It seems everyone is getting back into rings!

I never actually left rings. I’ve been in my personal Filofax set up for a few years now. In addition, I also use an A5 Filofax as a home binder.

But, as people are getting back into rings in a big way I thought it would be a good time to show you my refreshed personal Filofax set up. It’s been tweaked a bit over the years, but fundamentally I use it the same way I always have. That is the beauty of a ring planner set up, that it can be tweaked to your needs as and when it changes.

I call it my reference binder. No real planning goes on in here, but it’s a permanent space for information that is kept for many years. It’s the kind of information I don’t necessarily want to move into a new planner each year.

The set up

Opening it up and things are pretty simple in here. I have a few sticky notes and paperclips and the pen that I use in this planned – a Platinum multipen*.

At the front I created a little inbox pocket for any receipts or notes I need to keep for filing at a later date. Behind that I have a bit of a cheat sheet for regular tasks. I use this when planning out my week and month to ensure I’ve captured everything I need to add in each week/month.

Using some digital papers I had, I created some simple cover pages for each section. The clear dividers* I have are lovely, but I wanted something in front of each new section.

The sections

The little adhesive pocket on the first divider is a perfect place to keep the stickers I use in the calendar. This is my rolling yearly calendar, that I use for all holidays and important dates each year. I also use it to track things that I do that changes throughout the year. Examples are when I need my next hair appointment or eye test. I use little sticky notes for these, so I can move them along to the next month it’ll be required.

My finance section is pretty simple. I have a tracker showing when I’ve paid into the joint household bank account, and a simple one pager showing when all payments/direct debits are due.

I get paid every four weeks, so these are both invaluable when it comes to organising my budget as it’s not as simple as I pay everything once each pay period.

Next, I keep a list of any discount codes I have and have another wallet for discount codes I’ve received in packing slips and the such.

My personal section just has addresses and a few notes about accounts details.

My home section is relatively new to the set up

I’ve added in a ‘when did I last’ page that I whipped up in Silhouette Studio. It’s pretty shameful the last dates I did some of these things, so I’m going to instead show my project planning inserts*.

My partner and I are buying a house this Spring so I’m using these inserts to start planning out the things we need to do. I’ve only lightly set it up for the time being but as it gets closer this will be invaluable.

The shop section hasn’t changed in quite a while

I used to track lots of stats each month but I found I wasn’t really using the data so I stopped. Now, this section is just used to home notes about suppliers, fonts used and blade settings for the Silhouette.

Most of my shop planning happens in my Hobonichi Cousin as it’s more about sticker ideas and things like that. As these things are changing all the time I don’t see any reason to keep them in the ‘reference’ binder.

After my most recent refresh of this planner, the last section is empty

For now it’s just housing a few blank pages. It’s nice to have a blank section like this, as I’ll naturally find a purpose for it over time as I use the pages for notes. Notes which one then inevitably end up being on a certain subject that I’ll then want a complete section for.

Finally, at the back I have a lot of card pockets. I carry very little cards with me now, so this planner houses the rest. Mainly loyalty cards that I’m not parting with. Most of them I don’t actually use anymore but I feel like I should keep them anyway.

This is such a simple but useful set up

I can’t imagine trying to incorporate these elements into my Hobonichi Cousin each year. I’ve seen some people use Travelers Company inserts for such but I like being able to remove pages from this. If something is no longer relevant, it’s very easy to kick out of here. In a bound book? Not so much.

Do you have a simple planner set up?

Let me know in the comments!