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Q&A: How do you stay motivated to get housework done?

by Crystal on May 23, 2012

{A Downloadable Cleaning Schedule for People Who Hate to Clean from Life Blessons}

You are always so motivating that I am hoping you can help me. It seems like I try and try to get my “chore list” done each day and it just doesn’t happen. I used to be motivated by my checklist method and I spread the tasks over several days, but that’s just not working anymore. Thoughts? -a reader

1. If It’s Not Working, Change It

At the end of last year, I switched over to a paperless planning system. I really, really wanted to make a paperless system work, as it works so well for my husband and it seems like it’s the “smart” thing to do when you’re running a business. But, after five months of really trying to make it work, it just wasn’t working.

My motto is “Do what works for you”, and while it seems like a paperless planning system works well for many people, it was pretty obvious it wasn’t working for me. So, earlier this month, I gave up on the paperless planning system (at least for now!), pulled out my homemaking binder, downloaded the Motivated Moms Printable Chore List, and started in afresh.

I’ve been amazed at how this changed has re-ignited my love of cleaning! Sometimes, a fresh change of scenery is just the boost you need to get inspired to clean again.

If your current cleaning system isn’t working, try implementing another cleaning system. If you don’t want to start from scratch, at least rotate things around a bit so that it feels new and different.

4 Different Cleaning Systems

1. A Cleaning Schedule for People Who Hate to Clean — A weekly task list you can pick and choose from depending upon your time and motivation each day. If you don’t enjoy cleaning, you’d probably be encouraged by reading Sarah Mae’s ebook, 31 Days to Clean.

2. 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home — 20 days of simple cleaning tasks to whip your house into shape. You can download a printable list or sign up for daily email reminders.

3. Motivated Moms — A year-long printable list of chores and home management tasks. I just started this two weeks ago and am loving it so far! They also recently released an app, if you’re more of the paperless type than me.

4. FlyLady — Daily email reminders and tasks to help you get rid of clutter and find more order and peace in your home.

I also have a number of free customizable home management forms you can download.

2. Get An Accountability Partner

It’s amazing how effective regular accountability can be! Find a friend or neighbor who is struggling to stay on task with keeping their home in order and ask them to be your accountability partner. Check in daily or weekly via text, email, over the phone, or in person.

Don’t know anyone locally who will be your accountability partner? There are many different online groups you could join to help you stay on task. Or, you could blog, Facebook, or tweet on a daily basis about your successes and failures.

3. Reward Yourself

Set up a reward system to celebrate your success. I’m always much more motivated when there is something to look forward to at the finish line!

My reward for accomplishing my tasks is often relaxing with a good book for 30 minutes at the end of the day. For some of you, that might not sound too exciting, but it’s something I love to do. And I can enjoy it even more when I know that my tasks are caught up!

What helps you to stay motivated to get your daily chores and home management tasks done? Have you found any particular system or method of organizing your cleaning task to be helpful?

{ 17 comments }

4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (Day 16)

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by Crystal on May 23, 2012

If you’re not a fan of most freezer meals, can I encourage you to try making cookie dough and freezing it? I can almost guarantee you won’t be able to tell a difference between frozen cookie dough and fresh cookie dough.

It makes it so easy to make a batch of fresh-baked cookies when you have drop-in guests or need to bring a dessert or snack to some event at the last minute. It’s also very handy for those times when you get a late-night craving for chocolate. Oh wait, I may be the only person who has that happen to them. Ahem.

My sister concocted this recipe many years ago and it’s long been our favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. It definitely wouldn’t win the prize for being a low-calorie cookie, but it’s a delicious and hearty cookie recipe.

Freezer-Friendly Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup shortening or butter (softened)
1/3 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup brown sugar (or raw sugar)
3/4 cup sugar (or raw sugar)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (you can also use white flour or half whole-wheat/half white)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups oats (rolled or quick oats)
1 12-oz. package chocolate chips

Cream together first six ingredients. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and oats. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Roll into 1-1 1/2-inch balls.

To freeze: Place cookie balls on a cookie sheet and freeze for one to two hours. Remove from cookie sheet and place in an airtight freezer bag.

To bake: Pull out the desired amount of balls and place on a greased cookie sheet for 30-45 minutes to thaw. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until done.

Makes approximately 40 cookies.

Source: http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/05/4-weeks-to-fill-your-freezer-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-day-16.html
© Copyright 2012 Money Saving Mom®. All Rights Reserved.

Did you do any freezer cooking today? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.

{ 50 comments }

Ask The Readers: Meatless or inexpensive meal suggestions that guys would love?

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by Crystal on May 23, 2012

Today’s question is from Alicia:

My family consists of three boys, my husband, and myself. With the cost of food rising, I have let my meat stockpile diminish. I was wondering if your readers have any budget-friendly recipes for meatless or inexpensive recipes that will satisfy and fill the bellies of a house full of meat-eating males!? -Alicia

Do you have a question you’d like to ask Money Saving Mom® readers? Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.

{ 135 comments }

Free Healthy Lunch Ideas printable

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by Crystal on May 23, 2012

{Corn Dog Muffins with all-natural beef dogs and homemade cornbread batter — so yummy!}

Struggling to come up with healthy lunch ideas? Laura from Heavenly Homemakers has put together a free Healthy Lunch Ideas printable with lots of great suggestions!

{ 24 comments }

4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Italian Chicken (Day 15)

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by Crystal on May 22, 2012

This is one of our go-to meals. It is so, so easy and delicious.

You could skip the freezing part altogether and just make it the day of, but some times it’s nice to pull a bag out of the freezer, dump it into a pan or crock pot and dinner is done.

It’s a great summer recipe because you can grill it or cook it in the crock pot and not heat up your kitchen at all. We love it served over rice or sliced and served on a big salad.

While I was making the Italian Chicken on one end of the table, the above picture is what was happening at the other end of the kitchen table. Seeing my husband so intently working with Silas on his preschool and Silas just soaking it up melts my heart.

{My husband has been doing one or two of each of the children’s homeschooling subjects with them each evening after he comes home from work. It was his idea — and the children love it!}

{I think one of the reasons they enjoy it is because Daddy’s homeschooling often involves snacks, too. }

Freezer-Friendly Italian Chicken

One bottle of your favorite Italian salad dressing*
6 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts

To freeze: Put frozen chicken breasts in a freezer bag. Pour the Italian dressing over the chicken. Squeeze the air out of the bag and seal it up. Freeze.

To thaw and bake:

Quick Method: Pull frozen chicken out of the freezer and run the freezer bag under cold water to thaw slightly. Pour all the contents of the bag into a 9×13-inch baking dish. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes.
Longer Marinating Method: Pull frozen chicken out of the freezer, stick the bag in a bowl and let it thaw in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Pour all the contents of the bag into a 9×13-inch baking dish. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes or grill until done.
Crock Pot Method: Pull frozen chicken out of the freezer and run the freezer bag under hot water to thaw slightly. Pour all the contents of the bag into the crock pot and cook on high for 4-6 hours, until thoroughly cooked through.

This is delicious served over rice with steamed vegetables on the side. Serves 4-6.

*Want to change things up a bit? You can also use barbecue sauce or any other favorite salad dressing. Let us know if your family has a favorite variation of this recipe!

Source: http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/05/4-weeks-to-fill-your-freezer-italian-chicken-day-15.html
© Copyright 2012 Money Saving Mom®. All Rights Reserved.

Did you do any freezer cooking today? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.

{ 46 comments }

Get the Summer Survival Guide for just $7 this week!

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by Crystal on May 22, 2012

Looking for some ideas for fun summer activities and ways to organize and manage your schedule this summer? Jessica from LifeAsMom has written a Summer Survival Guide packed with encouragement, inspiration, and practical tips that might be just what you need.

Jessica is offering a $2 off coupon code to my readers this week. Use coupon code MSMSAVE2 to get her 200-page Summer Survival Guide for just $7.

The Summer Survival Guide ebook has all sorts of activities and inspiration to help you enjoy and spend quality time with your children this summer. It includes extensive family-friendly book and movie lists, recipes, ideas for staying sane and organized, printable worksheets, and much more.

I used the ideas and suggestions from this ebook to plan out a number of activities for our summer last year and it was, by far, the best and most organized summer we’ve had. We were much more intentional about how we organized our weeks so that we followed through with the fun ideas and activities we had planned to do — instead of them just sitting in my brain as good ideas that never actually happened!

If you feel like you are lacking creativity and organization and want to make the most of your summer, I think you’ll find the Summer Survival Guide very helpful. Download a free sample of this ebook here.

This downloadable book includes:

:: 37 customizable planning pages, calendars, and worksheets for kids

a summer calendar

summertime checklists

home management worksheets

bookmarks for everyone

tshirt transfer artwork

scavenger hunts

scrapbook pages

and then some!

:: 100+ family-friendly book and movie suggestions

:: inspiration for home management during the summer months, addressing

meal planning

daily schedules

emergency preparedness

road trips

and more…

:: inspiration for family nights and summer reading

:: 16 Summertime learning themes looking at everything from Art to Zebras through

crafts

games

books

movies

outings

family fun

Use coupon code MSMSAVE2 to get $2 off the Summer Survival Guide, making it just $7.

(Note: The link in this post is my referral link. Read my disclosure policy here.)

{ 6 comments }

Do-It-Yourself: Sunburst Flower Headband

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by Crystal on May 22, 2012

SewCraftCreate.com shows you how to make this adorable sunburst flower headband.

Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.

{ 0 comments }

Cash4Books: Make an additional 15% back for selling your used books

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by Crystal on May 22, 2012

Have extra books around your home that you no longer need or use? Definitely check Cash4Books.net, MyBookBuyer.com, and Amazon’s Trade-In Program to see how much they would pay you for selling your books to them.

Cash4Books is also offering a 15% bonus on your buyback total through June 8, 2012. All you have to do to get the bonus is use bonus code SecretStash at checkout and they’ll automatically give you the 15% bonus when they send your payment.

If you decide to sell your books to Cash4Books, you can print out a free shipping label so that there is no cost to you to ship the book. After your books are received, inspected and marked as ‘processed’, payment will be made within three business days. You can choose to be paid via Paypal or check.

If your books aren’t worth much, you might also consider listing them on PaperBackSwap so that you can swap them for books you are interested in reading.

Related posts:

Make Money Selling Books With MyBookBuyer.com
Earn Amazon Credit For Used Books Through Amazon’s Trade-In Program

(Note: Some of the links in this post are my referral links. Read our disclosure policy here.)

{ 13 comments }

4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Week #4 Freezer-Friendly Snacks & Desserts + Shopping List

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by Crystal on May 21, 2012

Can you believe we’ve made it to the last week of freezer cooking? My freezer is getting so stocked and it has been wonderful.

With Memorial Day weekend coming up, I’m spacing out the recipes a bit more this week to give everyone a little bit more time to play along (should you so choose) and to also give myself the flexibility to not blog much on Monday.

My apologies in advance that all but one of these recipes has chocolate in it. What can I say? “Dessert” and “snack” is pretty much synonymous with “chocolate” at our house. And no day is complete without at at least a little bit of chocolate!

Here’s this week’s list of Snack and Dessert Recipes I’ll be making to stick in the freezer along with a grocery list (let me know if you see any mistakes on amounts needed):

Freezer-Friendly Snack and Dessert Recipes

Wednesday — One batch of Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Thursday — Double batch of Easy Morning Glory Muffins {I’ll share my “health-i-fied” version of this recipe on Thursday.}
Friday — Double batch of No Bake Energy Bites
Tuesday — One batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Wednesday – Double batch of Chocolate Banana Bread

Grocery List

(I rounded up on the amounts needed, just to be safe. You probably have many of these items already on hand. You’ll want to double-check that you have the correct amounts, though.)

16 eggs
8 cups sugar (or raw sugar)
3/4 cup brown sugar (or raw sugar)
6 cups rolled oats
1 1/3 cups peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1 (16 oz.) can pureed pumpkin
3 1/2 cups oil
12 cups flour
3 packages chocolate chips
2/3 cup honey
3 cup coconut flakes (For No Bake Energy Bites or Easy Morning Glory Muffins — could substitute something else if your family doesn’t like coconut.)
1 cup flaxseed (For No Bake Energy Bites — could substitute wheat germ or something for this.)
4 cups shredded carrots
1 cup raisins
6 bananas
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
2 apples
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 sticks butter

Staple Ingredients:

Vanilla
Salt
Baking Soda
Baking Powder
Cinnamon

Freezer Storage Items Needed

Foil
Plastic Wrap
8-12 large ziptop freezer bags
Something to label packages with (marker to write on bags, labels, and/or tape)

Click on the “Print This” tab at the top of the list to generate a printer-friendly list. (If you’re reading via email or a feed reader, you may need to click through to the post to print the list.)

{ 21 comments }

4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer: Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole (Day 14)

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by Crystal on May 21, 2012

Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole is delicious, filling, frugal, and so freezer-friendly! If you freeze the bags flat, you can store them on their side like filing folders to fit a lot in a small freezer.

Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole

10 cups cooked rice (white or brown)
4 cups cooked chicken, chopped (I bake mine in the oven like this.)
4 cups chopped broccoli, lightly steamed (can use frozen or fresh)
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (or 2 batches cream of mushroom soup)
2 cans cream of chicken soup (or 2 batches cream of chicken soup)
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

To freeze: Divide into four ziptop freezer bags and seal tightly. Freeze flat.

To serve: Thaw overnight (or for 8 hours) in the refrigerator. Dump into a greased casserole dish (each bag will fill an 8×8-inch pan; two bags will fill a 9×13-inch pan). Sprinkle with additional shredded cheese, if desired.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly.

This recipe makes around 15-18 servings. Each freezer bag serves 4-5 people.

Recipe adapted from Once a Month Mom

Did you do any freezer cooking over the past two days? If so, I’d love to see the results of your efforts! Link up your blog posts below or tell us about your success in the comments.