Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

Household Notebook

11:21, Thursday, August 24, 2006 .. Posted in Homestead Happenings .. 1 comments .. Link

Over the past week, I have been working on my Household Notebook. It is a standard 3-ring binder in which I keep track of everything from bills to addresses to schedules. I first heard of this idea from the Flylady website.   While I liked her basic ideas, I found that it didn't match up with my lifestyle. I am convinced that the Flylady is a city dweller! Nothing wrong with that, but her "control journal" doesn't give you any help in organizing a rural/farming household.

I later found websites that had wonderful binder ideas such as the ones at:
http://www.avirtuouswoman.org
http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com

Keeping a household notebook is a wonderful tool. It organizes me better than anything else I have tried. One of my major quirks is that I can't stand it when things are not organized. I am not obsessive compulsive about it, but it does make me abit nuts to not be able to find something or a piece of information that I need. First, let me say that I keep the pages of my binder in top-loading sheet protectors. This enables me to make notes with a dry erase marker, which is easy to wipe off later on.

I have found the trick to a good household notebook is to customize it to your own family's needs and lifestyle. Just like the planners that you can buy at the store, there are sections/catagories that you use and others that are a waste of space in your binder. Also, make it easy to use and maintain. If it is a chore to use your binder, it will just collect dust on a shelf.

Here is what I have and what I am currently adding to my notebook:

Emergency Contacts: This is the first page in my notebook.   I have listed the phone numbers for the utility companies, doctors, relatives, Joe's dispatcher at work, etc.

Addresses and Phone numbers

Monthly Calendar - important dates and bill due dates are listed on my calendar pages

Bill Payment Sheets - a made up a sheet for each month with the monthly bills listed. It has a space for the company, amount due, date due, payment date & amount, payment method. I list under the payment method the check number used to pay the bill. I keep these sheets for each month so that I have them for reference if there is ever a question about a payment.

Schedules - this is where I keep track of my daily schedules. The first page is a master schedule for the week. I list on what days I need to do specific tasks. I got this idea from the Flylady website. I also have daily schedules that I keep to track the tasks I need to do each day. I use the Master Schedule as a guideline, but then also list other things that come up and need to be done each day.

The next section deals with Menus. I have 4 weekly menus that I have preplanned. I always have the option to change things around abit, but I have 4 weeks of them predone to save time later. The next thing in that section is several pages listing our favorite recipes, many of which are on the weekly menus. For each recipe, I have listed the name, cookbook and page number where the recipe is located or the file where located. I also added a column where I can list ingredients for each recipe that are not my normal pantry items. That makes it easier to make out the grocery list later on.

Pantry/Freezer inventories: This is probably the best thing I have done. It takes time to maintain these pages, but it is worth it when it comes time to grocery shop. The first time I did these pages, it took all afternoon. I had to take a complete inventory of everything we had. Next, I listed the items missing that we were out of. The last step is to decide how much of each item I wanted to keep stocked in the pantry. Once done, I am able to keep a tally of the items used by using a dry erase marker on the sheet protector.

The Grocery list is next. I have a master list of the items I keep in the pantry. Any specialty items I also will list the store I purchase them at. For example, the store where I buy the wheat that I grind for our breads. When I make up the grocery list before shopping each week, I look at the tally sheet in my pantry pages. I write down how many of each items has been used, then erase the tally marks off the sheet protector. Next, I check the recipes for the next week's menu for any items that are not normally in our pantry. Once I do this, I have a complete list of everything I need. All I have to add is any non-food items that we need from the store, such as t-shirts for my husband. I add these on the list since we grocery shop at the SuperWalMart store.

The next section is a Personal Information section. I am making a sheet for each person that has there birthdate, blood type, medical record info, innoculations, current clothing sizes, etc.

Sections that I will be adding on later:

Homeschooling: schedule, courses studied, curriculum used, assignments, grades, attendance, field trips, reading list
Dogs' innoculation records
Livestock Records : type of animal, breed name, when purchased, where purchased, age, any innoculations, feed used for that animal, where to purchase the feed, price of the feed, etc.

I also have notebooks for my garden and my sewing/crafts projects. I will write about each of them later. Having this notebook has made my life alot easier. I can see each day at a glance what needs to be done. I also know at all times what is in the pantry. Grocery shopping using a menu as the guide makes the shopping easy and also cheaper in the long run because I don't have so much impulse buying.

I am also starting a price book. I am using a spiral notebook for this. I have recorded in the book the list of the items we buy on a regular basis. These are separated by putting all baking items together, all vegetables together, etc. I use my grocery receipts to fill this out so that I am not at the store for so long at a time. This helps alot when trying to decide which store has the best deal. A quick note: many of the large grocery chains will offer you a discount if you order an entire case of an item. Talk to the store manager and see if they offer the full case discounts. This is great if you are stocking up on a specific item. Or maybe if you can get some other family members or friends to pool together to buy the full case.

I have been so blessed with the notebook. It makes my life so much easier and better organized. My beloved also refers to it from time to time.   I hope that you may be encouraged through this information.

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04:11, Friday, August 25, 2006 .. Posted by OklahomaJamie
You remind me alot of myself, except you already have your great notebook made up. I'm too much of a perfectionist, it takes me forever just to get one section done to my liking. Your notebook sounds great, can't wait to read about your other ones.

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