The Mom Crowd

Comparison shopping can offer a means of saving money and it can even be fun to do once you get into the spirit of doing it. It does take some time however to perfect the technique of shopping by doing comparisons. It also takes time out of your day or week in a general sense because it is more time consuming than just finding an item at the first store or website that you visit. It also takes a level of patience but it can be a worthwhile pursuit in the long run because you can save hundreds, even thousands of dollars if you comparison shop for practically everything that you need to purchase.

You can comparison shop for groceries, personal care items, appliances, cars, insurance, travel, gardening equipment, electronics and whatever else you may need. It is a versatile means of finding what you need because it can be used both at retail stores as well as for online shopping.

If you have ever looked at a receipt for something you have purchased and  were not happy with the price you paid then you really need to start shopping in a more constructive and cost effective manner. You need to become a shrewd comparison shopper. Prices vary tremendously on items and finding the best price possible can take some work.

Here we look at some important points worth considering when it comes to the concept of comparison shopping:

Price Fluctuations are Common

You may think that every store you visit is selling an item for the same price but that is not the case. Look around at the stores in any given malls or the shops in your community and you will quickly see that this is not how stores operate. Many stores have sales on a frequent basis and they put different items on sale. If you check flyers regularly you will see what items are on sale. It is also worth mentioning that when you comparison shop you will be able to pick out which stores consistently charge higher prices on everything from toilet paper to vegetables to meat to peanut butter, and so on.

You are not likely to find a store that charges cheaper prices on everything that it sells. From a marketing perspective this is not a smart thing to do. That is why you need to be a wise shopper and look for bargains at different stores. If the stores you shop at are all in close proximity then you will not use as much gas driving from one place to another and you will not use up as much time and energy either!

Keep in mind that comparison shopping is wise because prices fluctuate and they can also vary quite a bit from one shop to another. That is why you need to be on your toes and you need to shop around!

Shopping – The Time Factor

Many people do not view comparison shopping in a positive light because they think it is too time consuming. The time factor is important but the extra time it takes you to compare one product to another can be well worth it to you in terms of the money you will save. The extra time you spend looking for a better deal will make all of the difference if you can save $10 on an item, $20, $50 or more!

Become a Keen Watcher of Store Marks Downs

If you shop at a particular store often enough then you will become use to which items are marked down the most often and which products go on sale frequently. Many stores follow a pattern and are consistent about the items that they place on sale the most often. Become a keen observer when it comes to how stores operate. By so doing you will be able to know where you should go to get the best bargains and deals! That will make comparison shopping very worthwhile to you!

When you have children to take care of, laundry to do, meals to prepare and your job to go to it can be difficult (well downright impossible sometimes!) to make time for yourself and your own needs. Finding the time to get your hair cut, working in your flower garden or even sitting down to have a couple of sips of tea and read a few pages in a novel can be beyond the scope that your schedule allows. It is important though to find “me” time in your busy “mom” days.

Why is it so Important?

Making time for yourself is important because if you do not then you can become overwhelmed, stressed out and exhausted. You may even end up feeling angry because you are neglecting yourself. If you can find a few minutes every day to relax and do something nice for yourself then this can be very good for your emotional and psychological well-being. Even if it is not every day, as often as you can you should look for opportunities to make time for yourself.

Find the Time Whenever You Can

You need to find time to be good to yourself whenever you can find it. Perhaps it is later in the evening after your children have gone to bed. Or maybe it is first thing in the morning before your children have gotten out of bed. Enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and the silence of some uninterrupted moments before the day takes hold. Or maybe it is when your six month old is napping, in between doing laundry and washing dishes. The point is make every moment count in your day-to-day schedule and find a few precious minutes wherever and whenever you can in your hectic day to do something just for yourself. Even if you stop for five minutes to put your feet up and daydream as you look out the window, that is still precious time for yourself – and it matters.

Me Time Options for Moms

When the weather is good and your children are at school, or at grandma’s or are visiting a friend take a stroll around your neighborhood or through a local park. Be leisurely about it and pay attention to all of the beauty that surrounds you. Breathe in the fresh air and enjoy those moments of being alone with nature. Okay, so maybe the dog needs to be walked so you choose to combine his walk with your alone time and maybe you are walking in a dog park instead of the local park. At least you are out walking! Whatever works for you is fine as long as you get to relax your mind and body a bit and get away from some of the stresses of the day.

Regardless of whether you work inside or outside of the home you need to take breaks. Whether it is a break from your computer or your kids wanting your undivided attention you need to take mini breaks throughout the day to keep your sanity. Maybe you can retreat to your favorite chair and flip through a magazine or call up a close friend for a quick chat. Or maybe you can spend a few minutes working on a craft, skimming the newspaper or glancing at a television program that you enjoy.

When you have a larger block of time for yourself, such as if your husband takes the kids somewhere for an afternoon then pamper yourself because you deserve it. Go to the beauty salon and get your hair styled differently, get a manicure, a pedicure, a facial, or a massage. If one of your friends is free then make it an outing for the two of you. While you are at it the two of you should catch up over coffee or lunch.  As a mother you are probably so use to treating your loved ones that you have forgotten how good it feels to treat yourself. It is time to remember it now!

When you are a mother who works from home a balancing act between your family life and your working life must be established. It would be wonderful if it was a gentle balancing act that is very smooth but sometimes it is not so easy and instead ends up being very messy!

You may have thought being self-employed would be easier on your family, especially if you have young children to raise, but sometimes it is just as complicated because the boundary lines are blurred. You are working out of your home office and since you are home more often your children do not necessarily understand that you still have work to do.

Achieving a work life balance that is harmonious and works for both your personal life and your career is not a simple task. Just when you think you have it figured out the two worlds can collide- WHAM! – and then you have to stop and re-evaluate and reassess your priorities and make the necessary changes to make it all work well. Complete harmony? Maybe not but at least you can strive for a workable and manageable relationship between the life you live and the work you do.

It may be some consolation to know that your choice to become self-employed is a choice that more and more people are making all of the time. These same people are also looking for ways to balance out their lives in order that no one gets left out. According to the Kauffman Foundation, an entrepreneurship research organization, more individuals started their own businesses in 2009 than at any time in the preceding 14 years. This includes not only starting a new business, but buying an existing business, partnering up with someone else or investing in a franchise.

There are a few important things you can do when it comes to balancing out your life when you are a self-employed mother. Let us look at those now.

Always keep your priorities in sight

Know what is most important and what is least important and work from there. Set your goals for the month and then break them down into manageable goals by the week or even by the day. Being aware of your priorities and being as organized as possible go together and can make a tremendous difference when it comes to balancing your mommy duties with your workload. Keep your calendar or your planner with you at all times. In this way you will be aware of how you are spending your time and you will also be able to determine what you should commit more time to and what takes up too much of your time and can be allocated a shorter time period.

Learn what works and then do that

If you are more productive at your job when your kids are in school during the mornings then use that time to make business calls, type up reports, meet with clients, do research and so on. Be proactive in how you approach things. If you always pick up your kids and their friends from school and it has started to cause some problems for you when it comes to your work schedule then find out if other mothers could share this responsibility with you. Maybe you could trade off on days. Taking turns can make it easier for you to find and keep your work/life balance.

Set a work schedule for yourself

The great thing about being self-employed is that you can set your own hours and you do not necessarily have to work a 9 to 5 or an 8 to 4 work day. But having work hours that flip flop all over the place can be as confusing for you as it can be for everyone else in your personal life and your working life! You can still have flexibility when you are self-employed but working crazy hours is not advisable. Developing a routine and sticking with it can help you to set boundaries that separate your work from your family life and can make keeping everything in perspective that much simpler.

It seems sometimes that a mom’s day does not end! One day leads into the other without interruption and there is always something else to do. When it comes to keeping your home clean there may be times when your motivation to clean is there while other times it is not. When you are going in 100 different directions and you have a to-do list that is longer than your arm cleaning can seem unimportant.

To have a healthy and safe home however you want it to be clean. A clean home makes everyone who lives there feel better and that includes you- the hard working mom who never stops! To prompt yourself to want to clean you need some inspiration and motivation to do so.

Visualize the Clean

One technique that works is visualization. Look at a room before you have cleaned it and picture it in your head as clean, neat and organized. Imagine that everything is in order and the room is spotless. Once you clearly see that picture in your head then getting yourself into the spirit to clean should be much easier. You want to bring that picture in you head of a neat and clean room to life. You want your living space to be inviting and so you pick up your cleaning cloth, broom or vacuum cleaner and you get to work!

Small Cleaning Tasks

There are some  tasks around the house that do not turn into big jobs that take hours to complete if you tackle the small cleaning jobs regularly and do not procrastinate about them. Wash the dishes at least once or twice a day and wipe up messes when you first discover them. Tidy up the table and countertops and put things away after you are done with them. Do no leave clean laundry in the basket but fold it and put it away in the right places immediately. Make sure that dirty clothes are placed in the hamper and do not spend days lying on the bedroom or bathroom floor. If you do the mini clean-up jobs frequently then you will not have to set aside hours at a time to do a ton of household chores.

Chart a Cleaning Course

Chart a cleaning course for yourself by making a plan that works for you and your busy schedule. You can plan you cleaning needs in much the same way that you plan dentist or doctor’s appointments and your children’s extracurricular activities. You can design whatever kind of plan is most suitable for you. It can be a weekly plan or a bi-weekly plan. It is probably best not to create a daily cleaning plan because as a busy mother it is highly unlikely that you have time to clean everyday (with the exception of those unexpected spills!). You need to be realistic about your family and work responsibilities and make your cleaning plan work for you. Strive for some balance between all of your activities.

Realize however that the cleaning plan you draw up is not written in stone. Modify it in accordance with your changing needs. For instance  on a week when you have extra hours at work or a sick child to take care of you may not be able to clean on the dates and at the times when you would ordinarily.

Make a List of Cleaning Jobs

To put your cleaning plan into action you have to know what needs to get done. Make a list of the most time consuming tasks down to the least time consuming tasks. Or make a list of the biggest tasks to the smallest ones. Another option is to write up a list and order it from the tasks you least enjoy doing to the ones you don’t mind doing as much. Doing this can make cleaning less of a chore and may even give you a few much deserved extra minutes in a day to put your feet up and have a cup of tea or coffee!

The holidays are supposed to be a time of happiness, joy and good tidings. But there are plenty of mixed emotions that can be triggered when the holidays are upon us. The treasure trove of emotions can run the gamut from excitement and elation to sadness, anxiety and depression.

There are plenty of things that can contribute to holiday blues. These include unrealistic expectations, loneliness, nostalgia, anxiety and fear. No one is immune to having to cope with the holiday blues.

How then can you avoid the holiday blues or downright holiday depression?

Rethink Your Expectations

One thing that can help is to revise the expectations you have as well as your priorities. If you put too much pressure on yourself by expecting the holidays to be perfect then this is sure to make you feel down. In order to reduce your stress makes sure that your standards for the holidays are not impossible to reach.

Keep Socializing to a Minimum

Spreading yourself too thin over the holidays is sure to sink you into a black hole that is very blue. To prevent this from happening do not schedule too many activities for the holiday season and don’t overdo the socializing and entertaining. A little goes a long way and it is better to spend quality time with a few people in your life whom you are closest to as opposed to large gatherings of people that you barely know. Too much socializing with acquaintances and strangers is sure to make you feel worse during the holidays as opposed to better.

Shop Differently This Year

If you are one of those people who get stressed about finding the right gifts for the people in your life then steer clear of the malls and the crowds that are to be found there. Go to smaller shops and local businesses in your town as opposed to the large box stores where the lineups will be long. Other options to help you in this regard include shopping online, doing your shopping before the Christmas rush or making homemade gifts. Concerns over presents are sure to make a case of the holiday blues even worse.

Change Your Scenery

A change of scenery can help you to avoid the holiday blues or it can help you to get out of them if they have already descended upon you. If you can afford it then consider taking a trip over the holidays. The duration is not as important as the fact that you are taking yourself out of the seasonal equation and going somewhere to relax and unwind. If a trip is not within your budget then consider a day outing to somewhere that you have never gone before or somewhere you have not gone in a long time such as a museum or a park.

Watch What You Eat and Drink

Pay attention to your eating habits. It is easy to fall off the health wagon with what you are eating during the holiday season. While it is fine to enjoy a little seasonal cheer in the form of sweets and drinks do not consume too much and make sure that you continue to eat plenty of foods that are rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. One option is to allow yourself only one treat per day during the holiday season. If you do this then you will not deprive yourself of delicious goodies but you will not overindulge either. Remember too that both sugar and caffeine are found in plenty of desserts and in alcohol. Both of these ingredients can upset the balance of your emotions and can make you more vulnerable to mood swings and feeling just plain yucky.

Help Others

One of the best ways to avoid the holiday blues is to reach out and help those who are less fortunate than you are. When you get out of your own head and are able to lend a helping hand in your community this can lift your spirits and bring joy and hope into the lives of others. Find out where volunteers are needed during the holidays and then turn your attention in that direction. This is an excellent way to take your mind off your own troubles and to help shake those seasonal blues.