I’ve been looking at Pocket Filofaxes for a while now.

Obviously I could never use one for actual planning as it’s just too small. However, I’d seen lots of people using them as purses and wallets and when I came across a brand new Filofax Pocket Finsbury in Yellow, I snatched it up!

Finsbury is the style of Filofax I covet the most, yet have never bought. I’m very faithful to my Originals. However, this mustard yellow is beautiful! The only thing I’m really not loving about this is the fact that it will not lay flat. I’ve had it a couple of months now and still not managed to train it. This has put me off ever thinking of picking up any other size Finsbury sadly. 

The planner itself though is really nice. The leather has a lovely feel and is nice and study. The pockets (including a large one at the back) are great and much better than what I’m used to in my Originals. 

I knew I’d be using this alongside my current purse. But if you wanted to, you could absolutely use it as an actual purse, thanks to the handy zip pocket at the back.

I had two reasons for wanting this as a wallet. Firstly, more space to hold the millions of store cards and coupons I seem to accumulate. Secondly, a more ‘on the go’ solution for expenses tracking. Before this, I was writing it in my stay at home Filofax at the end of the day/when I remembered.

The set up

I couldn’t not use a Planner Society kit to set this beauty up!

The bulk of the planner is set up with items from the January kit. There are a few bits and pieces from other kits too though.

The first pockets contain my credit card and any gift cards I have to use. The mesh panel just has a Planner Society card inside but it’s a good place to pop an ID card in or something. In the large pocket behind that I have some post it notes from My Mind’s Eye. I can’t have a planner without sticky notes!

My first section is ‘my lists’. This is just a handy place to write shopping lists and I couldn’t resist popping in this cute journaling card at the front!

Next up is my inserts. These are just the inserts that came with the planner, standard horizontal week on two pages.

How I’m using these inserts is just to write in every day everything I’ve spent and where. At the end of the week I then add up the totals in my categories (Food, Kibble, Etsy and Petrol) and pop them in at the end of the week. I then transfer those totals to my monthly expense budget sheet. For more on that, click here. 

Finally, is my cards and coupons section. This is just filled with plastic Filofax pockets with the store cards that don’t fit in my purse. All coupons I have are in here, and as soon as a new coupon goes in here I go through and clear any expired ones.

Is the set up working?

So far, yes! Having a second purse item can be a pain in terms of remembering to include in your bag. It also fills up space in smaller handbags so if you like a tiny handbag, you may need to move your normal purse items into this set up too.

I absolutely love the Finsbury though. It’s a beautiful planner. The yellow is gorgeous and there’s lots of handy pockets. I just wish I could get it to lay flat! That’s my one and only complaint. If you have any tips on training Filofaxes, please let me know in the comments below! 

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