if he saw one he wasn’t sure of, but the sales manager told me I couldn’t use ANY of them at all. Due to the rise of coupon counterfeiting I can understand his perspective to a point, but I would think he could verify at least SOME of them – most are obviously direct from manufacturer coupons if you’ve seen many coupons, and I’m sure he has. But apparently because he was unable to contact any of the companies (it being Sunday) he was not willing to accept a single one.

I was sorely disappointed, which may be obvious. To his credit, he did promise me that if I brought them back during the week he would get on the phone with every company to verify that they did issue the coupon. Seems like a lot of extra work to me, but apparently they are not organized enough to have their own hot list of counterfeits, nor do they utilize any online database to check for fraud. If he’s willing to do that, I’m willing to go back another day to submit them for verification. Whatever it takes to reap the rewards of the work of collecting them and get the fun of knocking a large bill down to nothing. But that didn’t help me for today.

On the positive side, before I took the bulk of them to the grocery store I stopped at CVS, Target, and Petsmart with a few and had VERY good results. At least I got to have a little fun.

For the rest of the Control Panel series, look here.

Business Paper Planners

Day Runner, Daytimer, Filofax, Franklin Covey. . .whatever name they go by, they’re pretty much the same.  A small-ish binder based around a daily or weekly calendar and task list with monthly calendars and address books, and a multitude of (usually) business-oriented extra pages.  These are great for having a portable calendar, and for students or businesspeople who work on appointments or with projects and deadlines.  Me, my office work almost always involved sitting at a desk tied to a phone waiting for incoming phone calls.  Meetings were rare and projects rarer.  Most of my tasks were the same day after day, and re-writing the list over and over got old fast.  On the other hand, I couldn’t beat them for school work, and planning appointments away from home.  I always knew what was going on and where I could fit in a visit to the doctor.

There are more choices than ever but they’re still not as customizable or as adaptable to home use as I would like.  If I had a home business, or were going back to school, I would rethink them.

Electronic Planners

When I originally wrote this I was exclusively using a desktop PC and technology was far different from what is available now, 7 years later.  Now I’ve gone all Mac and carry an iPhone, so my perspective has clearly changed.

Microsoft Outlook, Mail, Contacts, and Calendar are all extremely useful.  They manage email, keep a full range of calendars, and categorized contact lists.  They can also store random notes and keep a task list, though I personally don’t like the task list options much.  I used to say this wasn’t a portable option, but with the explosion of smartphones this is now a far more available solution.

However:  I’ve had an old Casio organizer, I had an Apple Newton when PDA’s were first introduced, I had a Palm Zire and a Zire 71, and I can no longer live without my iPhone, and I am still dissatisfied with the amount of information I can see at a glance.  There’s something indefinable that I prefer about paper that I can’t duplicate electronically.  My iPhone and other devices like it certainly have incredible uses for the person in search of Control Panel solutions, particularly with a huge number of productivity and information management apps available.  But truthfully, strictly for planning purposes I’d rather have a business planner or a make-it-myself notebook, or else use a desktop program.  I love my phone, but I rarely use it for organizational uses – although I have tried several apps I have not yet found one that I like well enough to use it consistently.

If you have an app or a program you find particularly useful, please leave a comment.  I would love to check out new options.

*originally created August 31, 2004

Meal Deal: Chili (all locations) 11/2-15

• Buy 2 lbs. beef chili meat
• Get 1 pkg. of chili seasoning mix
• Get 1 can Food Club diced tomatoes
• Get 1 can Food Club pinto beans
• Get 1 can Food Club biscuit dough

This is the second entry in this topic.  See the first, binders, here.  Also other posts relating to the Control Panel here.

Pam and Peggy, the originators of the SHE concept, created the card file.  Well, technically they adapted it from a corporate method of tracking advertising frequency, as I recall.  There are two different versions that I’m aware of: the old model, which had 1-31 dividers and one card per task, and the newer model using Sunday-Saturday dividers and several tasks per card grouped by similar area and frequency.  The difference is in which edition of the Sidetracked Home Executives book you’re reading.  Personally I prefer the 1^st edition, as it’s more flexible and expandable in my opinion.

In a card file system, all your recurring tasks (housework, mostly) are written on index cards, along with how often they should be done.  Then you file them in front of the next divider for the day/date you plan to do them.  For a rough example, you have the following 3 cards: make the beds (daily), dust the dining room (weekly), and change the smoke alarm batteries (semiannually).  Your dividers are 1-31 and January through December.  You would file ‘make the beds’ in front of the number divider for tomorrow’s date, ‘dust the dining room’ in front of the divider for the date next week when you plan to dust, and ‘change the smoke alarm batteries’ in front of the October divider.  When you make the beds tomorrow, you move the card to the next day.  When you dust the dining room next week, you move the card to the following week.  When the end of September rolls around, you take the cards you have waiting in October, and file the battery reminder to Daylight Savings Day.  After that date passes, and you change the batteries, you would re-file the card in front of April.

The theory of the card file is that once you file something, you don’t have to worry about remembering it, because the card will be there when you get to the date in question to remind you.  Every day you check your file and all your tasks are waiting for you.  You don’t have to re-write the same things on your to-do list every day, and you don’t have to remember what weekly/monthly/seasonal tasks belong when.  You set it up once and it runs in perpetuity.  But if you need to change it up for some reason, nothing needs to be done over, you simply re-shuffle the cards to where they belong and continue about your business.

Other things can be contained in your card file as well, most notably contact information with A-Z dividers.  You can also get into color coding and all sorts of things if you think that way.  Storage indexes, gift planners, and appointment reminders can also be integrated.

Next up: planners, both paper and digital.

*originally created August 31, 2004