Parents CAN Connect: Cozi

Gone are the days of forgetting your grocery list at home.

 

Never again will your husband forget your birthday or, gasp!, anniversary.

 

Forgetting to make cupcakes until 11 p.m. the day before the big bake sale?  A thing of the past.

How, you ask, am I able to keep everything together?  Its definitely not this memory of mine, I'll tell you that much.  I think each child I birthed took a little of my mind along with them.

 

I use Cozi. It is the ULTIMATE family organizer.  Its always at my fingertips.  Best of all?  It is great at reminding me what I have to do and when.  And, I will preface this by saying that in no way has Cozi encouraged me to write this blog.  I am not being paid or given free product.  I truly, genuinely LIKE using Cozi and it has helped my family immensely!  The pictures below were all screen shots from my iPhone 4.  You can check out the website www.cozi.com and check it out there. 

Below is a picture of the Cozi app on my phone.  I use it so much its on my first 'page' of my phone.  You know... where all the important stuff is... like Facebook.  And Pinterest.

Ok, Ok, Ok.  I realize I have 68 unread Mail Messages.  That's not what you are supposed to be looking at!  And really... its junk mail.  I promise!

 

So, now you are asking, what IS Cozi?  Its an app.  Plain and simple.  I use the app on my iPhone, Kindle Fire, and laptop.  I am fairly certain Cozi is available on pretty much any device you have.  There is both a paid version and a free version.  The free version includes ads, which aren't incredibly bothersome, but I can see where an ad-free version could cause less headache on small devices, such as a smartphone.  Cozi has a calendar, shopping lists, journal, meal planner, to-do lists... and more!  Plus, it is easy to stay connected with a family password.  My husband's Cozi app provides the same family information that mine does.  So, if I enter an item onto our grocery list, he can see it... and vice versa, of course.  Your family chooses a private password to access your account.  This way, your account is private, but still easy to share with family!

 

 

Cozi's homepage is very pleasant looking. Its easy to personalize and very easy to navigate.  I normally do have a family portrait there, but well.... You don't really want to see all of our ugly mugs.

 

 

 

 

I have our Florda Packing list in my shopping lists.  Don't ask me why I stuck it there.  I just did.  My husband and I are going to be SOOO on top of things this year when we pack the car.  No more, Did you pack the sunscreen, honey?  and, I think so, dear, coming from our lips this year!

 

And no, we are most definitely not that polite when packing the car for a trip to Florida with 3 excited kids underfoot.  For the sake of our marriage, we will pretend that we are....

 

 



 

 

The menus are easy to navigate and simple to use.  A+, Cozi!

 

 

 

 

 

I have yet to use the journal feature, as I find I do enough 'journaling' via Facebook.  However, it would be nice to keep some thoughts down as to places we went and how we liked them, for future reference.

 

 

 

Everything loads quickly.  One thing I hate about some apps is there tendency to make you wait and wait for them to load.  No waiting here!  In all actuality, I'm amazed I was able to catch a screen-shot of the loading screen.

 

 

I have to say that my most used features of Cozi are the shopping lists and calendar.  Each member of your family is designated a color -- you can change these colors in settings.  So, as you add events for the family, you can add it as a family event, or specify it for a certain member, or members.  I am a little OCD when it comes to pretty calendars, so this color coding is right up my alley.  You can have items repeat so you don't have to enter them in weekly or monthly.  You can even import your child's school calendar!!  I refrained from taking screenshots of the calendar to protect my own privacy.  You can add so much information easily, so I can stay super organized, but its not so great for sharing publicly. 

 

I really could go on and on about the benefits of this app.  It has made my life so much easier.  My husband doesn't have to ask what we need from the store.  I can easily take a look at my schedule and make sure things arent interfering wth one anoher.  I can go on my computer and print up our monthly schedule to hang on the fridge.  I can even print up a meal plan to help save us from eating out because we forgot to plan dinner! 

Sanity Saving.

Money Saving.

Life Saving!

That is the Cozi app in my life!