Guest Post - Ashlene - Tracking my Finances with a Filofax.

Thank you to Ashlene for this Guest Post, we often read/hear people say 'I use my Filofax for Tracking Finances' or other things in our every day life, but quite often a brief description doesn't often help us to try out these ideas, so seeing an actual example is great! Thank you Ashlene for sharing this with us and for the great photos too.  

For a while now I have been trying to make a Filofax work for me as a wallet/purse in order to keep a track of my finances. I've tried pocket and mini sizes and even incorporating my cards and cash into my everyday personal Filofax, but nothing works for me. Then a few weeks ago I began to think that I was maybe trying to make the Filofax work too hard for me. I'm very fussy when it comes to wallets/purses and none of my Filofax experiments lived up to my expectations of what a wallet should do. I wanted a Filofax that would hold cash, cards and coins and most Filofaxes just are not designed to do that. So I came up with a happy medium that has been serving me well for the last few weeks and has also been helping me keep track of my finances. This is one of my goals for this year as I am notoriously bad with money and my boyfriend has recently started talking about buying a house together, so it's time to stop spending and start saving.

Meet my compact Holborn in Wine. I picked this up in Easons (an Irish stationery chain) a few weeks ago. When I first laid eyes on it I knew it was going to work perfectly as my new 'Financial' Filofax. It's thin enough to fit in my handbag but had loads of pockets for receipts, bills, pay slips, etc. Let's take a tour

The credit card pockets on the inside cover hold my credit card and store cards. Most of these are paid off but my aim this year is to clear the credit card and Debenham's card. None of these cards get spent on and I keep them here so I can find them easily when I want to make a payment.

Receipts for recent purchases also get kept in this pocket until I have time to record them on my Finance pages which are kept further on into the Filofax.

At the front of the Filofax, I keep a tabbed month on two pages diary for recording when bills and payments need to be made. I highlight each bill so I can see them easily and I put a little tick beside each once it's been paid. I also record each time I fill my car up with fuel and how many miles I got out of the last fill up.

After the diary, I have a few sheets of Filofax Finance pages. I use some of these to track any daily spending on my debit card (although I'm trying to minimise this) and I also have a sheet for my Debenham's card and credit card so I can see at a glance how much I still owe and track my repayments, interest, etc.

I keep all my reward cards in the Holborn in credit card holders. It's easy to find the card I'm looking for and they are also easily accessible.

Now we come to the back of the Holborn (and my favourite part!). Here, I keep 10 top opening envelopes which are used to budget my money each month. This envelope system is quite popular in America and involves breaking your monthly salary into the the main categories you spend in and putting a certain amount of money into envelopes labeled with each category. Once you have spent all the money in a certain envelope, you cannot spend any more money in that category until you get paid again. I have always liked this budgeting method but this is the first time I have really got it to work for me. My 10 categories are:

- Fuel
- Luxuries (getting my nails and hair done, etc)
- Entertainment (cinema, etc)
- Cosmetics (make up, shampoo, moisturiser, etc)
- Savings (the money which needs to go into my savings account)
- Gifts (used for any month when I have to but birthday gifts, etc)

My monthly food budget is then divided roughly across 4 envelopes. One for each week:

- Week 1
- Week 2
- Week 3
- Week 4

Finally, at the back of the Holborn, I keep my most recent pay slip and my Credit Union book which I need for lodging my savings. The pocket beside the pen loop houses any bills which need to paid which then get filed away once the payment is made.

So that's my set up, but you may be wondering where I keep my loose change. That's kept  in my cute little Kipling wallet along with my debit card, my three most frequently used reward cards (Tescos, Sainsburys and Easons) and my driver's licence. Each week I move my weekly food budget from the Holborn into my Kipling wallet. This means I don't have to carry the Holborn around with me all the time and this stops me impulse buying because all of my cards are in the Holborn. I was never going to be happy carrying loose change in a Filofax and I don't like having a gigantic purse either so this is my happy medium - a tiny wallet of essentials and my compact Holborn for everything else and keeping track of my finances. This set up is working really well for me so far and I hope you have enjoyed this tour around my Financial Filofax .

Thank you Ashlene, and of course if you would like to share anything Filofax or ring bound organiser related with us as a guest post please get in touch philofaxy at gmail dot com

This post first appeared on Philofaxy back February 2013

Laurie's personal Aston as Financial Filofax

Now that I'm trying to become homeowner, I have to stick to a strict budget. I know Personal Finances 101: the first step to sticking to a budget is to track all expenditures.

Last fall I used Expenses pages in my Filofax to track my expenditures, and it was really good except I never did anything with the information. This time it's for real: I have to calculate how much I'm spending each month on groceries, gas, and other expenses so I know if I'm sticking to the budget or if I'm overspending and need to cut back. So I write everything I spend into the Expenses pages in my Filofax, then at the end of each month I'll break down the totals by category.

For a few days I used my Aston as my wallet too. I used the full-length pocket inside the front cover for cash and the zip pocket in the back for coins.  My cards went in the slots inside the front cover. But I discovered this was harder to deal with than my wallet. Maybe I'm just used to my wallet, but I found the Filofax-as-wallet was too fiddly. I had the cards and cash in the front, but had to flip to the back to fish out coins. I had to flip to the expenditures pages to write in the amount while waiting for my change or for my card to process. It just didn't work well for me so I went back to my wallet, and now I usually put my receipts in my wallet to write in later when I have more time.

In addition to tracking expenses, I'm tracking gas (petrol) usage to get an idea of how much my car uses. I have a sheet of paper where I write the Date, Place I filled up, Price per Liter, Number of Liters I bought, and Total cost. That way I can see how often I fill up, and see price trends so I know which places usually have the cheapest prices.

Recently I became a member of one of those bulk-buying stores. I keep a list in my Aston of things to buy there, because I plan to only go once per month or less so I need to keep a running list.

I'm also making a list of items I buy periodically (like printer ink cartridges) with price comparisons at different stores. Whenever I happen to be in each store, I'll write the price of each thing so the next time I need to buy, I'll know which store to buy at.

I'm compiling a list of one-time purchase items we'll need for the house. There are some big-ticket items, like a lawnmower and electric hedge trimmer, all the way down to more mundane things like a mop and bucket. I'll note prices at different stores so when it's time to buy these I'll know where to get them.

And, I'm making a wish list and gift list for myself and family members, so when something we want goes on sale I can remember to buy it.

Because this Filofax goes everywhere in my bag with me, I also write things down that I want to do in the local area or elsewhere in Scotland. I'm always seeing notices for cool events that are coming to the castles near me, concerts, cultural events and other fun stuff. Now with my Aston handy I can capture all this information before I forget.

Also, in the front of my Filofax I keep Emergency information and numbers, car insurance info, and the Home Sweet Home form from the Family Lifestyle Pack for quick-reference numbers for utility companies, phone/ internet and mobile providers, etc.

I don't use this Filo as my planner, but I do use a monthly calendar in it to record coupon expiration dates so I can use them before they expire.  I also write in bills' due dates, and I keep a list of recurring annual expenses (car insurance x 2, MOT inspections and car tax x 2, Life and Accident insurance, Home insurance, etc.). Keeping a list of these dates and amounts due reminds me to save a little each month for these to avoid being surprised with a big outlay when they are due.

I have a Sticky Notes accessory because I use sticky flags to mark my lists. I refill the accessory with tape flags from Tesco.

I also have my Filofax calculator on the rings for quick calculations.

And, I keep my contacts in the A-Z tabs for easy reference.

I use Business Card holders in the back of the Aston to hold business cards and my library card.

Sorry no photos but since this is all personal/ financial info there's nothing I can really show you!  If you want more specifics just let me know. :)