Making my own inserts for the mini and the pocket Filofax

I've just spent an hour or so making new pages for my mini Finsbury and my pocket Malden. For the mini I cut up some To Buy and Notes pages from a pad bought at B&M. Cut to size and hole punched they are in my mini. To Buy is my shopping list for the week and the Notes pages are self explanatory.

Each page is pulled out when finished with.

The pages for the pocket, which functions as a Bullet Journal, are from a pad bought from Lidl, hole punched and cut to size. I mark the holes with a pen …

… and then punch them with a normal hole punch - one hole at once.

I round the corners with a corner rounder - do these things have a name?

Rounded corners seem to look better than square corners. Not that it matters.

Now I'm going to have to clear up all the bits that have fallen into my lap.

Happy Planning.

Colours of my Filofax collection

I've just noticed that my Staples box, which contains my Filofax bits and pieces, has colours in the pattern that match the colours of my Filofaxes.

Personal Red Piazza

Personal Citrus Green Piazza

Personal Lilac Piazza

A5 Fuchsia Original

Personal Burgundy Classic Cross

Pocket Tan Classic Cross

Mini Raspberry Finsbury

Pocket Red Pennybridge

They even match the colours of the crochet blanket that I'm working on.

My Kindle Fire cover also matches
(all right - it's not a Filofax!)

My A5 Dark Aqua Original even matches the newest stripe - just.

They'll probably match my Washi tape too!

Happy Planning.

Filofax Mini Finsbury in Raspberry

I use my Filofax mini Finsbury in raspberry as a wallet and it comes with me every time I venture out with a view to buying, travelling or recording information.

As such I keep here any cards I may need plus some added extras. The first page (badge holder) holds my ICE (in case of emergency) information with contact details of nearest and dearest.

On the other side is a list of my medication and major health issues just in case I have an accident. There's a little pencil I found tucked in the page. Next up are some holders of bus time information.

The middle section houses the diary starting with a yearly calendar, closely followed by ...

a week on two pages for the daily diary. The pages that came with the new to me Finsbury were 2011 but the majority of the year corresponds to 2016. I just alter 2011 to 2016 and I have a full diary recycled.

The notes section is cut down pages from a notes pad from B&M Bargains. They are easy pull out and I can jot down anything I wish - usually a shopping list but sometimes information or contact details.

A receipts pocket is handy for putting in … receipts of course ...

and there is a spare holder for any coupons. My ring protector is a crocheted version and tones nicely with the raspberry colour.

I did have a trolley coin hanging from the attached key ring but I changed it for some tinkling bells. They tinkle so much that I think I may put the trolley coin back and take these bells off!!!

At the back is a zipped pocket where I keep a few coins. They are not easy to get out but they are handy. The pen I found in my collection of motley pens and it just fits the pen holder.

Around the wallet is a large opening which contains notes.

The mini is small enough to carry around and large enough to hold what I want to carry with me as well as being a delight to hold.

Please click on the labels below for more detailed information linked to this mini.

Happy Planning

D.I.Y. Card holders for a pocket Filofax

Top loading badge holders off Ebay from Japan are nearly the right length to fit in my pocket Malden. They were, however, not wide enough and I needed some way of adding holes for them to fit.

We found a sheet of clear acetate in our study and I cut a page size out.

I used Washi tape to secure the badge holder to the acetate and then punched some holes and rounded off the corners.

Cards fit perfectly and they can be zipped in if necessary.

I put 2 cards in each holder as both sides can be seen.

A perfect fit. Ten of these holders cost me £1.55.

My D.I.Y. card holders for a mini Filofax can be found here.

Happy Planning.

Filofax system

At the moment the following system is working for me. Of course, systems change all the time due to circumstance, re-organisation and whim!

1. Brain Dump

This Filofax Pocket Malden is a 'take around with me in the home' place to put down everything that occurs to me - facts, ideas, things to do, thoughts. This Bullet Journal way of working has proved to work in motivating me to 'Get Things Done'.

2. From here I filter relevant details to my -

a. ABC list and information black organiser

b. Filofax Personal Malden Daily Planner and Diary

c. 'Out and about' Filofax Mini Finsbury wallet

d. Hobby organisers - Filofax A5 originals

e. Home Binder - Filofax A4 Finsbury

3. Then comes the action. The facts are noted and acted upon if necessary. e.g. looking up the date of St. George's Day and digesting the information.

The ideas are added to the Project List if necessary and further broken down for the Master To Do list. 

The To Dos are put in the daily diary so they will get done.

The thoughts are pondered upon and may be put into action or dismissed.

So far, so good.

Happy Planning.

Using badge holders for credit cards in a Filofax

For the grand total of £1.28 and a few weeks wait for the order to arrive from China, I now have some plastic holders for my cards, which will fit in my Filofax mini Finsbury. 

The pre-punched holes in the holders were spaced exactly in the right place and I only had to punch 2 more holes for them to fit.

I received 20 of these holders and I can see a further use for them in my mini, holding printed information on bus times plus more.

Happy Planning

Re-purposing old or out of date Calendar and Address Filofax pages

Firstly those multiplying diary pages. I recently bought a Filofax mini Finsbury which came with 2011 diary pages. I was about to relegate these to the scrap paper folder when I had a thought. I wonder when this yearly diary will come round again with the same days and dates. I compared it with my 2016 diary pages and was excited to note that the days and dates were exactly the same so I altered 2011 to 2016 with a black pen and now have an up to date diary in my mini. This made me think which other years were identical in days and dates so I looked it up on the great net and found this site.

Now that was funny, why wasn't 2011 exactly the same as 2016? The answer was that in between there are leap years. I was comparing the calendars in March when the days and dates lined up. If I compared them in January or February they wouldn't line up so my 2011 to 2016 calendars only match from March onwards. Not to worry, if I'd started in January I would have only had to alter 2 months of dates.

My easy answer for matching calendars is to just add 5 on to your old calendar year. The answer will give you a year that is compatible from March onwards or, if you want to be exact, go to the calendar matching site but here you could wait quite a while before your old calendar comes around again.

My easy answer is a compromise but would work if you are not too fussy.

eg.

1999 - 2004 - 2009 - 2013 - 2018

simple and no more throwing away old calendar pages.

Next those calendar pages or other pages of which you have no need. My answer to this is Washi tape. I'm not into decorating but if it saves wasting paper then I'm in. 

Below is a weekly page with the lettering just covered over in tape.

I made a To Do page using this method.

Here's an address page (These pages multiply like nobody's business.) 

which I've taped and white stickered over to make a Notes page.

There is hope for your old pages so give them a new lease of life and help avoid waste. Eventually these pages, once used and written over will either be archived or recycled in the compost or council paper waste.

Happy Planning