As a mom, I generally have a ton of stuff to get done, both at home and elsewhere. It can be pretty chaotic some days. Tuesdays are the worst for me, as my son has speech therapy in the morning, both older kids have karate in the evening, not to mention trying to get my youngest down for her nap and my oldest home from school.

That nap’s the real challenge. First speech therapy interferes with its usual schedule, but picking my oldest up from school means it has to wait even longer.

On the plus side, it’s a great day for me to combine errands.

Tuesdays are also the days that I do the grocery shopping most weeks. Why not? I have a significant part of an hour to kill while my son’s in speech therapy. Sitting and waiting for the class to end is no good; neither is going home and suddenly having to pack up to go get him with less than an hour at home.

I love combining errands like that. It’s both time and fuel efficient.

Using my minivan as efficiently as possible is important to me. It’s much more environmentally friendly that way. A warmed up vehicle uses fuel more efficiently. It can save miles of driving.

Other errands can be combined too. Where I live, there are grocery stores near enough, but for just about anything else, it’s a minimum 20 minutes driving each way. We try to combine every trip we can. I even try to have my husband stop off and do some types of errands on his way home from work if he’s not too tired. It’s just much more efficient.

Try to think about how you can combine errands before you head out. Make a list if it helps you to remember everything you need to buy or do. You’ll save time, gas and wear and tear on your vehicle. Not a bad deal for being eco friendly to boot.