How to Make Things Easier with My Family Planner

Your family planner can be easy to manage.

A family planner is a binder or folder you can use in your family to keep household budgets, chore lists, grocery lists and calendar pages. The planner makes it easy to organize your week and keeps everything in one place. Though the concept of the family planner is already a straight-forward one, there are some ways to keep the planner so that it is even easier to manage. Using some office supplies like paper dividers and plastic page protectors, along with some other materials, will ensure your family planner is easy to manage.

Things You'll Need

• Binder
• Paper dividers
• Computer
• Printer
• Plastic page protectors
• Calendar
• Pen

Instructions

1. Find a sturdy three-ring binder at an office supply store. This will hold the entire contents of your family planner, and should be made with a durable cover. A plastic binder or one with a cloth binding works well.

2. Place some paper divider pages in the binder. Dividers can be found at office supply stores and have little tabs that you can write on. Write a title on each divider that corresponds to the sections you will need in your planner: Budget, Groceries, Chores, etc.

3. Type up your planner lists on the computer. Type a list for the groceries you need each week, the chores each member of the family is responsible for each week, and your monthly budget with dates that bills are due. Print out each list.

4. Place each list in a plastic page protector, then place the pages in their suitable section of the planner.

5. Put a calendar in the front of the planner with important dates like anniversaries and birthdays marked. You can update the calendar with each family members' schedule, like soccer practices and meetings.

6. Collect any miscellaneous papers, like field trip permission forms and coupons, and store them in a pocket of the binder.

Tips & Warnings

• Consider adding sections that correspond specifically to each member of the family.

References

• Fly Lady: Control Planner