It's been said that time is money. If you consider yourself frugal with money, are you frugal with your time? I was thinking of this last week when I was wondering why I never have enough hours in the day. I should be able to accomplish housework, child rearing, homeschooling, and odds and ends with 16 hours in the day. Should is the key word here. Lack of time management, too much to do, or accomplishing damage control and nothing else in the day are all culprits of not being able to accomplish my to-do list.
There are ways that an overwhelmed mother such as myself can be more frugal with my time though. I've mentioned a way to save money at the grocery store before by stocking up on sale items at their rock bottom prices. It also saves time since I have a better stocked pantry and can therefore cook up a good meal when I am rushed for time instead of having to run to the grocery store or out somewhere to grab a bite to eat.
Making menu items ahead of time. For example, there are women who do once a month cooking who dedicate one weekend a month to shopping and preparing 30+ frozen meals at one time to stick in the freezer and pull out as needed. I've never done this but one can do this on a much smaller scale. When cooking lasagna, make an extra pan to stick in the freezer. When making banana bread, double the batch and stick the extra in the freezer. Doing this will allow you to have a little extra wiggle room when in a time crunch, thus saving you money on a meal as well as time on cooking.
Another example is preparing food ahead of time. For example, when making your weekly menu, think of your meals as more than one meal. Making a roast one night? Buy a big roast and plan to have a roast with vegetables and rolls one night and shredded beef bbq sandwiches another night. Last week I boiled potatoes and eggs for potato salad and put the leftover boiled eggs and potatoes in the fridge. The next night we had chef's salad (with boiled eggs) and another day for lunch we had hot dogs and fried potatoes. I cooked the potatoes and eggs once but was able to use them for three different meals, thus saving me money by reducing cooking three different times and also saved myself time.
Laundry piles up here faster than I ever thought possible. It also takes up a lot of my time and energy. Saving laundry from going into the dirty pile will save me a lot of time and frustration. So I have made it my goal to prevent the children from sticking their pajamas in the hamper after just one use. They are clean when they go to bed and clean when they wake up so why use a new pair of pjs every single night? Even just wearing them twice before washing will reduce my laundry pile considerably. I'm going to attempt that this week and see how much of a difference I notice.These are only a handful of time savers out of hundreds but I hope it will give you an idea of how being frugal with money can also help you be frugal with your time. Any other hints that help you out greatly?
I am always amazed at the people who can not only plan out what they will eat for a month, but shop, prepare and actually follow that plan. That is something I could never do. I'm lucky if I can do it for a week at a time. Even though I don't know what night I will have what.
ReplyDeleteI need to be more frugal with my time on the internet ;)
ReplyDeleteI have several laundry "baskets" in my closet. They're the travel ones that pop-up with handles, so they're tall, but easy to carry. I have one for each load; one for darks, one for lights, one for delicates, one for whites (on hot), and one for whites (cold; i.e. blouses). When we take our clothes off at night, they go right into the baskets, so they're already sorted.
ReplyDeleteFor my children, I just have one basket per room, and they sort their laundry into the baskets in my room each day (except Sundays). The children also help fold, hang up, and put away clothes (I also help, but they do the children's clothes and some of our clothes as well; they match socks, fold pants, shirts, etc., and hang up their shirts and dresses. My oldest is 8; they all help except the baby).
I also start a load of laundry right when I get up. It's already sorted for me, so I can just take the load in and get it going before I shower. Then, when I'm dressed and ready, I can put that load in the dryer and stick another (already sorted) load into the washer.
I wash 4 loads of laundry a day, so it really helps me to get 2 loads going before breakfast is started. Sometimes I even start a load to wash at night and then when I get up, I can put that load in the dryer and start the second load to wash when I get up.
I also have 2 3-gallon buckets on top of my washer. One is for cloth napkins/bibs and the other is for washcloths/cleaning rags. When those items are dirty, they go in the buckets until I'm ready to wash them. The napkins and bibs get thrown in with the darks; the kitchen washcloths and cleaning rags go in a super-hot load with bleach.