Start the school year off right: Get Cozi, Make a Mint, and Send Smiles.

As busy moms, the challenge of juggling multiple schedules, managing money and sharing milestones can be overwhelming. This fall, harness the power of FREE Internet-based programs to create streamlined processes.

• Cozi is family calendar program that syncs with both Outlook and Internet based calendars, and has a function to upload your child's school calendar. Color-coding gives each person a unique schedule, it's easy enough that older kids can input their own, and reminder texts can be sent to any mobile phone. In addition, Cozi offers a family blog function, a text enabled lists, and a screen saver that collages digital pictures languishing on your hard drive.
• Mint has revolutionized our family financial management. Mint does the work...you input usernames and passwords from financial accounts, and it downloads transactions for you and e-mails a weekly summary. Easy to understand charts & trend analysis, e-mail reminders about bill due dates, low balances, and over budget warnings and automated record-keeping—what's not to love?
• Sharing milestones with family tends to get pushed to the bottom of my do list. Enter Smilebox, more fancy than an e-mail picture attachment, but less work than printing pics and mailing a card. Select a digital card design, upload your pictures or VIDEO (a new use for my Flip camera) from your hard drive into Smilebox, add some text and you've got a custom greeting to send.

I've shared my favorites, and am ready to hear about yours. What Internet-based programs do you use to make balancing family and work life a bit easier?

Guest Blogger, Jane Meier, is a mompreneur who recently launched Full Circle Partnerships and loves any discussion of how to blend family with business.