No need to check the list twice!

If you're like me (and my large Irish family), keeping your holiday shopping organized can be a tall order.  I - with no small contribution from Excel - have a solution!

With this simple spreadsheet, keep everything in order... including your budget!  Track every idea you've had before selecting THE gift to give to your loved one.  Just remember to keep it hidden away from prying eyes and curious little ones!

Click here - Gift Giving Guide - to download my printable!

What's for Dinner?

How often do you take your time making a concise, yet comprehensive grocery list only to return home from shopping and realize you've forgotten that vital ingredient for Wednesday's taco night?

It's an easy problem to solve! All you need is computer paper, Microsoft excel and a planner!  I buy blank paper from Filofax that comes with the appropriate holes already punched (it can be tricky to measure out!).  On excel, design a 2 column spreadsheet with boxes for all the common shopping aisles. My categories are: Produce, Deli, Meats, Snacks, Cooking, Baking, Cooking, Frozen, Dairy & Eggs, and Household.  I format my printer options so I can print the list directly onto the Filfofax paper to fit nicely into one of my planner tabs for Groceries & Menus!  Helpful hint: organize the categories in the same order you move through your store aisles so you instantly know if you've skipped something!  

Under the same planner tab, I also keep a monthly spreadsheet to plan our family meals.  With two small kids, I try to plan a week's worth of meals and make only one big grocery trip a week.  With my meal planner spreadsheet, I can keep track of what's for dinner a week in advance.  By keeping the meal schedule right next to my grocery list, I can see at a glance what ingredients are missing from the shopping list for each planned meal.  It's the little adjustments that make the big differences!  

Download my printable spreadsheets below!

These were designed for the Personal sized Filofax. 

     

     Printable Menu Planner

     Printable Grocery List

Philo-fax

I have many loves in my life: my husband, my sons, playing the piano, even cooking!  However, I would be remiss not to mention my filofax.  Not only would I be lost without it, but it often feels like the 5th member of our family!  

For those of you who don't know, Filofax is an amazing London-based company that designs stylish yet efficient planners that suit a variety of lifestyles.  My favorite is the simple Personal Domino; when it's not running errands with me tucked safely away in my purse, it's laying open on our kitchen counter as the family reminder to add milk to the grocery list, of soccer practice next Tuesday, or that really important phone number that I had to write down and keep somewhere safe (without having to then remember where you wrote it down!).

Even though it's MY filofax, it really is the family planner.  Not only do I keep a monthly & weekly calendar, but I have a section for meal planning and corresponding grocery lists (will post on this soon!), To-Do lists regarding my son's upcoming birthday party, frequent flyer information for our numerous trips between Seattle, Pittsburgh and Boston, Christmas wish lists, and more!  It's so easy to keep everything at-a-glance.

In recent months, I've gotten more and more creative and started creating my own personalized pages from the filofax blank sheet refills purchase from their online site (Filofax online).  Watch for future posts in The Organization Aficionado on how to resize Word or Excel pages to print accordingly.  Once you know some technical basics, the possibilities are endless!