Organize Your Life Herald Sun Press in Cheryl Critchley's Parenting Column

I was recently asked for a quote to go in an article, which appeared in yesterdays Herald Sun in Cheryl Critchley's Parenting Column & is Author of 'Unspoil Your Kids'. The title, was "Feeling off Colour?", in relation to food additives - which is close to my heart, as both my children are intolerant / allergic to lots of them!

I have written a short article on the topic (below) in relation to what has helped our family navigate the very confusing world of food additives; food preservatives; food labeling and food additive intolerances and allergies in general. I know first hand it can be stressfull nightmare, so I hope this helps you at the beginning of our food allergy diagnosis.

“Get Organized to keep nasty additives out of your life and shopping trolley”
By Claire McFee Author of Organize Your Life

Until my kids were diagnosed by a Naturopath with several food intolerances, I had no idea how many nasty’s were in the food we ate and the effects they were having on them. For a few years I struggled with which numbers I had to avoid when shopping and found it really hard to remember which ones were which. Thankfully a couple of things have turned this process into a ‘normal’ experience rather than an overwhelming one.

• Use an Additive Card when shopping
Thankfully along came Katy from Smart Snacks and her brilliant Additive Card that I could put in my purse and easily refer to when out and about. It makes your life so much easier!!! You can just circle the additives that you need to avoid – using a different colour pen for each family member.

• Use a Food Additive List
The other tip I recommend is using a List like we have on our Organize Your Life e-Organizer - to make a note of the additives and products in general that your family need to stay away from that you can use for shopping; with babysitters and for sleepovers at your friends’ places.

• Say goodbye to those Nasty Side Effects
I certainly don’t miss the behavioural issues we had pre-diagnosis that’s for sure! It makes you wonder how many kids are misdiagnosed with things like ADD when it could just be an additive or gluten intolerance/Allergy.

• Spread the word
Like me, be sure to tell your friends about your experience, so they can look into this as the possible cause of any issues they may be having. It is soooo much more common than people realize and we as consumers need to help spread the word to keep the pressure on the food companies and Government when it comes to what is allowed in our foods and how foods are labelled.

These things can make a huge difference to creating a less stressed life, by helping you pre-plan what your family puts into their mouths and prevent any of those nasty side effects.


If you have any questions in relation to you or your children's food allergy / diagnosis etc I would be happy to answer your questions and do my best to help.

till next time,


Happy Organizing
Claire McFee
Organize Your Life Organizers

ps: When you buy the complete "Organize Your Life" e-Organizer download with ALL 4 Life Organizers we will throw in a Free copy of the "Organize Your Life" eBook worth $17. The e-Organizer is a convenient, comprehensive, versatile, and interactive e-organizational product you can type into on your computer or printable out if you prefer - EASY!

Discover the 7 Essentials for Guilt-Free Living for Business Mothers

Discover the 7 Essentials for Guilt-Free Living for Business Mothers

Are you struggling with not enough time to do what is important to you? Is juggling business and motherhood hard work most days? Do you want to make more money but cannot see how in the time you have?

Make sure you join Valerie McDougall and Jayne Jennings of Guilt Free Business Mothers.com with their special guests from the 3rd February for a FREE 7 Week teleseminar series. They will reveal:

• the common mistakes many of us make trying to be more organised and how you can AVOID them - and save yourself precious time and money
• those words you MUST know NOW to increase your financial intelligence (and your money!)
• the key steps you NEED to take if you want to enjoy the benefits of greater self confidence in business
• the very real impact work and stress are having on women’s hormones and what you need to do to STOP this happening to you
• how you CAN create a delicious relationship with your partner while growing a business and nurturing your family
• the SIMPLE steps you can use to move from frantic to fun family life
• how to identify and overcome the GUILT trap.

If you are ready to escape the daily struggle and enjoy more time and money – guilt free - this is for you! Register today.

Important: You need to register to take advantage of the special offers during the calls.

Hope to see you on the call.

Happy Organizing
Claire McFee
Organize Your Life Organizers

New Mini Organizer / Life Planner to help Organize Your Life with matching Bargain Mini-price Tag

We are excited to announce a brand new Mini-Organizer full of the most commonly used and needed household Lists, Planners and Journals & Calendar for your Busy Family Life.

We have a great Introductory Price of only $17...And once you see how much easier it makes your life you can upgrade to the whole Organize Your Life Organizer for only $47 (rrp $87) A Bargain no matter what way you look at it - So get in FAST!

To check it out just go to this webpage - Organize Your Life for more info and if you want a sneak peak of what is inside our Organizers just click on one of the demo vidoes on the Organize Your Life website.

FYI the complete set of Organize Your Life Organizers covers Organizing your Family; Organizing Your Money; Organizing Your Self and Organizing Your Home. As part of the upgrade offer not only will you save $40, but you will also get a free copy of our accompanying Organize Your Life eBook worth $17

Until next time,

Claire McFee
Author Organize Your Life :)

Forget New Years Resolutions and get ready for some Great 2010 Goals Now

Well we are nearly at the end of January, with Summer School holidays coming to an end here in Australia. After over a month already I am ready to get back into my normal routine - and not feel torn between work and the kids. It's been a great summer holiday but my thoughts are starting to focus more on the year ahead and what I want from it and what action i need to take to achieve those goals! That of course means getting these Goals 'down on paper' as they say - even though these days that just as often means typing into a computer file!

As I've said for years - New Years Resolutions invariably don't work due to the craziness of that time of year and holding off till February to get your goals happening is way more realistic and therefore achievable.

My goals have to do with streamlining the business further; outsourcing more; getting great new publicity for Organize Your Life etc. on the home front my goals have to do with having a smooth transition into our new house; to get the garden started etc, etc. What are you main Resolutions you want to achieve in the coming months.

go to our website for more articles on how to achieve your goals, step by step. You can do it!!

Happy Organizing
Claire McFee
Organize Your Life Organizers

Organizing Deferred Payment and a great discount on New Furniture

Boring to some but exciting to us at the moment, with tens of thousands of dollars going towards the final stages of building our house every cent saved at the moment makes a big difference. So exciting to only be a few months away from moving into the new house after all this time! (it's been 4 years since we bought the block.)

Anyway, there are some amazing Furniture sales on at the moment, so I of course organized myself a trip into town to check them out - for the best possible discount of course.

A couch/sofa was specifically what we were after on this shopping trip, so that meant using the Butt Test - as our lovely Harvey Norman Salesman jokingly referred to it as! We sat in lots of couches and one couch surpassed all others in 'butt comfort'. A beautiful dark brown leather couch you could easily fall asleep in - Bliss.

Next thing was taking advantage of the finance packages on offer. Due to lower cash flow while Neil has been working on the house and huge expenses building the house -not having to dip into the house mortgage sounded pretty good. We were able to get an amazing deferred payment plan with www.gemoney.com where apart from a small monthly account keeping fee and set up charge, we don't have to pay a cent for ...wait for it... 33 months!!! Sounds too good to be true I know, but we have actually done this once before about 15 years ago when we were first starting out and it is all ligit.


As long as you pay the loan / deferred amount in full by the end of that time, you can save a fortune. If you don't pay the full payment out at the end, by being organized enough with your money and budgeting for the upcoming expense, that is when you get hit with exorbitant interest charges.

That said if careful it is a great way to buy items but not have to outlay for them upfront. I love it!!

Oh and I was also able to get another 5% discount off the 20% already being offered which is always a huge bonus with bug purchases. My husband really wanted an ottoman to put his feet up at the end of a long day and I really wanted a single armchair to curl up with a book in a sunlit corner but the price was ending up to more than we had budgeted, so I simply told the salesman that those two items weren't definite yet.

I said nicely :) - "Let me know if you can do a slightly better deal and I might be able to still buy it all"...So he went to the head boss and came back saying ok. So that was another huge win. the lesson here is that it can't hurt to ask - even when an item is already on sale. Have an organized approach to this and plan out what you are going to say before hand as this usually pays off.

So if you are in the market for some new household items try these shopping budget tips to get the best bargain and value for you dollar!

Claire McFee Author & Founder
Organize Your Life Organizers

For more tips on money budgeting work etc go to this article at Organize Your Life

Retail Shop Therapy Brain Turn Around saves you Money & Guilt

Hopefully you spent wisely for Christmas and haven't overdone it by spending money you don't have. Read on to find out more about how the mind works when it comes to shopping / retail therapy...

How Retail shop therapy brain turn around saves you money & guilt....

Neuropsychologist David Lewis “Since the recession (due to the GFC) began, it has become apparent that shoppers are doing an about-face and turning away from purchases that once turned them on.”

Good news for your hip pocket – we are less likely to impulse spend and therefore regret it later emotionally and financially. Experts suggest there are a few reasons for this trend - Where in the past our brain allowed certain unhelpful chemicals to make buying decisions for us, through better awareness we are now more likely to let the more sensible chemicals win out, which is clearly the better way to go.....curbing your spending habits.

Shoppers are more aware than ever - due to growing popularity of environmental and social justice groups - that doing the right thing can have a huge personal and environmental and social knock on effect. We are then more likely to donate to worthy charities if we aren’t over stretched from unnecessary shopping purchases. We then feel better about ourselves emotionally and the less fortunate are better off, which is good all round!! Less stress, more money in our pocket and bank accounts. Win Win!

Quick tip , take a shopping list when shopping with what you NEED, not what you WANT or would like, and don't get anything if it's not on the list!!!

Happy Organizing
Claire McFee
Organize Your Life Organizers