Homemaker Barbi’s Must-Reads 5/12/08

By Homemaker Barbi | May 12th, 2008 | Category: HB and the Blogworld |

* Don’t forget that USPS postage is going up to 42 cents today.

* Planning with Kids is one of my fave mom blogs, and Nicole’s got an awesome FREE e-book called Planning With Kids Top 100 Tips. Her site has all kinds of useful info. Mostly, I heart her because she loves spreadsheets, just like me! Read more about Nicole here.

* Tons of people got their economic stimulus checks today. Did you get yours? Did you spend it on purchases or on paying off debt? We won’t be getting ours for about 12 weeks, as the IRS mistakenly typed in my husband’s name with a “>” sign in it!

* Improve Your Home & Office Productivity from Jennifer at DeClutter It! Her article helps you identify interruptions in your routine that cause you to lose productivity. Since I’m all about efficiency, you know I tried her method out ASAP! It only took 20 minutes on the timer to unload, load and start the dishwasher and make a pot of coffee - not too shabby. I found that my most frequent distractions aren’t even the kids - they’re ME going on cleaning tangents! I’ll be paying closer attention to things that sidetrack me from completing projects, and how long it really takes to get a task done.

* Personal Finance is About Freedom — What Will You Do With Yours? from Mrs. Micah. I have a poster that I created hanging up at my desk called “What Does Money Mean?” It list all the freedoms that money gives me and my family. Making a list similar to this is a good exercise to determine what money means to your family, and what you really want it to give you.