Filofax Tour

* You can download and use any of the inserts I have created. Just scroll down to the very end of the post for the links.

As promised earlier on this week, I have put together a little tour through my Filofax.

I suppose the best place to start is to answer the question, 'What is a Filofax?' It is a personal organizer. Think Home Journal but in purse size. It has everything I need to run an organized home and keep on top of every day life and it's mobile. It fit's in  my handbag so it is always available to me. The Filofax has various sections for you to manage various aspects of your life. You can customize your Filofax by adding sections that would be useful to you. You can pretty it up, embellish the pages, generally it can be artistically pretty and functional at the same time. Love it :)

Now I have had my Filofax for YEARS. But it was looking really tatty and has been on the shelf for a good two years - unused.

 Instead I have been juggling a daily diary, a budget keeping book to keep track of expenses and a diary for meal planning. Too many different books!

So I decided to give my Filofax (personal size) a re-vamp and put it back into use. I started with the cover I made a few years ago that really needed adjusting to make it exactly what I wanted. I posted about this on Sunday. With that done, I began on the inside, the 'working' part of my organizer. 

Incidentally - there are a load of Filofax posts and videos out there to inspire you and show you how to set up your own Filofax. I started my own Pinterest Filofax board for ideas and inspiration. Now you can buy lots of various inserts from a good stationery store, but to be honest, this works out to be quite costly. The only things I bought for my re-vamp was a diary insert and a punch to fit my Filofax pages. This I feel is a good investment as I like to create my own pretty pages anyway, it makes my organizer my own with my own 'stamp' on it.

So, let's start the tour...

In the front of my organizer, I have a picture I downloaded - this will more than likely change, it was just something I found to put into the plastic sleeve in the front of my organizer. You can see peeking out right at the back I have a card that I need to write out and post today.

Behind this plastic sleeve, I printed out free month-at-a-glance pages and added a tab to the bottom of the first page for quick and easy access. This gives me an overview of what is going on in my month.

After these pages is my 'Diary' section. As I mentioned I did buy this insert as I think it is probably cheaper to do so than the cost of my ink as well as you get all those extras like yearly calendars, moon phases, holidays etc... There are always various options to choose from, I chose a week on two pages.

As you can see I have already started decorating my diary pages. You can add washi tape, stickers, your own hand-drawn artwork - the options are endless. 

Another great thing about a Filofax and diary is that any appointment cards just get punched and added into the diary insert at the appropriate place. So for instance, DH has two post-op follow-up appointments in February. I have of course written them down on the dates in my diary, but I have also punched and put the appointment cards into that week's section as they have contact numbers and addresses of the appointments.

I will more than likely also place 'repeat prescription' requests into the relevant weeks so that all I have to do is slip them out and hand them in when I see them. No need to try to remember to order the next months medication.

After the Diary section, I have made a section labelled, 'To Do'. 

I have created my own pretty pages, but there are free downloads out there. 

Now I can work this section in two ways. I can either keep all my 'To Do' lists behind this tab or I can take the current 'To Do' page for the week and slot it into the corresponding diary page insert thus keeping appointments and 'To Do's' together.

After 'To Do', I have 'Expenses. 

Behind this section, I have a copy of the current months budget as well as a page I created called 'The Expense tracker'. This page has 5 columns: Date, Expense, +/-, £, Balance. This page is to keep track of all spending, budgeted or not. It helps me to keep on top of my spending so that I can see for instance how much of my housekeeping I have spent, or how much of our disposable we have spent.

Behind 'Expenses' I have 'Faith'. This is another of my own inserts that I wanted in my organizer.

I have created 3 pages for this section.
 Prayer List...

Scripture and Sermon Notes: this one is used for my own quiet time notes as well as taking notes during a sermon.

And a page entitled, 'Celebrating Our Faith' where I can write out some plans to celebrate those important Christian holidays and feast days.

Again, any of these pages can be slotted into the current week of the diary insert if I wanted.

Behind 'Faith' comes 'Notes'. This is basically just notepaper. I often need to jot something down, whether it is a telephone number, a website I want to look up, a book title I want to check out of the library -  you know how it goes, so this is handy to have.

Again, you can buy coloured lined or blank notepaper, but I have created my own.

Behind 'Notes' I have inserted another section but have not yet decided what to use it for. I am leaning towards 'Housekeeping' where I will have menu plans, shopping lists and recipes for home-made cleaners etc.

Behind that section is a section labelled, 'Planning'. 

I have not created pages for this section yet as I still have quite a few left over from an insert pack I bought ages ago, but as I use them up I am sure I will be creating my own :)

This section is to be used for - well, planning. Planning of birthday celebrations, holidays, needlework/knitting projects, entertaining - anything that requires a bit of thought, list making and budgeting :o)

Behind 'Planning' comes 'Addresses' - which is exactly what it says. Names, addresses, numbers etc of friends and family.

Other things that I think I might like to add to my Filofax would be a Birthday Calendar and Gifts List. I think that these would prove to be useful to keep track of loved one's special days during the year and ensuring that no one is left out!

So there we have it - the tour is complete. My life - organized in one prettily clad binder that travels with me :) 

Check out my Filofax Pinterest board. In fact, type in Filofax in the search box on Pinterest - you will be amazed at how many boards there are out there!

Follow Shirley Ann's board Filofax on Pinterest.

If you would like to download any of my pages to use please feel free.
* To Do
* Notes
* Faith
* Expense Tracker