Getting the paperwork under control.

I find it challenging to stay totally organized when it comes to the amount of paperwork that comes into our home or gets generated by us in some way or another. Okay, I thought that was a nice way of putting it. The reality of it is that there’s a lot of it and it drives me crazy. I hate piles of paper, mail, bills, stuff printed off the computer. I also can not stand to have to hunt for something I need or go through a pile of papers to find it.

When the household paperwork is in a pile it’s very easy to misplace a bill that needs to be paid or worse get tossed out with the trash. So in the interest of getting ourselves organized we need to focus on the paper. This is not only going to help keep your blood pressure down but once we got the paperwork end of things under control we noticed our finances were easier to control. Now I’m not talking about running out and buying a filing cabinet. In fact we did away with ours. We cut down on what we keep and how we keep it.

Let’s start with what we keep. I’m a paper keeper. I used to keep canceled checks that had ten year old dates written on them. I had every statement to every bill ever paid. All that really does is take up valuable storage space and add to the feeling of being cluttered.
With today’s technology a lot of people are going paper less and paying their bills online. Some like to store everything on the computer. I still like to keep a hard copy record finding it to be an easy system to keep and quickly refer to if there is any question.

First we start with a large three ring binder. Everything goes in this binder for one year.
When the year is done and I mean done by, when our taxes for that year are complete. I simply write the year on the binder and store it. Ours are kept under lock and key.
So that you have an idea of what we store and don’t store, I will break it down by how the binder is divided and explain each section.

Monthly Bills:
This section has simply 12 sheets of paper. One sheet for every month in the year. And every bill we pay is listed. Mortgage/Rent, Electric, Phone, Cell phones, Credit Cards….you get the picture. Then there’s a column for the date paid. The amount paid and how it was paid. (If it was paid by check I write the check number, If I paid over the phone I write phone) Then there’s the column I jot down any confirmation numbers. I also have a column for comments in case I made next months payment early or added additional funds.

I keep this and no longer keep any statements other than insurance statements.
The old method of keeping the statement with the payment information scribbled on it generated far more paperwork to store than necessary. I have all of the information necessary right at my finger tips and all I store are 12 sheets of paper.

Bank Statements:
After I’ve looked them over I simply three hole punch them and toss them in.

Insurance Statements:
This is strictly for auto insurance as I keep the home owners policies separate.
We’ll go over all of that later. It’s not necessary to keep these statements but I have used them periodically to adjust our policies.

Medical Bills:
I keep any and all medical bills and correspondence but not medical records here.

Investments:
All investment statements and correspondence.

Taxes:
Any miscellaneous paper work I might need at tax time along with a large manella envelope with the year written on the front. I shove all of the receipts for uniforms, prescriptions anything that I will need and is too small to really hole punch and safely keep goes in here.
Once our taxes are complete I do print a copy and add it here.

Miscellanenous:
There’s always going to be some miscellaneous paper that you need or want to hold onto. I punch the holes and stuff it here.

Now I know this is probably making some poor accountant cringe and it’s not filed and sorted alphabetically or numerically but I said we were organizing to eliminate stress not organizing until we stress. So don’t get too caught up in worrying about every little detail. The object is to get it all in one place, easy to use and easy to keep up with.

Once you try this system for a few months you are likely to find that it is handy for a variety of reasons. Now, at a glance you can see which bills were paid and which bills were not. I handle all of the household finances but this system allows my husband to come in and take over for whatever reason. If I’m out of town or ill, he knows exactly where everything is, what is going on with our finances and where everything goes. Same with our oldest Daughters. Should something happen they have everything they need in one organized place.

If a payment wasn't applied to an account. It happens but you can quickly locate the date, payment information without having to hunt it down then call someone back. And when it comes to tax time. Everything is right at your finger tips. So now instead of just paying a bill you can see your expenditures at a glance. This will come in very handy if you are hoping to get firm control of the money that goes out monthly. It forces you to look at the big picture each and every month. By working with it as a whole you will quickly see why this helps you to clearly understand and work on your household finances. How can you get control of an entire household financial situation if you only see it bit by bit? You can't.

This is why we call our household finances (including our credit report) Our Sacred Cow. You must get control of it. Then keep control of it. And protect it. When it's out of control it is devastating on so many levels.

So, now we've got the house organized and soon all the paper work organize. We are off to a good start.

Let's get started.

My apologies for not posting sooner. It’s been busy and hectic at our house. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I am not only a military Wife but now a military Mom.
It doesn’t really stop there. But rather than listing each and every family member we have serving let’s just say there are a bunch of them. At one point we had a total of seven but with retirements and enlistments we are now at six. That’s a lot to be proud of.

Today I decided to post a good way to help deal with being a military spouse or partner. When I post advice I am always hopeful that it helps someone that is adjusting to the military life when in fact, it should apply to anyone military or not.

A lot of what I write seems like common sense or at least it does to me. However, I find that most couples(especially younger couples)struggle when they can ease some of the struggle by applying a few simple changes to their lives.

The first thing that needs to happen is to get organized. Especially if a deployment is coming or happening. Organize everything. Organize the closets, the household finances, the pantry. All of it. The more clutter and disorganization you have in life the more stress you will feel in life. A deployment will only intensify the stress and coupled with a disorganized life is a recipe for disaster in my opinion.

Start now and clear out the clutter. As much as I hate house cleaning it really is a necessary evil that must be done. Purge and clean one room per day if that's all you can do. Just do it. I once complained to my Mother about house cleaning and she told me to clean one room from top to bottom then sit in it and enjoy it until I felt like moving to the next room. Well that was interesting advice considering it was cleaning the closet I complained about. So, if you want to start there and take my Mother's advice. I won't tell the kids where you're hiding.

I'll let you get to your organizing. Watch for my next post and we will try to tackle the paperwork and finances.

There's always something to do.

I asked my Daughter what I should post next and she suggested that I describe some of the ways I keep busy. Her thought for a title was: A busy Mom is a happy Mom. I had to laugh because my take on that is that a busy Mom is…a busy Mom. We try to squeeze so much into our lives at every stage of the game. I do have my interests though and they do keep me from going stir crazy during each deployment.

Deployments are like a long, long holding pattern. Everything is on hold. Vacations, Family time, Spousal time, even in a sense Holiday time. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. We knew what we were getting into. But after four deployments we just didn’t know how many times we’d be getting into it. It’s just plain boring. So the trick is to stay busy.

During the first few deployments I got involved with the local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and the American Legion. Wonderful groups that are not only supportive of our soldiers, their families but their communities as well. If you are a military spouse I urge you to check into one of the local posts in your area and get involved, even if it’s simply to help pack care packages for our troops..

Along with shuttling our youngest Daughter around to activities either on base or off I enjoy cake decorating. I’m not as talented as I’d like to be but seeing the finished product does give me a sense of having at least some creativity. I posted some pictures just for fun.

In addition to running the household I have now included the challenge of starting my own business from home selling candles. I used to work from home but found the ability to maintain a part time job with hours that fluctuate based on my schedule hard to find and keep consistently since so many are seasonal. So with the help of a supportive team I am currently dividing my time between everything else in my life and being an Independent Demonstrator for Gold Canyon Candles. I will try to post any promotions on my blog because I know the holidays are coming and so many people love candles too. Please feel free to visit me at

my candle website

That’s just some of what I do to keep busy. As for the question of “What will you do if he deploys again?” That’s easy. WAIT. The “experts” say don’t count. HA! That’s a impulse that is incredibly hard to resist. So we count by months until about the last six weeks when we transition into counting down the days. Anyone that really misses their soldier is counting in some way that day until they finally come home again. So if you have a loved one serving over seas. Feel free to count with me. We’ll WAIT together.

Life is full of firsts, so here goes.

Since this is my first post on my new blog let me start by giving you a little background on me, my family and this crazy life we lead.

I am a military Wife, military Daughter in Law and now thanks to my new Son in Law, a military Mom. Having been through four deployments I am often asked "how do you do it?" I'm asked that question by not only other military wives but the soldiers as well. Well, actually their question is more like: "What are you going to do if he deploys again?" So in this blog I hope to enlighten and inform those that are interested in what it's really like to be a military spouse.

But let's not stop there. There's more to me and my life than just waiting for my soldier to return. I am also a Mother. We have two wonderful Daughters in their mid twenties and a great big third grader still at home. We have been in debt, debt free whoohoo, a single Mom and pinched pennies. Yep, I've been there and have been through a lot. I'll share my experiences and what I know. Most of all I will share my real thoughts because this is real life.