Routine Reset - Simple Home Routine Strategies that Help Me Save Money

Here’s how I get my home, meals, and money back on track with these practical routine reset ideas. Simple, budget-friendly habits to refresh the year.

weekly planner on a knitted background with coffee and a candle

From the outside, I look like a type-A organised mum. But the truth is, I rely heavily on systems, routines, and external reminders because…

…oh look! There goes a shiny new distraction.

No joke, I have an alarm set on my phone to remind me to pick the kids up from school every day.

Every day for over a decade, we start the morning with the alarm set to ‘Uptown Funk’ and end it with the ‘Imperial March’. I’m pretty sure my kids have developed an overwhelming urge to put on their socks whenever they hear Bruno Mars.

The thing about routines is that they can get stale quickly. The seasons change, the kids’ activities change. And the colour-coded schedule no longer works.

And routines can get boring (although we still haven’t tired of Bruno).

Nevertheless, they seriously reduce cognitive load.

So instead of throwing the routines out the window, a routine reset every now and then can help.

Maybe once a school term, once a season, or halfway through the year, I get out the old routines, dust them off, give them a touch-up with shiny new colours, and they almost feel brand new.

Routines to Save Time and Money

Routines come in all shapes and sizes: household, weekly, and budgeting routines all have a place in a well-run household.

They save time, money, and brain power.

Even if they do need switching up regularly.

For example, we have a timber outdoor setting that needs to be oiled a few times a year. It’s a pain in the butt, and no one likes doing it.

But if we don’t, the timber rots.

To make sure we do it, I have a recurring task in my task software. That one little digital reminder keeps the furniture from rotting. Unless we don’t oil it, of course.

Below, I’ve shared some of my favourite strategies, as well as some of the digital tools I use as a second brain to take some of the thinking (or forgetting) out of it.