The idea of the webcast was that Peter Walsh and several panelists would present organizational tips for the home, for kids and for the classroom while allowing viewers to submit questions via twitter that the panelists would answer.

N isn’t the most organized person in the world so I was stoked to get some organizational tips from the webcast. They presented lots of good info and many good reminders about organization. Here are a few:

TIPS FOR HOME
1) Find the Vision you have for a Space
2) Make Organization a Family Value
3) Use the Right Tools for Great Organization

TIPS FOR ORGANIZING YOUR CHILD
1) Show that you Value Organization
2) Establish Clear Limits and Routines
3) Always ‘Finish the Cycle’ (Complete a Task)

TIPS FOR THE CLASSROOM
1) Establish Clear Routines
2) Involve Kids with Classroom Organization
3) Use Words, Pictures and Color to help Organize

Just before the webcast we received this surprise box of adorable cupcake themed school supplies courtesy of OfficeMax. The school supplies are adorable and were a fun gift, unfortunately we can’t really use them.

I decided it would be fun to host a giveaway here on the blog so I could pass these cute school supplies on to a lucky reader who can put them to good use. So here are the giveaway details: This giveaway is now closed.

Prize: Back-to-school supplies from Scoolio-Von-Hoolio (includes binders, mini notebook, drawstring backsack, notebook, 2 pocket folder, composition books, pencil set and pencil box)

To enter: Leave a comment on this post with your best organizational tip (this is a mandatory step). Once you have commented with your organizational tip you can make the following optional extra entries. For the extra entries be sure to use the form to enter each of your extra entries or they wont count.

• Comment on any of my other posts (besides this one), tell me which one. Unlimited entries.
• Follow me on twitter, leave me your username. 1 extra entry.
• Tweet the giveaway, leave me the link to your tweet. 1 extra entry per day.
• Follow this blog publicly via friend connect, leave me your username. 1 extra entry.
• Follow this blog on facebook, leave me your facebook name. 1 extra entry.
• Use another media sharing tool (stumble, technorati, digg etc), tell me what you did to share. 1 extra entry per sharing tool.

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Eligibility: This contest is open to those with a US mailing address (unless you are willing to pay for shipping costs to ship out of the USA) and will close on August 31st 2009 at midnight.

The winner will be announced here on the blog. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the announcement of the contest winner!

The winner will have 72 hours following the announcement to contact me and claim their winnings. If the winner fails to contact me within the 72 hour period they forfeit winnings and another winner will be selected and posted here on the blog.

Random.org will be used to draw the winner.

The post Back to school with Scoolio-Von-Hoolio and OfficeMax giveaway. Get Organized Today! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

One of the only ways we can cut back is with our grocery bill. When we started out tackling the grocery budget we were only shopping at one or two stores. It was the super Walmart the other was Sam’s Club. We were spending so much just buying all that we needed in those two places. Sure we were buying food in bulk so we had lots to last us but the priority shifted and having full cupboards no longer became the focus, we needed to just save as much as possible ASAP. This mean spending as little as possible, whenever possible.

I know many families are also in this same boat either because they are now on a limited income or because they too want to cut back on their grocery spending. I’ve found a few ways to help us cut back and save money on the grocery bill:

1. Don’t shop without a grocery list. Your list is your map for navigating the shopping trip. Without it you will stray from what is priority or become blinded by merchandising or sales that tempt you to buy things you don’t necessarily need. Throughout your week keep a list going on the fridge of things you need to shop for.

2. Find out which stores have sales on what you need. Only buying what is cheapest from each store is a great way to save money! Each store runs weekly specials on things, why not take advantage of all those specials and save as much as possible? Sure, this means going from one store to the next seeking out those sale items but all those cents saved sure do add up!

What I do is take all the weekly ads that come in the mail and I flip though each one looking for those items I’ve placed on my shopping list. When I find an item I need on sale at a particular store I note the price and store on my list. After going through the 3-4 store ads I can then plan which stores are offering the best deals on what I need.

Now in my town the super Walmart has a “meet or beat” guarantee so often times they’ll have a better deal than those stores running specials. To be sure we are getting the best deal we visit the Walmart first looking to see if any of their prices are better than those we’ve found advertised at other stores.

We’ll hit one store up for BBQ sauce and rolls, another store for ribs and Pepsi and so on. We only end up buying a few things from each place but it does save us a ton of money. It turns in to an adventure for us too, blitzing all the towns stores, dealing with all sorts of people and trying to find the best deals.

3. Only shop for what you absolutely need. Before heading out on your shopping trip take your list and prioritize things. What do you absolutism need right now and what can wait till next pay day? What things can you go without all together? Mark these items appropriately.

For us this meant cutting much of the comfort items out especially when they were so expensive. Things like my beloved Raisin Nut Bran cereal that runs $4.50 a box was one of the first things to go. Things like meats, milk and other staples are more of a priority than premium cereal right? If you can look at your shopping list and identify these “non priority” items it will help you to cut back on what you spend.

Sure if you have a coupon or can find a non necessity item for way cheap it doesn’t hurt to splurge on it but being able to tell when there is a good deal, when there is not and when it is best to just skip the item is key on those little extras.

4. Clip coupons and use them in conjunction with store sales. The newspaper has coupons and you might even get a coupon mailer at some point during the week. Set these aside and when you have time clip the coupons. Also, there are many great sites that offer printable coupons online such as:

• http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/coupons
• http://coupons.smartsource.com
• http://thecouponsurfer.vze.com/
• http://www.coolsavings.com
• http://print.coupons.com
• http://www.afullcup.com

You’ll get the best savings when you use those coupons to buy items that are also on store special. You know double the discounts. They key is clipping and keeping those coupons until the store runs a special on those items.

But don’t be tempted to buy things that you don’t need, having a coupon and being able to save a bit often isn’t worth the money you will save if you just skip buying that one item all together (if you really can do without it).

5. Find ways to get the coupons you need and to get rid of the rest that you don’t need. There is no point in coupon clipping if you can’t find coupons for the things you truly need right?

Well there are a number of ways to either swap, trade or exchange coupons these days and this exchanging makes those unusable coupons of value to you, they become a means for acquiring the ones you truly need. One of the easiest ways to get rid of those useless ones and find the ones you really need is by joining a coupon train.

Since I’ve started clipping coupons (this week) I’ve managed to gather up about $50.00 in coupons I don’t even need. Sure we did find many that we did use and that were super helpful but now I got all these other ones (you can see my list here) that I am desperately trying to get rid of in exchange for some that I can use.

I decided I would try out starting up a coupon train to get rid of those coupons I can’t use and to get my hands on some I’ll benefit from more.

Coupon trains are a great way to trade all those coupons you can’t use for coupons that you need. The person who starts the train gathers up $100 or more worth of coupons that she isn’t going to use, and posts that she is starting a new train, and needs riders. The members who want to join send her a PM with their name, address, and any “wish list” they might have.

The leader types up a sheet with all that info, and mails it to the first person on the list. That person takes out whatever coupons she wants, plus any that have expired or are about to, and replaces them with new ones of equal value. Then she mails it to the next person on list. It continues on until it circles back to the leader, and starts over again.

A good train has members that follow some simple rules:
1. Don’t put in a bunch of coupons nearing their expiration date.
2. Don’t load the train with duplicates.
3. Pay attention to other people wish lists and try to put in coupons that they can use.
4. Be quick about getting the train in the mail to the next person.

Sound like something you might be interested in? Join my train!

The post Budget crunching: Grocery costs. Could you manage to save some $$$ appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Just the other day we were having breakfast at IHOP and there was this huge party of what seemed like a family gathering of sorts. There were small children, parents, grandparents and all… We are talking about 12 people all sitting together.

There was this small boy who got pretty fussy when placed in the high chair once they arrived. His mom was clearly annoyed and overwhelmed with him and she gave him things to play with, he was also sitting right next to another small child, a girl who was not fussy.

The little boy cried and threw his crayons and paper to the floor and proceeded to make a fuss. His mom scolded him, shushed him and even lightly smacked him on the arm in an attempt to stop the crying and fussing.

This went on for quite some time, mom even took the little boys high chair and faced it away from everyone sort of “timeout style” thinking this might quiet him. Both mom and dad took turns dragging said boy in to the bathroom where he no doubtidly got smacked or yelled at in private. Each time the boy returned to the high chair he continued to fuss and cry, mom repeated the above techniques over and over with no result.

The boy cried through our entire meal and nobody in the family other than mom and dad paid him any attention. Mom and dad were only providing negative attention and eventually an IHOP server came out with some to go cups and a trinket that she placed under the to go cups. She played with him and he quieted right down!

The whole situation was just another thing for us to observe and learn from as soon to be parents. We’ve gotten lots of ideas about what to do and what not to do thanks to being able to learn from other parents and I wanted to take this a step further. I want to know what your take is on the following things and why they do or do not work:

1. Young children in public. Do you take yours out and do they behave the way you want them to? How do you avoid bad outing experiences and also allow the child to be a child while still enjoying yourself?
2. Electronics and parenting. Do you allow children to have a  TV, computer, video game system, etc in their room? Do you limit the time spent on electronics, why or why not? How do you know your little ones aren’t being exposed to the wrong stuff via the electronics?
3. Dinnertime. How is dinner time done in your house and why? Do you make sitting down for family meals a priority or does everyone eat at different times, why or why not?
4. Parents time with kids. Do you and your spouse/ partner share equal time with the children or does one parent do more than the other, do you think this is important? Do you worry about children not bonding enough with one parent, if so how do you remedy this?
5. Good cop/ bad cop. Does one parent get to be the good cop all the time or is disciplining done equally by both? Do you worry that this impacts one parents relationship with the child?
6. Housekeeping vs. Quality time. Are you concerned about making sure your child lives in and is exposed to a clean orderly house? Or, are you more concerned about spending quality time with the kiddos even if the dirty dishes pile up and the pet hair covers the floor?

Also, if you have some advise on something I haven’t brought up yet share that too! I am in an advice getting mood.

The post Thoughts on parenting… Dos, don'ts and inbetween… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

We get the keys to our new place on 2/25 and need to be out of this place my 2/29.. It’s nice to have a few days to make the transition although I wont be able to spend my time blogging on those days cause I’ll be making trips back and fourth in the car trying to move loads of boxes.. Oh, well a bigger place is good so it’s worth it right?

Oh, I almost didn’t mention that my man got offered a promotion. I can’t list the specifics because it’s not official yet and I don’t want to blow his cover but basically got offered better/ more air time position that ideally should pay more and further his career more… We are excited about the possibilities but like I said it’s not official yet so we aren’t counting our chickens before they hatch.

Okay, so back to the point of my post.. We are moving again. I have become the little moving experts since I have moved every year for the past 8 years or so..

I am very anal about having all the moving/ utility documents with me (and not packed away) during a move. We have the best luck with utility companies, NOPE! It seems everywhere we move to has something that was not turned on or transfered as we requested. either the phone line doesn’t work or the electricity is not on or the satellite dish doesn’t get installed till 2 weeks after we are in the place… It’s always something so having that documentation on hand really makes getting it solved easier.

I am looking for little tid-bits of advice still though, do you have any?

The post Moving tips? appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.