Planning for International Travel with Kids

For all of you headed overseas this summer, here are some helpful tips originally posted in August 2012.

Photo Source: List Mama, www.listplanit.com

Do you have family overseas? Do you dream of expanding your vacation horizons, but worry about traveling internationally with your children? 

Check out my guest blog on planning for international travel with kids over at ListPlanIt, a membership based website full of any list you could imagine. Why reinvent the wheel?

My guest blog is a time-line based list of steps for any family planning a trip overseas. Many of the steps can apply to domestic travel as well. Enjoy!

Crazy Ways to Simplify Your Life (Part 1 of 2)

Carolyn presenting
"Secrets of a Simply Organized LIfe"

How can it be that May is already here?

April was a busy month in my household. We celebrated Easter, a birthday and had three sets of house guests; including a surprise visitor from Germany, who arrived in the night. The whole family was sleeping and I thought someone was trying to break into our home!

During a recent conversation with our latest house guest, this time an Italian, I mentioned that I choose not to utilize text messaging and have requested the feature be disabled by my cell phone provider. I think our visitor was astonished by my stone age views and perhaps many of you reading find it crazy too. 

Now, I am not asking you to stop text messaging, particularly if it serves a purpose in your life. For me, I find texting a distraction and unneeded extra expense; both of my time and my money. It is an easy way for me to simplify my life.

Next week I will include other crazy ways to simplify your life. Give one or two of the ideas a try. You might just find yourself more organized and more happy too!

Carolyn Anderson-Fermann is a public speaker, organizing expert and founder of Simply Organized Life. For more organizing tips and a free gift sign up for Carolyn's monthly e-newsletter, "Your Simply Organized Life". Carolyn will be presenting "Secrets of a Simply Organized Life" at My Urban Toddler in Saline, Michigan on May 18, 2012 (childcare is available, check with My Urban Toddler for details). 

Stress Free Holiday Tip #4

Tip #4: A Financial Plan!

One of the biggest stressors in life (not just at the holidays) is money. My 10 Stress Free Holiday Tips will help you keep spending in check this holiday season. If you are able to follow these tips, or even some of the tips, you will feel better for it come January 2012.

Rather than calling this a "holiday budget" I like to call it a plan for financial success during the holidays. The goal is not to add to debt in January! You can do this by being in control of what you spend and save this season.

Each of these 10 Tips builds upon the tip before it. By keeping it simple (Tip #1), creating a plan (Tip #2) and using a calendar (Tip #3) you are prioritizing how you want to spend your time this season. You also need to prioritize how you spend your money.

The first step is to determine the overall amount that you can afford to spend on the holidays without adding to your debt in January. Once you have your "magic number" you need to break down your spending plan into categories. This should include not only gifts, but also extra food, decorations, utilities, and travel expenses to name a few.

The difficult part for most people is sticking to the plan. If you find you are a little too freewheeling with the credit card, you may want to make an envelope with cash for each of your categories. Another alternative is to purchase prepaid credit cards for in person or on-line shopping. It is okay to use your regular credit card, as long as you can pay for all of your purchases when the bill comes.

The next post will focus on making room for wise purchases by decluttering your space.

Carolyn Anderson-Fermann is a public speaker, organizing expert and the founder of Simply Organized Life.

Stress Free Holiday Tip #2

My last entry covered Stress Free (or at least less stress!) Holiday Tip #1: Keep it Simple! In that blog we mentioned creating a holiday plan which leads us to...

Tip #2: Plan, Plan, Plan!

Once you have decided what is important to you for simple holiday celebrations, you need to create a plan to make it happen.

Going through the holidays without a plan is kind of like driving in the car without a map or GPS system. I know, many of you will resist this metaphor with the logic that you do not need a map for somewhere you have already been. But if you got lost (i.e. stressed or sidetracked) the last time you went through the holidays, a plan for this holiday season is going to help keep you from getting in a wreck (i.e. overdoing, overspending, and regretting it come January).

You can create a simple holiday plan, by writing down what you want to do this holiday season and scheduling time to do those things on your list. You do not need a fancy notebook or special paper, but you should have your calendar nearby for scheduling time. Any paper or calendar will do, or if you are a techie, you might want to do this on the computer.

Next time we will talk more about using a calendar for scheduling both holiday events and tasks!