Day: October 8, 2010

A confession by the Organized Mom, Lorraine Brock
I have to confess I love to save money… bargain hunt, if you will. As organized as I am, I do have moments where my mind cannot seem to keep up with the order I so desperately desire.
This week, allow me to share a story of how the “Organized Mom” was not so organized. It all began with an attempt – and I emphasize the word attempt – to have a Discount Date Night with my husband.
A Discount Date Night is an evening when your dinner and activities are planned using only coupons and/or gift cards you have accumulated. So often people forget about these paper and plastic treasures that my husband and I make a point to have a particular date night geared towards using our gift certificates and gift cards.
On this one particular date I planned. I began looking for coupons well in advance for our dinner. I searched all the best sites for discounted dinner coupons, looked through coupon books and raided my coupon pouch full of unused coupons. After a little time searching, I bought a coupon on line for our upcoming date.
I then turned my attention to our entertainment. We had decided to go to a movie that night after dinner, because we had a gift card that would pay for our tickets, lacking maybe a few dollars.
A few nights later we were off on our date. Excited to be with my hubby and go out for a nominal cost put a huge smile on my face.
Upon arrival at the restaurant, we decided to splurge a little more this time. Why not? We had a coupon. When it came time to order the meal, we decided to order some menu items that were a little more expensive than we might normally have chosen. Of course, we topped it all off with dessert.
When the bill came, I reached in my purse for the coupon. However, the coupon was nowhere to be found. I then thought I had left it in the car. It was not in the car either. Then it dawned on me… I had never gotten it off the printer a few days earlier.
My husband leaned over and said, in the sweetest way, “You know, I know this hot chick that owns a company called, Get Organized! I bet she can help you get organized.” As much as I was frustrated with myself for not being better organized; I laughed it off as we paid for the meal and headed off to the movies.
As we entered the lobby to purchase our ticket from the machine, I was again excited to not add any additional cost to our already over the budget evening. I was confident the movie gift card would pay for the majority of the cost of our two movie tickets.
My husband began the transaction by swiping both the gift card and our debit card through the machine. I noticed that he continued to swipe all the cards multiple times. After receiving the same message a few times with the wording “Transaction not accepted,” he looked at the card once more. He finally said, “Lorraine, this gift card is for Cinemark theaters, we’re at an AMC.” Oops!
Lorraine Brock is a professional organizer, family coach, speaker, and founder and owner of “Get Organized!” “Get Organized!” is a professional organizing company in the Dallas, Texas area. “Get Organized!” specializes in organizing and de-cluttering homes as well as implementing systems in the home for better family management.
A popular media guest, Lorraine has appeared on Dallas’ two top morning television shows: Good Morning Texas and Good Day Fox, and has been featured on various radio outlets. She has been hallmarked in many local, regional, and national print and online magazines, such as the Dallas Morning News, The North Texas Kids Magazine, SheKnows.com, and Daily Candy Kids. To get more helpful advice from Lorraine, visit her blog Get Organized!