Keeping Track of Our Girls' Extra CoCo Activities And Payments

This year I am even busier than last year with my chauffeuring duties.   Alycia has just started her martial arts classes, which means more trips for me to do.  The martial arts classes are not just once a week, but three times a week. Freaking THREE times a week that lasts until late evening.  On Wednesdays and Fridays she has kickboxing from 7-8:15 p.m.  and on Tuesdays, she has Muay Thai from 7 - 8:15 p.m.  Next year Alycia may want to drop kickboxing to learn yoga, which ends at 9:30 p.m.!   This year too, I may want to send Cass for BM tuition as I don't think I have anymore sanity and patience  left to tutor this kid who makes me vomit blood.

God, give me a driver pretty please!!🙏

To remember who goes where and at what time each day, I have handwritten down a very simple reminder for myself listing down the girls' activities.  This note is stuck to a cupboard next to my work desk. I look at it several times in a day.  This list does not include Sherilyn's tuition and activities in the morning. I don't write those down as her morning routine is pretty much etched in my memory after going through the motions with her for a year last year.





Payments
I also have a payment list in Microsoft Excel that lists down our 3 girls' tuition and CoCo activities and the fees for each.  I write the date on the payment column each time payment is made. I created this payment list as a reminder when I forgot to pay Yamaha for 2 months when Cass first attended piano lessons! What an embarrassment it was for me when the owner called me to remind me to pay. It made me feel like I deliberately evaded payment🤭

Last year, I received a standard warning letter from one of Sherilyn's tuition centres when I forgot to make payment for that month. I was only late for one week. I was only late for ONE WEEK and the kiasu tuition centre shot out the letter to me!  Last year too, I received text messages twice from Sherilyn's BM tuition centre when I was late in paying fees for that 2 months.

To prevent all these unnecessary annoying warning letters and text messages from harassing me making me feel like I am a loan defaulter, I have come up with some fool-proof reminders to remind myself to prepare the girls' fees each month. Since then, I have never once forgotten to make payment 😁😁

Easy reminders for myself on payment
To remind myself to prepare the various fees amounting to several thousands each month, I first key in  reminders in my e-Calendar on my desktop computer.
On the last day of each month, I prepare all the fees needed to pay the girls' school transporters, music centre, tuition centres and gym for next month.

The fees required for the girls' different types of activities will be placed individually in an ang pow packet or envelope with the name of the receiver written on it. Then all the ang pow packets and envelopes will be kept in a big zipper bag which I place in my handbag. Before dropping off the girls at the tuition centre / gym, I pass them the ang pow / envelope for them to pass it to the centre.

I also have reminders made in my e-Calendar to remind the girls to request for receipts from the tuition centres / gym. Not taking any chances of not filing receipts anymore when many yonks back, one of the tuition centres owner claimed that I did not make payment but payment was made and she was too busy to issue me with a receipt.  The centre owner even forgot that she told me that she would give me a receipt the following week but that following week, she had the cheek to tell me that she did not receive my money.  I got so pissed that I pulled Alycia and Sherilyn out from the tuition centre.

Do you have similar reminders too for your children's activities and payments?