Filofax Girl

I've been seeing lots of questions about which Filofax might be best to use as a wallet. Naturally, depending on what you need and your personal preferences, your mileage will vary, but I use my Filofax personal sized Malden as my wallet and it's working out very well.

So here (in a rather large nutshell) is my review of the Filofax personal sized Malden used as a wallet...

So, first things first... this is my purple personal Malden.

Pretty!

Here's a picture of it (I know some people assign gender and names to them... I'm not there yet... but I do name my car) in my hand for scale. I'm 5'8," so if you're petite this will be different for you.

This is the front cover. On the left are several card slots and a zippered pocket. I use the zippered pocket for coins (which I do not carry a lot of) and my lucky poker chip. Yes, I am that person. The most commonly used cards go in these slots: my health insurance card, my drivers' license, grocery store loyalty card, bank debit card, etc.

I keep a slim Frixion pen (in purple) in the leather pen loop on the right.

Ignore the odd reflection of my dining room chandelier.

There is a larger pocket behind the card slots where I keep my cash. It's deep and I feel like my cash is secure in there. You know, all those ones.

Next up are the extra card sleeves. I have four and each one holds up to six cards. In these, I carry the cards I don't use as often, like the sprogs' health insurance cards, a couple of credit cards, and an insane number of gift cards that we haven't gotten around to using yet. I like this because I can actually see all the gift cards instead of shoving into the recesses of another wallet where they hide and I forget I have them. I also have a couple zippered pouches in here for odds and ends, like my emergency twenty, my motorcycle license (I haven't had it officially printed on my regular license yet, but that will be soon) and a Valentine my son gave me while we were at Children's Hospital.

Behind the card sleeves is my calendar. I carry only the month view and only keep things like appointments and other time obligations in it so if we're out and I have to schedule something, I have it all here. I usually sync this with my A5 home binder once a week, just so they're both up to date.

And this is the back. There is another large pocket on the back and a sleeve where a notepad can go.

Before I moved into the Malden, I was using this Coach large wallet. I do love it. But I had a terrible time keeping track of appointments and whatnot while I was out and inevitably made a hair appointment for the same time my sprogs had a dentist appointment or something equally irritating. I didn't want to carry a separate planner, and I was kind of frustrated with how most of my stuff was jammed into the wallet, and I had to drag all the gift cards out to find the one I wanted, and that was if I even remembered I had it.

Here's another view of the wallet and the Malden. Sorry for the lighting. This was just before Mother Nature dumped buckets on us.

And here's a side by side comparison of my checkbook, just a standard, regular old checkbook, next to the Malden.

So my transition into the Malden-as-wallet has been really easy. It does make things simpler for me in the long run, and while it does take up a little more space in my bag, it's completely worth it.

Smells like Filofax

So I guess I had my weeks a tad off last week... today marks the end of week 35 and tomorrow is the beginning of week 36 in my week-on-two-pages-with-notes.

That's what I get at the end of the summer. It's like a sprog stupor or something. I had a fairly busy week, for all that my kids went back to school. Lots of finishing up last minute things, cleaning up from them being here all day and reorganizing everything for them to get the year started on a good note. I spent time finishing up around our family room desk area and helping my younger son with his desk (although he does his homework in the kitchen where I can prod him), plus trying to get my own work back on track.

Here's the end of this week:

Weekdays on the left, notes on the right behind the clear divider. I use a checklist stamp (but not the Muji one that is so popular... I'm such a rebel!) on the notes page. It's covered here by a card on which I write our weekly menu on one side and the grocery list on the back. The red bit peeking out underneath is an apple-shaped post-it on which I've written my kids' bus numbers and times.

And what next week looks like for me so far:

I did actually go back and stamp another purple checklist on here. Having only two was wishful thinking on my part. Hey, a girl can dream.

I will move my clear "week" tab into place tonight.

This Filofax (my purple A5 Malden) is strictly my home planner, and it's mostly housebound. I do take it along when I travel, but I carry a personal size Filofax as my wallet with just basic information that I might need while out and about. So this one has all my home stuff and my husband has access to it (see post below wherein I discuss the reason that I bought my first Filofax...). Each of the three binders is different, with different sections and purposes.

This is the set up for my home binder. I make all my own dividers and tabs and accessories. I use the checklist stamp (mine is probably double the size of the Muji one I've seen on other sites) and I use washi tape and stickers just for fun. I rarely use any of the decorations so that they cover writable areas, because I do use my planner for planning.

Top tabs: month, week, home, family, me.

The tabs on the top are for easy access to the bigger sections. The "month" and "week" tabs are clear so I can see both pages. Behind the "home" tab I have lists of information that comes in handy (I just added the model information for the filter I need to replace the water filter in the fridge... I can never remember that one). I also have business card holders here for companies we like to use. Just yesterday we had a locksmith in to match all the door locks in the house and I kept his card.

Side tabs: next year, to do, sections for both of my kids, and a health tab.

The side tabs open into the larger tabbed sections. The "to do" tab opens to a page in the "home" section where I have lists of things that need to be done around the house. The kids' tabs both open into the "family" section and I keep information about school and sports behind their tabs. The health tab is part of the "me" section, and includes a food diary, wellness journal, and a lists of current meds for reference.

Front page!

I keep this little decorated page in the very front. There's a picture of my husband and I, one of the boys and our dogs, and one of my cat, who died on July 3. It just makes me happy.

My younger son decorated the back of my family page. It also makes me smile. The plastic sleeve on the right is a top-open sleeve. I have a laminated list of important phone numbers taped to the front of it and a pen holder on the side for an extra pen. There's also a cervical cancer awareness sticker... I lost a good friend to cervical cancer just yesterday.

After the sleeve, I have my year planner. I use the vertical arrangement. On this, I put all the holidays, any days my husband has off work, and all days that my kids are off school. This helps when planning for vacations or when I go out of town.

After my year-at-a-glance, I have the months. This is September, which I decorated with a travel theme, since I'll be traveling. The divider is clear in the middle so I can see both pages when I open it.

Do you like it? This works really well for me.

Next time I'll show you my wallet-binder!

Have a great week!! Happy Labor Day to my US friends!