Our Household Notebook

Many moons ago I had a household notebook but we stopped homeschooling, then we moved and well let’s just say the past few years have been not as organized as previous years. A few days ago my darling husband was home sick and he cooked dinner. Well he pulled items from several different meals that I had planned which prompted a unplanned trip to the grocery store. He was not pleased and said I must post the menu so if he cooks he knows what to cook. He went one step further and told me he expected me to get my household notebook back out and start using it…Household Notebook? Oh heavens I had no idea where that notebook was or if it was even still intact. So to stay in my hubby’s good graces I started searching online. I found two sites that had printable forms www.organizedhome.com and www.avirtuouswoman.org It took several days but I now have my household notebook back. It is not as awesome as my previous one but hey it is a work in progress. So here are some pictures to give you an idea of what my notebook looks like and what all I have in it.

Even I can read that LOL I didn't take a picture of the spine but it has a label that says Household Notebook that can be seen across the kitchen.

This is for those times we leave the kids home alone. Ok put down the phone and no one panic. Our "kids" are college students, our baby just turned 21. So now you see why I put that as the first page. LOL

May daily To Do list. I don't use this as much as I previously did. Since I work outside the home I have my calendar at work. I can't wait to be ONLY a "housewife" again. :-)

The menu planner that he wanted. Guess I will have to get used to using it again.

My Freezer and Pantry Inventory sheets. And I have already discovered a problem. My freezer inventory sheets are too dark for pencil. I have recopied them on to lighter colored paper and pencil shows up just fine now.

What these are used for is to record every thing in the pantry and the freezer. I used tick marks but not in groups of five. I use one tick mark for each one (like so - |||||||||||)then all I have to do is erase one tick mark. This helps with shopping and also lets me know how much food I have in the house at any given time.

This my friends is a life savior. This is where I keep a list of food I normally buy like mustard, mayo, flour, sugar, etc and I write the price per store. I have five stores I shop from - Food Lion, Kroger, Aldi, Sav-A-Lot and IGA. This way when I am in a certain store and I know we need something I will pick it up. It also helps to see how food cost are rising.

I have a page of for family birthday and anniversaries. I have a zipper pouch behind this with birthday cards and anniversary cars, stamps and a pen. That way I can be sure and send out birthday cards and anniversary cards on time.

I even added our address book to this binder. The whole purpose of this binder is to have everything at your finger tips. It is also a must in an emergency situation where you have to grab and go.

This is something new I am going to try. Since all the nieces and nephews are grown and have their own families I decided to add family information sheets. There will be one sheet per family member with their sizes, favorite teams, favorite colors and other gift buying information. Hopefully this will help take the guess work out of gift buying (or at least some of it)

OOOO AAAHHHH pretty tabs and look at all the colors. Yes I used lots of colors and every section has a tab so hopefully hubby will be able to find what he is looking for - hopefully?

Now these are check list that kept in file folders laying around but have decided that I am going to keep them in the notebook. These are check list for the first aid kit, packing list for when we go on vacation, picnic and camping packing list. And the one that has saved us before the "before we leave" list. This way I will have them at our finger tips and will not have to look for them.

Now as I said at the beginning this is a work in progress. The original picture was a two (2) inch binder but have since moved it to a three (3) binder and added a pencil pouch in the front. I also put a larger zipper pouch for bills in there along with the check book. This got it off the computer desk. In the back I have added zipper pouches for each of us and put copies of our birth certificates, immunization records, and a disk of pictures. I have also added zipper pouches for insurance. I also have a zipper pouch for tax forms and have the last seven (7) years there. I did all this for the simple reason we live nine hours (9) and three (3) states away from our families. If anything happened and we had to leave under emergency conditions I can just grab the binder and go it will have everything we need and I can sort the details later.

As soon as I get my coupon notebook revamped I will post pictures of it.

Have a wonderful and blessed day
Muffie