Cozi Review

The opinions in this review are totally my own feelings and thoughts on this product, I was in no way compensated for this article/post by anyone.

In my search to stay organized and ahead of the clutter that two working parents and three elementary students inevitably bring to life and my house I came across an online organizer that I have been using now for several months. I originally downloaded this onto my iPad back in December 2011 but didn’t take the time to figure out how to use the program to benefit my family until sometime in March.

Now every organizer/calendar will be used by everyone differently, for me it was finding one that I could use the way my brain works that was easy and included all those little things like, school schedules, menu planning, etc and that integrated with my other calendars so that I could see it no matter where I was.

cozi.com

The program I use is an online based one called Cozi. I can keep our carpool schedule, team practices, grocery lists, school calendar as well as our daily calendar on here. It shares info with other calendars so regardless of what calendar I’m looking at I know what we’re having for dinner, who’s picking the kids up from school tonight as well as a reminder to send in the field trip permission form tomorrow.

One of the nice things is you can set it up to e-mail or text you (and any other people you choose) a weekly calendar every Sunday showing you at a quick glance what is coming up for the week.

Once a week I sit down and add our dinners to the calendar for quick easy reference, double check I’ve got any important meetings for all of us added, and run through with my husband his schedule to see if I need to add anything in that is going to affect our daily routine.

Another great feature is the journal, as a busy mom there are little moments in our lives that I want to remember, or funny stories I want to keep for later. Well Cozi has a journal section that I can write down a quick summary of what happened or if I have more time write out a full story. I can keep these private or share them with family and friends. So as you are away on family vacation you can keep a record of special fun times together and even add photos.

Home Page

I love that I can access this through my iPad (there’s an app for that!) or if I’m at work or even the library and I need to check who is picking the kids up, what time hockey practice is, what we’re having for dinner or what’s still on my grocery list to pick up on the way home I can access it quickly and even text or e-mail myself lists of groceries or to – do items.

Here are some pictures of how we use Cozi to organize this craziness called life; at least it does for …

This Frugal Momma! 

tool bar

To Do List

Weekly Calendar

Shopping Lists

DIY Storage Box / Garage Organizer

Like many people our over flow from the house has found its way into our garage and lives in what we call “blue bins.” You know those great plastic containers that Rubbermaid makes? Yeah well over several moves we have accumulated “stuff” and these hold the “stuff” great. Sorting through the “stuff” is on my To Do List … someday! Until then we wanted a neat organized way of storing these boxes so that on those rare Saturdays when there isn’t much else to do we could easily pull a box out and sort and begin downsizing.

These great plastic storage bins are a great organizer for all your keepsakes and seasonal decorations, but what happens when you get more than 3 of them together? If you’re anything like me they get stacked one on top of them until you have something that resembles the leaning tower of Pisa! Let’s face it these containers scream for me to stack them the way they are made! Inevitably one of two things happens:

1.       The bottom box starts to buckle under the strain of holding up the rest of the stack or

2.       What I want is in the bottom box and so I have to move everything to get at that one box.

Before

What if it didn’t need to be this way, what if you could easily access any of your storage boxes at any time without the hassle of re-stacking? Well this weekend we decided to try and tackle this project by creating a PVC storage box organizer. After looking online, visiting Lowes, Ace & Home Depot we came up with an idea (again this started with a Pintrest Pin!) and modified it to work for what we had and our budget. We did this for about $70.

Basic Grid

 Here is what we used:

1 rubber mallet

1 pvc pipe cutter

8 pvc ¾” corners

16 pvc ¾” X pieces

32 pvc ¾” T pieces

9 – 10’ lengths of ¾” pvc (you will have a bit left over, we are saving it to make another project!)

Here are the cuts we made & how many of each we used:

18” pieces (24)

12” pieces (12)

9” pieces (48)

And this is how we put it together (and by “we” I mean my darling husband and our two boys – they loved helping on this project!) If you think of it as a front and back grid you are attaching them together with the 12” pieces. So here is how we made 1 grid (you will need to make 2 grids)

Here is a grid:

from the side

Corner + 18” + T + 18” + T + 18” + Corner

9” + T + 9”

X + 18” + X + 18” + X + 18” + X

9” + T + 9”

X + 18” + X + 18” + X + 18” + X

9” + T + 9”

Corner + 18” + T + 18” + T + 18” + Corner

As you look at the picture (right) you can see the 12” pieces are the cross bars holding the two grids together.

So once they put the cross pieces and used the mallets to make sure each connection was tight we moved it (again this is the collective “we” meaning my darling husband J) into the garage and proceeded to organize what we had already downsized from the above picture into this tidy, loveliness. Oh, and the great thing is that you can expand this on either side, I’m already thinking if we did another grid of 4 on the side and if we put a board across the top the kids could store their bike helmets here … or whatever. I’m just sayin’ it sparked ideas of expanding the whole storage unit and it’s barely been in my garage for five minutes! Well at least it did for …

After! Easy access to each container - YEAH!!

This Frugal Momma!

Back to School Lunch in a Snap!

So frugal to me doesn't always mean saving money, it can also mean saving time so that I can "spend" it other ways. So I thought I'd share with you a couple of my favorite frugal school morning time saving tips. Enjoy!

Whether your school year has already started or is getting ready to start soon, there certain things that are synonymous with a new school year, new pencils, fresh notebooks, and new backpacks. There are also the typical questions - will I like my new teacher, will I know anyone in class, will I buy lunch or bring one from home? While I can only encourage and reassure my kids about the new school year the lunch question is a no-brainer! I get more control over what they are eating and the cost if I send lunch. Sorry kiddos - Momma pulls rank on this choice!

So new lunch bags were purchased, water bottles were labeled and lunches were planned.

Ready for the first day of school!

With three kids who are not weekday morning people (cartoons on the weekends somehow magically change the mood of these same school day morning slugs) and an early start school (the late bell rings at 8am) mornings are always a little rushed making sure everyone gets ready (dressed, teeth & hair) and fed. So we try and do as much pre-planning and organizing before hand. Clothes are picked out, papers and planners are signed, homework is packed back into backpacks, water bottles are filled and put in the fridge, and showers are taken the night before so mornings are a little easier for everyone (ok read "for Momma" here!)

To make my mornings easier and to give me a couple extra minutes to get ready (or hit the snooze button one last time perhaps) I try and prep as much of the kids lunches before hand. So here are my favorite time saver tips for Back to School Lunches in a Snap!

On Grocery Day:

I keep all of these things in plastic bins either in my school lunch & snack cupboard or in the refrigerator. I find if they are portioned out and in a central location grabbing 3 of each thing in the morning is quick and easy! 

• Portion out cookies into snack bags
• Make snack packs of chips (some times I will buy the small bags of chips depending on price)
• Open the package of cheese & peanut butter crackers so I can grab a pack quick and easy.

On the Weekend:

Depending on our weekend schedule I do these things either Saturday or Sunday, whichever works out. So long as they're done by the end of the day Sunday that's all I really care about!

Even making sandwiches has a 'frugal' process!

  

• Make snack packs of carrots or celery sticks, this includes washing/peeling or chopping if necessary  (they get whichever I find on sale, but I try not to have the same thing for more than 2 weeks or they get bored!)

packed, stacked and ready for the freezer!

•  I make a weeks worth of peanut butter sandwiches, bag them up, label them and ... freeze them! I do give the kids the choice of if they want jam, jelly or honey on their sandwich so this is why I always put an initial on the outside of plastic baggie (I have a grape jelly hater in my house ... I mean seriously?!)

In the Morning:

So packing lunches in the morning is a real snap and only takes me about 5 minutes I always use a specific part of the counter because this is where I have the empty lunch bags waiting ..

• Grab water bottles, fruit & veggies from fridge
• Grab sandwiches from freezer (they are defrosted by lunch time and any jelly hasn't squished through the bread making it soggy!)
• Grab 3 drink pouches from the top of the fridge
• Grab 2 boxes from the snack cupboard
• Pack lunch: Sandwich, Juice Pouch, Apple or Orange, Carrots or Celery, Crackers, Cookies & a bag of chips. Grab the water bottle and into the backpack it all goes! 

Add a bag of chips on the top and it's ready to go!

So if it saves me a few extra minutes to spend snuggling with each of my kids as I wake them up, a little organizing, planning and preparation it is totally worth it to ....

This Frugal Momma!

Hello World!

Welcome! I hope as you read this blog you will find some creative and interesting ideas to help you and your family save money while having fun!! That’s what it’s all about for me – its not worth saving the money if I can’t do it with my family and we can’t have fun doing it.

I’m a full time mom who happens to work full time too, outside the home that is. My Darling Husband and I have three awesome kiddos, who keep us busy, on our toes and never cease to amaze.

DH & I started working towards becoming debt free in 2011, it has been an interesting roller coaster ride this past year and a half and we are getting closer each month. Even though this is important to us we still want to give our kids a great childhood full of memories, laughter and good times.

So In my OCD little head, one way we can do this is if I’m frugal with every dollar we have and find ways to save us money on the everyday of life so that we can enjoy the memory making moments. I have found some of those memory moments have happened when we build things together, try a new recipe together, or when we’re trying out one of the crazy crafts Momma found on Pintrest (another obsession, but more on that later.)

Come back and visit often to see the crazy fun we’re up to.
See ya soon,
This Frugal Mom