Guest Blogger | 3 Boys And A Dog

A Teachable Moment ™ May 2010

May 4, 2010 By Kelli 2 Comments

A little bit of Mother’s Day all year round

By: Dr. Susan Bartell

Mother’s Day comes but once a year. Too bad, because for many moms it is the only time they don’t feel guilty sleeping late, eating breakfast in bed and not doing the dishes (if they’re really lucky!)

But, it doesn’t have to be this way! In fact, Mother’s Day is an opportunity to begin teaching your child that being generous, not just with gifts, but with time, effort and heart, is an important part of growing up into a great adult. The key is to continue teaching this lesson all year along. Once you are successful, the bonus for you is a little extra down time, more help with chores and receiving greater appreciation for all that you give your child.

Step one: Recognize that requiring your child to accomplish regular chores is good for her. Being a mom doesn’t require you to do all the household work! Participating in age-appropriate chores (taking into account time constraints given school and other commitments) teaches responsibility. It should not be tied to receiving an allowance: you don’t get paid to wash the dishes, neither should your child.

Step two: Teach your child to give you a break sometimes! For example, get a babysitter and go out. Do not give up your plans even if your child complains or has a tantrum. Remind him that you need time to ‘play’ just like he does, and that he will be fine for a while without you. As long as you have good childcare, you have no reason to feel guilty, regardless of his behavior. Soon he will learn that being a good mom sometimes means that you will not always give in to his demands for your time.

Step three: Help your child become more appreciative of everything you do for her. Children (especially teens) are naturally self-involved, but yours can still learn to be more sensitive and grateful. Start by making a point of soliciting a ‘thank-you’ from your child when you help her with something (homework, solving a problem, accomplishing a task etc.), buy her anything—no matter how small the price, or in any other situation that requires appreciation. In addition, model appreciation by thanking your child whenever appropriate.

Step four: The final and trickiest step in this process—ask for what you need from your child. He will only learn to be a giving, loving and generous person if he is clear about what he needs to do in order to meet your expectations—so tell him. For example, if you would like your child to ask you how your day was (rather than you only asking him about his day), then tell him, remind him until it becomes a habit, and then thank him when he does it. Ask for what you want without being critical, fighting or yelling and always have a practical solution at hand that you can offer your child.

By consistently following these steps, not only will you start to see your child become more caring and giving all year round, but soon you will find that Mother’s Day isn’t the only time that you get help with the dishes!

Dr. Susan Bartell is America’s #1 Family Psychologist. Her latest book is The Top 50 Questions Kids Ask. You can learn more about her at www.drsusanbartell.com

Filed Under: Guest Blogger, Teachable Moments Tagged With: 2010, Children, comes, day, day comes, Dr Susan, eat breakfast, guest, Guest Blogger, guilty, may, mom, moment, moments, mother's day, susan bartell mother, teach your child, teachable, Teachable Moments, teaching

ORGANIZE for YOUR Success!

April 29, 2010 By Kelli 3 Comments

Welcome Joan of BusyBodyBooks to my site! You hear me talk about it all the time, but I seriously LOVE my planner! I use it to keep all my posts, series, etc straight and can’t imagine blogging without it!

Whether you telecommute and/or run your business completely out of your own home office it’s vital to define your daily/weekly/monthly goals, commitments, To-dos and have all handy to stay on top of your progress with: customers, projects, key personnel and their responsibilities, as well,

Before starting my own business I was lucky to step into flowing office systems that were remarkably easy to follow. But as an outside printing sales rep it was my responsibility to stay on top of my own customer’s on-going projects to both make sure that their always time sensitive production was on schedule and then be able to communicate this effectively to them.

Since I spent most of the time “in the field” my lap was more often my office and my rather small Filofax binder became my bible. My contacts and my calendar were pretty typical but my projects needed their own system.

Using Filofax’s plain, horizontally ruled pages I drew simple vertical lines to create a grid: columns designated as my client’s projects and rows assigned the standard stages of print production. In teeny tiny boxes I recorded dates and notes to keep me up to date with the on-goings back in my office and printing plant.

Pre-cell phone, as I made my way through NYC visiting clients or canvassing for new, with rolls of dimes and quarters for calls from the nearest phone booth (remember those???), I easily accessed my grid for updating clients on what was happening with any given project. My grid was my life-saver. When a client called I could relate the good news (OK, sometimes bad news) concerning progress – when to meet me on press, what was being messengered to their office and when, when to expect delivery, etc. – all from a phone on the street!

After my son was born, my grid was even more important. At first, while working from my home office, I relied heavily on my GRID and stayed up on and in touch with everything and everyone. And then another column was “born”, named for my son “Jake”. For years to follow I would continue ducking into phone booths, now even more frequently, to call in and sync with our son’s and nanny’s schedule.

While I of course owe much my success to all of the personnel I worked with over those years, the then DIY system I devised provided years of growth of volume business from key accounts, time to identify and nurture new accounts – and gave me peace of mind knowing that Jake too was okay and on his schedule.

My paper and very portable office system still serves me well – it’s no longer my very own Office Management System – it’s now been incorporated into BusyBodyBook® organizer products shared with thousands of very busy people worldwide.

Joan Goldner

About Your Time

Publisher of BusyBodyBook Organizers

Filed Under: Guest Blogger, Organizing, Work at Home Tagged With: business, busybodybooks, culture, filofax, for your, Guest Blogger, hether, joan, Joan Goldner, key personnel, office equipment, offices, organization, Organize, own homes, projects, starting my own business, success, telecommuting

A Peek Inside The Files of a Born Organizer!

April 20, 2010 By Kelli 7 Comments

Alicia and I have very few things in common, but she reads me and I read her, so I asked if she would be interesting in sharing some of her knowledge with my readers. Need more help with your files? Read on and please give Alicia a huge welcome to 3 Boys and a Dog. ~Kelli

I am a type A anal organizer. When I was a little girl and all my siblings would be playing outside I’d be inside organizing my shoes or sorting papers. Home office stores have always been a place of refuge for me. I can’t quite explain it, but they give me that warm fuzzy feeling inside like a dog with a new bone, a child in a toy store, or a food junkie in a new restaurant.

Today, I want to talk about my home office. Ours is a separate room on our main floor and is definitely my favorite place to be and the hub of our home. It is the place that everything finds it’s way to. In order that I can function and be productive it has to be clean and orderly and efficient.

Imagine a machine that was not well oiled. It might not start or work properly. Our home offices must be like that well oiled machine in order to prevent clogs in the system that prevent it from running continually.

After some trial and error I feel like I have a system that is just that. Plus it is easy to follow and maintain.

All papers make their way to a basket in the office and from there they are funneled to different categories.

Then papers are filed according to what they are. Bill and misc papers are separated out. Once bills are paid they are placed in the “to be filed” tray. This is usually cleaned up every couple weeks on bill paying days.

I am going to focus on my filing system. I only have two filing drawers in my home office for regular filing. I also have separate filing boxes for school (report cards, pictures, awards) for each child.

This system is color coded and does not use manila folders (only hanging file folders), a more stream lined approach for easier visibility and access. Each color represents a different category.

Blue = Utilities
Yellow = Insurance
Green = Financial
Purple = Medical
Maroon = Employment/School
Red = Taxes

Each category has subcategories and you have to customize it to your needs.

Utilities

Cable/Internet- 1 yr
Electric- 1 yr
Gas- 1yr
Trash/Water- 1 yr
Cell Phone-1 yr
Home Phone- 1 yr
Lawn Care/Pest Control- 1 yr

Insurance

Auto- until new ins
Auto Claims- until sell
Boat- until sell
House- until sell/new ins
House Claims- until sell
Life- until cancel

Financial

Acura- until sell
Saturn- until sell
Boat- until sell
Bank Statements (for every member with an account)- 3 yrs
Credit Cards*- 3 yrs
House*- until sell
Investments*- annual statements

*use separate files for each account

Medical

Family members (separate files for each)- indefinitely
Cigna EOBs- 1 yr
Dental- until new ins
Eye- 2 yrs
Flex Spending- 1 yr

Employment/School

List each member of the family that it applies to for each category.

I also added a file for resumes and job search.

Taxes

Individual files for each year- 7 yrs

If you keep up on this system there is little need to store excess elsewhere. Every file also has an amount of time clearly printed on the front. (I added them after the subcategories above.) Regular shredding is an important key to maintaining a streamlined office space that is free of clutter and chaos. Kids love to shred, so enlist their help.

Anyone can have an organized office space. There is really no type A personality requirement. If you’ve always wanted an organized space, all you have to do is follow these easy steps.

My name is Alicia. I am a type A personality to a tee and have always had a passion for organizing, even as a kid. I am mostly a SAHM to two children, but also work outside the home 2-3 days a week part time for a marketing company. I have been married 17 years and currently reside in Cedar Rapids, IA. I am also passionate about photography and scrapbooking. You can find some of my work on my blog, as well as other organizing tips. Come over and check me out at http://www.weloveiowa.blogspot.com.

Filed Under: Guest Blogger, Organizing, Work at Home Tagged With: alicia, born, business, computer file, control paper, file boxes, file folder, files, filing, filing cabinet, filing systems, furniture, Guest Blogger, home office, Home Office Organization Series, little girls, media technology, office equipment, organize files, Organizers, peek, stationery, technology, toy stores

Coupons Do Work – If you Know How to Use Them

March 30, 2010 By Kelli 4 Comments

You know that while I am not a big spender, I am not a frugalista! Please welcome Claire to 3 Boys and a Dog to help us understand the whole couponing craze! ~Kelli

When I started my saving money journey many years ago, I firmly believed that coupons were not effective money-savers. I also thought they were a terrible waste of time. I was staunchly “anti-coupons”, and I believed strongly that a no-brand policy in my purchases was the real way to money saving. If you had asked me then why I thought coupons didn’t work, I would have gladly told you the following things:

Why I Thought Coupons Didn’t Work

With coupons, you spend money on brand-name items you don’t need simply because you have a coupon that takes a few pennies off the higher purchase price.
Coupons trick you into buying more than you need – in quantity – in order to fulfill the restrictions of a particular coupon. For example, you buy two boxes of cereal instead of one because you have a coupon that is good for $.75 off on two boxes – but you never needed two boxes!
Ultimately coupons aren’t worth it because generic is just as effective, and always costs less.

It wasn’t until I stumbled upon some saving money blogs a few years back that I began to realize how dead wrong I was. It turned out the problem wasn’t with the coupons, the problem was with how I was using them. Although some of my earlier thoughts about coupons may make sense in isolation – after all, is it really worth it to clip one coupon that saves you only $.25? – the key to effective couponing is combining multiple couponing tactics to get BIG savings. By doing this, you can save far more than you ever will buying generic. Going a step further, once you get good at the couponing game, you can easily bring home hundreds of dollars a month in freebies. Let’s revisit the three reasons I used to think coupons didn’t work in light of what I now know.

Why I Know Coupons Really DO Work

Brand-name items serve up more coupons than generic items. Thus, if you know how to use coupons well, you can consistently get brand-name items for much less than generic items.
Buying more than you need is key to developing a full, low-cost stockpile of grocery, household, and toiletry items. A well-stocked stockpile means that you never have to pay full price for anything.
Brand-name items sometimes really are better – and getting them for less than generic makes it a win-win!

If I’ve swayed you at all to becoming more interested in testing out the waters with couponing, you likely are now looking for real strategies you can use to actually make coupons work in your daily life. Here are a few good ones:

Simple Couponing Strategies to Save Big

Combine coupons with store deals: Using a manufacturer’s coupon on top of a price markdown at your local store means double the savings.
Combine coupons with store reward programs: Many stores have their own reward programs – like the ECB program at CVS or the Register Rewards program at Walgreens. Using a coupon on top of this type of promotion can regularly get you free or low cost products.
Use two coupons when a store has a Buy-One-Get-One deal (one for each item) to save big.
Combine a coupon with a mail-in rebate.

If you’ve never gotten into couponing, and still think that it seems like a waste of time for a small pay-off, I encourage you to try one or two of these couponing strategies today to see if they help you find bigger savings. If you’re like me, you just might get hooked!

Claire teaches a FREE coupon class at her blog, Saving Money Plan. A new class is starting right now!

Filed Under: Frugal / Freebies, Guest Blogger Tagged With: brand names, branding, business, claire, coupon, couponing, coupons, drug coupon, effective, frugality, generic, guest, Guest Blogger, if you, know how, marketing, money, money savers, rebate, sales promotion, spending money

So You Want to Guest Post (or you want guest posters)

March 25, 2010 By Kelli 11 Comments

We all have these great goals to grow our sites by either having guest posters or being one (or both), but for one reason or another it doesn’t quite work out the way we plan.

For example: I did have a guest poster every Thursday and Tuesday on my site, but since I have been out of town so much, I haven’t had time to set anyone up. Today is Thursday and I don’t have a blogger! I also don’t have a soul lined up for any time in the future.

What does that mean? Well, quite simply it means that I need to get busy scheduling some people to share their knowledge with my readers. Before sitting down to start contacting people, I thought it would be a great idea to write up a post letting my readers know what I do to find guest posters.

First, I set up a tentative plan:

Days posts will be scheduled – exact dates of Tues and Thurs throughout month.
Days posts will be due – Tues is due the Fri before and Thurs is due the Mon before. This gives me time to read over the post, nag, stalk, pester, remind guest posters if post isn’t in yet, and fix any major errors.
Theme of month – I don’t always have a theme, but (for example) April will be a Home Office Organization Series and all guest posters should write something that falls in that category.
List of possible guest post ideas – I make a tentative listing of post topics and ideas I would like people to write about.

Second, I start approaching people:

If I have a list of people that have expressed interest in Guest Posting, then I contact them first with the dates and post ideas to see if they want any. If so, I pencil them into my BusyBodyBook and start a dated folder in my outlook with all our back and forth emails.

Once I have exhausted the above (or if I don’t have any) I start looking in other places… ahh, the key I will share with you. Please note: I don’t do all of these, but I do a random selection of them depending on my mood or need.

List of places I find guests:

Twitter! I have over 3200 twitter followers, so a quick shout out on there will usually net me a guest poster or two. Or, it gives me a few people to contact next month!
My Blog! I write a quick post explaining what I am looking for and post it on my blog. I have had a few readers over time respond.
Nings! You know all those Nings out there: TwitterMoms, BlogHer, Mom Bloggers Club, etc. Sometimes, I just do a quick post there. Again, it typically nets me a few new contacts as well as guest posters.
Companies! That’s right! That list of company contacts you have for product reviews is a GREAT source for guest posters!
Blogger Link Up! I have only used this a time or two, but I have gotten pretty good responses from it. Basically, you write a short inquiry and wait for people to respond.
Pitch Rate! Similar to Blogger Link Up, but this one is more professional. I find a ton of published authors using this one.

With all that said, I have to get busy finding some guest posters for April. Just remember, be sure you know your expectations and line them up for those you contact, so they can know, too!

When I have a guest blogger, there are a few things I ask of them…

I ask that you do not put your post (in it’s entirety) anywhere else, please. Feel free to post a bit on your blog stating a little about it and send them to my blog to read the full post.
At the end of your post, please write a few sentences about yourself and include a link back to your blog.
To include my “I was Featured” button on your blog (found on my sidebar).
You will email your post 2-3 days before our agreed upon “due date” so that I have time to read over it, correct links, add my note to the top, and get it set up to post.
I LOVE to include a picture of my guest poster as that makes it more personal.
I love links within posts! Link to other posts on your site, give credit to another site, or link to sometime on my site!

For those that don’t know, the theory behind Guest Blogging is that it:

Increases the hosting blogger’s readership because it offers a new take on the same topics
Increases the Guest Blogger’s readership because the hosting blog’s readers want to know what else you have to say.

Do you have guest posters? Do you use them? How do you go about finding them?