Name a simple thing you've done that made your life easier.

In My Humble Opinion
61

A bit radical, but it completely saved my marriage:

Split your finances completely from your wife/ husband.

I make 2/3 of the money in my marriage, my wife makes 1/3. Ergo: I pay 2/3 of the bills that come in, and she pays 1/3. Both of us contribute to our 401(k)s. The difference is, with the money I have left over, I control it (and save it) as I want. She does whatever she wants with her money. Now if she wants to buy (IMHO - too many) clothes, books, DVDs, and other miscellaneous items, she is free to do so without having to ask my permission, and we don’t fight about it. The 401(k) takes cash out upfront and assures that a bare minimum is getting saved each month and the now neither of us makes the other feel guilty. That is the BIGGEST time saver of all! No more trying to figure out the checkbook balance because one person took money out and forget to write things down…

As a side note, if one person affects a bill more than the other, that person becomes in charge of that bill. My wife makes 5x the number of long distance phone calls I do, takes longer (hot) showers, turns on the heat/ A/C more, and therefore, pays the phone and gas/electric bill accordingly. Now, when the bills are large they self regulate her bahavior since she has to pay them. Again, MUCH fewer arguments and a happier marriage overall. Whoever the person is who said marriage=merge finances should be severely beaten about the face and torso…

62

I bless online shopping. For all holidays, birthdays, etc., I go to www.harryanddavid.com and order fruit baskets, chocolates, cakes, whatever. I spend about $25-$35 per gift and about 15 minutes per gift. Last Christmas, I bought presents for 5 couples in my family, spent about $250.00 and 30 minutes, and everyone raved. The shipping charges are a pain but I escaped parking in the satellite parking sections of the mall and spending the whole day hating life.

63

Cool, when the wife’s away shopping or whatever, crank up the A/C, turn on the TV and the computer, take an extra long shower, and leave the refrigerator door open as you browse for a beer, and start posting on SDMB … all on HER nickel!

When she’s due to return, set everything back to normal and start dusting a few things.

MRS. YARSTER: What have you been doing while I was out?

YARSTER: Oh, nothing, dear… just a bit of housework. (he he he)

I like it. :cool:

64

Got inexpensive sweater-storage bags for each of the kids with open fronts. Load up their clothes (daywear) a week at a time, including tops, bottoms, underpants, & socks. Has saved much time & grief.

Made a mealplan that covers 31 days of any month. Has all our favorite meals on it. It lists entrees, side dishes, & desserts, notes which days in the week have leftovers, and each week comes with an attached hard-copy shopping list. I don’t generate a new mealplan, but use the same one each time and just pick what week I want to serve next, along with its shopping list. No more thinking about what to make.

I keep a grocery-list pad on the front of the fridge. The moment I run out of something, I write it on the grocery list pad. When I pick up that week’s shopping list from the mealplan, I add the written items in the blanks on the list.

Each mealplan shopping list is organized by category – produce, pasta, etc. Each has extra blanks. So even if I don’t normally buy yellow bell peppers, I write them in the produce section of the list. Saves running back & forth in the store.

I keep a kid-height coatrack at the front door with a black rubber boot tray beneath – also a milk crate. The second the kids get in the door, their coats go on the rack, their mittens in the crate, and their boots on the boot tray. Backpacks are also hung on the coatrack. Saves mess & frantic searching the next AM.

I don’t buy sheets or clothes that have to be ironed.

I don’t buy any clothing that needs dry cleaning.

My laundry room has 5 large-capacity plastic laundry baskets in it at all times. The second dirty clothes are brought down in their hampers, they are instantly sorted by color & type into the 5 baskets (for us, dark clothes, white clothes, towels, light clothes, & reds/pinks). Hampers are immediately returned upstairs to rooms.

Each family member has a smaller-capacity plastic clothes basket that dwells in my room. When I bring up clean laundry, I dump it on my bed and instantly sort it into each person’s respective “clean laundry” clothes basket. That way, even if I don’t have time to put laundry away, each person can find & put his/her own away (IN THEORY!) And there’s no, “Honey, where are my…”

I make the kids’ lunches the night before school whenever I can. Less stress in the AM.

I keep all clean kids’ socks, of whatever color & size, in a large plastic bag on the back of my bedroom door. I set them out for the week for each kid (see above), but when they’re fresh out of the laundry, they go straight into the bag for later use – no matching, sorting, folding, or putting away in kids’ rooms necessary. I tried a lot of systems to keep kids’ socks together & was always defeated.

It’s not easy to stay organized with ankle-biters around!

Mrs. Furthur

65

Get rid of your multiple credit cards. Pay everything with cash.

Don’t buy shit you don’t need with money you ain’t got.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes its necessary to use a cc# to reserve something or as a deposit, or as an emergency repair.

Often, I got a discount because I paid a multi-thousand dollar bill up front with cash.

Once after I stayed on a car loan for a year (to establish credit) I paid off the rest of the note early. This took off the lien, and let me reduce my insurance costs.

I HAVE NO DEBT.:smiley: