I'm trying to get my life in order and need recommendations for several different things.
1) How do you organize photos on your computer? By date, event, etc? (The more specific you can be about your system, the better.)
2) Do you have a digital/virtual address book that you'd recommend? I need something other than what's offered in various email programs.
3) Do you have a recommendation for a good budgeting site and/or budgeting tools?
4) Do you make meal plans? If so, how do you go about doing that? Do you have a website recommendation?
Thanks, guys!
August 18, 2009
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8 comments:
1. We organize our events in iPhoto by event, but I think in the title we throw in the date.
3. Mint.com is what we use to organize our finances and budget.
Good luck! I love this stuff!!! :)
We name all our photos with the date, starting with year (i.e. "2009.08.17 at the zoo") so that I can sort them by title and they are in chronological order. I also have them in folders labeled "Family" (and then sub folders for each side of the family), "Friends", "Us", "Baby 0-6 months", etc...
1. i make general folders by season. for example, 2008-2009 winter (9-08 through 4-09) and 2009 summer(5-09 through 8-90), since we only really have 2 seasons here. or one. ;). then i have folders within that are the specific date and event. for example, "2009-08-18 jane's bday party."
2. nope. i just use outlook, which syncs with my iphone.
3. i found a few spreadsheets online and downloaded them. the hubs is paranoid about storing our financial info on someone else's server (like you do with mint.com and quicken). i'm a bit paranoid about that too, and our finances are still simple enough that the spreadsheets suffice.
4. yes. i go through my food blogs and tastespotting.com and see what looks good. i'll pick a few for each week, then get what i need. i do try to keep in mind what i have on hand so i can find recipes that might use those up.
1. I use iPhoto. I have the system organize by date, however for special events (holiday, birthday, vacations etc) I also make an "Album" of those photos for easy access. This doesn't mess up the already organized by date method, however gives me 2 ways to find what I need. Somedays my mind wants dates and others, it wants events... what can i say, Digital photo org is hard!
2.Nope, i don't use anything other than what is in the mail program that I use.
3. Again, nope. I make my own budget :) We budget month to month. This shows a more realistic view of what we will spend. For example, instead of saying all year, we budget $100 per month on groceries. We plan 2-3 months in advance, thinking, well, in Jan, my birthday, so we might spend $60 instead because we will have people over, and Feb, is Valentines day, so we might go for steaks for we budget $70, but then March, What is in march.. oh, nothing, so march grocery budget is $40... Confusing, yes, a little, but it works for us. We know our MAX overall, however like the flexibility own way gives.
4. I try to make meal plans for 1 meal a day. The rest of our meals are sandwiches at work, or leftovers). It for sure helps with grocery budget. uUsually on Sunday, I figure out what food we have. I start charting out we we will eat for the week using what we already have. Then, I start filling in the gaps with things we have some of, but need an extra ingredient. This is then when I make my grocery list as well...
Hope that helps. If this is just a mess of words, let me know and I'll try to clarify! Good luck!
Well....I"m not an organizational person by any means but....
I have all my pictures in my document folder under my pictures.
then I have different folders and have then as thumbnails so i can peak into each folder and see what it is.
Kinda lame but I thought I would give my 2 cents worth....:)
Yes, I do meal planning, and it has made my life so much easier! (And I estimate that I save at least $20 on my grocery bills.)
I plan my meals on Sunday afternoon (I look through cookbooks or go to allrecipes.com) and make a list just based on those recipes. Then I do my once-a-week grocery trip on Mondays. It really has saved me from scrambling at the last minute for dinner options and having to go to the grocery store again.
We store photos by year and then sub folders for months.
We use quicken for budgeting. In the past we used Microsoft Money. Quicken is cool because I can go in and add the kids' doctor appts and picture days, etc in a calendar and then Husband knows what needs to come out and when.
I used to plan our meals - on a little calendar and everything. I haven't done that in a while. But I do have a general idea of what I want to cook every week.
For recipes I use: bettycrocker.com, bgh.com (better homes and gardens), familyfun.com (also has lots of fun crafts and games for the kiddies). Or I just google stuff. Or I use my cookbooks. I love reading recipes.
Mint.com for budgeting/finances
Kraftfoods.com for meal planning.
:)
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