Time and money savers

[Ausmumof3]

Life is kind of hectic at the moment. It feels like we are constantly short on both time and money. Any tips for reducing the craziness of teen years welcome…

(I hopefully will have one more driver very soon)

[SHP]

Delivered meal kits have been an absolute life saver. 

Prepademic:

Public transit for non drivers was a life saver.

Eating out midweek at 10pm was actually a great thing for the family and stress levels. Not a money saver, but it did save time not having to coordinate schedules for dinner one day and just going out afterwards. 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

Instant pot. Budget cant take meal kits or take out, but I can start rice and beans in them, head out the door to do kid pickups from activities (why must this happen at suppertime?) and come home to a lovely meal where all I do after is mix in a little lime juice and cilantro. If we are delayed, the instant pots keep the food warm until we return.

[prairiewindmomma]

Another tip: Sunday master planning—kids must list all their commitments and do their own planning around what they will need. After they are done, I look at my errand list and wrap that around my taxi schedule. I also make notes of phonecalls or other things I can do in my wait time around their activities. I plan meals after I get the rhythm for the weak, planning easy or pre-prepped meals for days where I will be especially short on time or energy.

[Heartstrings]

Grocery delivery.  It’s so worth it.  

[Arcadia]

Since only my husband drives, we limit each teen to one outside weekly activity and their Saturday german class. That reduces time spent traveling to and from activities. For academic classes, the teen that isn't having in person class can stay home alone or tag along.

Edited May 17 by Arcadia

[Ausmumof3]

37 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

Since only my husband drives, we limit each teen to one outside weekly activity and their Saturday german class. That reduces time spent traveling to and from activities. For academic classes, the teen that isn't having in person class can stay home along or tag along.

Mine only do tennis but can’t get their coaching on the same night and then have matches, comp so it is four days all up 

[Ausmumof3]

51 minutes ago, Heartstrings said:

Grocery delivery.  It’s so worth it.  

Somehow I have totally forgotten about grocery delivery 

I need to get back into that 

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Another tip: Sunday master planning—kids must list all their commitments and do their own planning around what they will need. After they are done, I look at my errand list and wrap that around my taxi schedule. I also make notes of phonecalls or other things I can do in my wait time around their activities. I plan meals after I get the rhythm for the weak, planning easy or pre-prepped meals for days where I will be especially short on time or energy.

This would be great. We usually talk on the way to church about what’s coming up. But I’m so wiped by the time I get home I’m not planning properly at all. (Teach Sunday school, 40 minute drive, don’t finish till 1 ish so usually eat at 3 Sundays) then have work prep to do 

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, SHP said:

Delivered meal kits have been an absolute life saver. 

Prepademic:

Public transit for non drivers was a life saver.

Eating out midweek at 10pm was actually a great thing for the family and stress levels. Not a money saver, but it did save time not having to coordinate schedules for dinner one day and just going out afterwards. 

 

I really want to try meal kits for a bit… just to stop thinking about food 

[HomeAgain]

Precooking helps quite a bit here.  DS's activities can take over the entire evening/day sometimes.  Cooking 1-2 LARGE meals each week really helps a lot.  Like, right now I have 2 grilled chicken breasts still sitting int he fridge, chopped up.  There is also a container of rice and one of black beans.  That means feeding ds on the go suddenly has options: a wrap with chicken, avocado, spinach.  A power bowl w/rice, beans, corn and pico.  A super quick stir fry.  All of these are things ds can make on his own, pack in the car, and have for before/after so we don't feel the need to stop for fast food on the way.  Same thing for my schedule clashes.  Monday's meal is lasagna.  I'll put it together on Sunday night, leave instructions, and someone in the house will have it ready by the time I'm done working with students. 

We also streamlined things in the house. Everyone has a laundry day/sheets day.  We packed up a bunch of dishes from the cabinet so we didn't have a ton coming back at once from wayward children.  I keep a bag of things in my car that are often used.  Right now I have sunscreen, first aid kit, winter hats, scissors, tape, etc...and a center console full of snacks.  A table next to my front door has pencils and pens.  Water bottles are next to the sink area in a plastic crate so if necessary I can take the whole box into the car.

[Melissa in Australia]

When my older children were teens we had  basketball 4  late afternoons a week . I assigned each teen a different night to cook tea. It didn't matter if they cooked the same thing each week. it was so nice coming home to tea ready to be served.

[DawnM]

4 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Somehow I have totally forgotten about grocery delivery 

I need to get back into that 

We don't do delivery but we do order online and do pick up and never go into the store.   It is a huge help!

[Beth S]

(Courtesy of A Slob Comes Clean, aka Dana K White)

Focus on Doing The Dishes.  This is by far the most important household task.

Next is do a 5 minute Tidy.  Truly stop after a 5 minute timer goes off.

And maybe start a load of laundry.

****
Mainly it's easy to be overwhelmed by All The Things.  Just Do The Dishes.

. . . or better yet, have your kids do them.  😉

 

[HomeAgain]

23 hours ago, Beth S said:

(Courtesy of A Slob Comes Clean, aka Dana K White)

Focus on Doing The Dishes.  This is by far the most important household task.

Next is do a 5 minute Tidy.  Truly stop after a 5 minute timer goes off.

And maybe start a load of laundry.

****
Mainly it's easy to be overwhelmed by All The Things.  Just Do The Dishes.

. . . or better yet, have your kids do them.  😉

 

Oh, this, too!

We have morning routines based on Flylady from years and years ago when I got the daily digest emails.  Everyone wipes down their bathrooms before the day gets started.  Brush teeth, do your thing, then wipe down the counter and seat.  I keep Clorox wipes in the bathrooms just to make this easy and quick, but this one act means bathrooms are guest-comfortable 99% of the time.

The other thing is my kids know to "make hay while the sun shines".  I make ds oatmeal every.freaking.morning just about.  That's 10 minutes of unused time to empty the dishwasher, get dressed, make beds, tidy a room...Last thing at night is starting the dishwasher, wiping out the sink, and taking the dishcloth to the laundry. 

[Indigo Blue]

Mine are small, recent changes I’ve made recently. 
 

Laundry pods. (Hesitant because of uncertainty of the biodegradability of the plastic coating and nano plastics). 
 

Moisturizing in the shower.
 

Always have done these:

Instant Pot

Simple recipes (or meal kits if they don’t cost more than simple recipes)

No top sheet. Just blanket and fitted sheet. Less to wash, quicker to make bed. 

Filling a bottle with 3/4 water and 1/2 Dawn (more Dawn less water if needed). Cheaper than Power Wash and makes a bottle of Dawn last a lot longer. (I use dishwasher for dishes and this is used for stray plates and cups and for cleaning, but even if used for all dishes it is a saver. The spray is plenty soapy. 
 

[Lady Marmalade]

On 5/17/2024 at 5:31 AM, DawnM said:

We don't do delivery but we do order online and do pick up and never go into the store.   It is a huge help!

I was going to suggest the grocery pickup! Using the store's app, I can order my groceries from anywhere at anytime, and can keep a running cart as things come to me that I need to add to my list. I can add items to my cart while I'm sitting in the car waiting for a kid, sitting at one of their activities or even when I'm sitting in church and a random thought comes to me.  Check out and schedule a pickup time for when I'm already driving past the store. It's convenient and a huge time saver. I do pickups from Sam's Club regularly as well. 

[mommyoffive]

26 minutes ago, Lady Marmalade said:

I was going to suggest the grocery pickup! Using the store's app, I can order my groceries from anywhere at anytime, and can keep a running cart as things come to me that I need to add to my list. I can add items to my cart while I'm sitting in the car waiting for a kid, sitting at one of their activities or even when I'm sitting in church and a random thought comes to me.  Check out and schedule a pickup time for when I'm already driving past the store. It's convenient and a huge time saver. I do pickups from Sam's Club regularly as well. 

Same.  It saves so much time and money.  When I go in store I end up buying so much more.  When I have the cart I can look at the total of everything while I am shopping. But yeah this saves me at least 2 hours every week.

[Alice]

Not really a time or money saver but for me a big help was to change my mindset. I stopped worrying so much about making meals for everyone. We have food, everyone can cook. I cook most days but if it's a night where I worked that day or everyone is coming and going or I just don't feel like it...I don't feel guilty anymore. I used to feel guilty that we weren't having the family communal dinner but I read on here someone (can't remember who, sorry) who referred to the time where "everyone is coming in and out of the kitchen and getting food" the "fellowship hour" and that helped me to just see it as a different stage. Yes, it's nice when dh or I make a meal and everyone sits down and eats but it's also fine when I'm sitting in the kitchen eating after work and ds wanders in to get a snack because he already ate earlier and he sits down and talks and then dd comes home from dance and wants dessert and sits and chats, etc. 

[KungFuPanda]

I’m not suggesting you move, but the quality of life when you live walking distance to the high school and minutes from anything else your teen does is phenomenal. I went from being a homeschooling mom who drove to different activities most weekdays for YEARS to the mom of a public high schooler. Most everything she did was in a single building less than a mile from home. My kid got busier, but I didn’t. 
 

I homeschooled my son through high school but he didn’t do daily extracurriculars like dd did. Her high school being close made it so we rarely had scheduling conflicts with her brother’s activities. 

[Momof4sweetkids]

If meal kits are too expensive, I tried E-meals for a bit and that made life easier.