Hobonichi covers and Ane pouches are lovely but expensive.

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If you don’t want to fork out for one of those however, there are some cheaper alternatives you can find over on Ali Express. They’re generally called travel pouches but when you check the sizes they will fit a Hobonichi Weeks, plus accessories nicely.

I picked out and ordered the two that looked the most functional.

First up is my favourite, and the one* that seems the highest quality.

This is quite sturdy feeling, and has a handy little handle on the side. I quite like the location of this as I feel like it’ll be easier to rescue out of a bag with it.

I also like the pocket in the front. Just like with the Ane pouch I like external pockets as they’re handy for carrying for my phone.

The material is like a canvas material and it feels like it would hold well against the odd spill, and not soak through to the inside.

Speaking of inside, the zip is nice and smooth and the pouch opens easily. In the middle there’s a handy pen loop. 

It’s quite a large loop so if you’re just planning on putting the one pen in there, it definitely needs a clip on it to stay in there.

As you can see, there’s tons of pockets in here. This is primarily why this is my favourite of the two I purchased. I can just envisage being able to fill these with so much stuff, and be able to use this as a purse as well as a planner pouch.

The build quality on elements of this isn’t amazing though. You can see some very iffy cut lines in the image above and the clear pockets on the left hand side are pretty wonky. 

The rest of the pouch itself is fine though.

Getting back to use as a purse/pouch, there’s a great little zipped pocket at the bottom which is perfect for loose change.

There’s two ways you can carry your Hobonichi Weeks in this. You can just rest it in inside, or you use one of the long vertical pockets and put the back cover of the Weeks in there. 

The fit is perfect.

I really liked this pouch. It’s cheap (I purchased it for $9.58*), functional and a great budget alternative to an Ane Pouch or another Weeks cover.

The second pouch* was still decent find, but overall not s useful as the one above.

The outside is very similar to the other with a handle and a pocket on the front. 

The zip on this isn’t as smooth as the other sadly and in general the build quality of this just isn’t as good. The cover doesn’t have the rigidity that the previous one had and I feel like the more you load this up, the more it will lose its shape.

There’s a few more dodgy seams and wonky pockets in here. There’s also a slightly odd phrase on a tag inside. 

In terms of use, this has a pen loop too. It also has a few pockets, and in a couple of different sizes too. As you can see above, there is a vertical slot in the left hand side which is perfect for papers, tickets etc. That then has a netted vertical pocket behind it. I doubt you’d fit much in there but it’s probably good for keeping things you don’t want on show.

If you didn’t have a ton of cards, you could maybe get away with this as a purse. There’s quite a large zip pocket on the right hand side which would work for coins. Next to that zip pocket is a large vertical pocket that the back of the Weeks can slide into. 

This pouch is larger than the last so I would recommend keeping it in this vertical pocket, rather than sitting it inside.

At only $8* this is a bargain pouch. It’s not perfect but it’s still handy.

I purchased the blue in both of these but there a range of colours available. If you’re after a budget planner pouch it’s definitely worth taking a look at these and seeing which of the colour selection you prefer. It’s also worth keeping an eye on the prices, as they do fluctuate a lot!