Best Desktop Planner and Organizer

I love my planner. I love having everything at my fingertips to write down, cross out, and decorate. My planner has become a smash book of memories and future plans. I love it! Did I mention I love it?

Then it happens. I am sitting at work or in my home office and I need to remember a date. My planner is either all the way across the house, not with me at work, or buried in my bag. It is a pain to dig out, find, or wait until I get home. Plus my hubby can't see my paper planner, and he is so far away most of the time. I hate filling in several planners and electronic planners etc etc etc....

This morning I figured it out. I can create a picture of my planner, decorated as I like and place it on my desktop. I found a wonderful woman's post on pinterest that discussed this very thing, and even provided links to buy these templates. Um......I already bought my planner...I already bought the software.....I don't want to buy another piece of thing for convenience. 

Turns out I DIDN"T HAVE TO. My planner printables were free to me from a blog I subscribe to that I just love. Shout out to Raine at Lime Tree Fruits! This girl is a playful style artist, and she makes planners and other digital files. You can purchase these files from her blog or subscribe for a ton of great printables and freebies. 

I took my plain old PDF files from her, used snapshot on Adobe to copy a picture of each page I needed, and placed them on a power point slide. Then I used shape makers to put in all my dates and information. It was a piece of cake. Also, I was able to adjust a ton of graphics, from page color to texture, to personalizing my background. I saved the slide as a PNG file and bam! Instant background. I email the files to my husband, and he can also have this on his work computer so he knows what we are up to. Here's what one of the months looks like: 

This is July and not quite fully filled in but you get the idea. 

This turned out great. Now I just make it my background and organize the icons into the color coded side bars so each person has their own personal selection of shortcuts. You can also use these side bars for stick notes. There are a ton of stick note apps that you just type information into and a sticky note is placed on your desktop for a reminder. 

BTW - step by step instructions on how to do this yourself are available. 

I found that this could look too busy for some people. I love a pop of color, but there are those that love functional and subdued. The calendar background is entirely customizable and can use anything from a standard calendar template from word to a desk calendar snapshot. You could probably just take a picture of your current planner and use that as a background. For me, I like a pop of color and places for Icon shortcuts that wont crowd the actual calendar. What do you think?

Effective Money Management

WELCOME

 As a mother of 4, I know there is a balance between buying something I need and taking the steps to just make it myself, and that balance - is money! 

I recently became ADDICTED  to Pinterest and I have been finding all kinds of amazing goodies for me to save my bank on by DIY!! Speaking of the bank, I took all of my budgeted money out of there and began using the envelope system a few months ago. Well, I tried to, but I couldn't actually convince myself to actually go there. Instead I convinced myself I could do it electronically. Um no, that did not go well. It is just TOO EASY to borrow money from each category. So I made the leap and pulled the money out. A few days ago I finally sat down and completed my beautiful new envelopes!!

I found a wonderful template that allowed me to print these beauties on card stock, complete with designs. I wanted them to be simply amazing, and I am not sure they meet that particular mark, BUT - I printed these fab envelopes on colored card stock to add a little POP. I used my fabulous paper cutter to cut them out, applied labels and slid them into a zippered wallet. I found that they fit most wallets, but not my original one, so I turned that into an ICE wallet. More on that later.

I found this particular template online for FREE. It even came with the printed designs!! The best part was, I had the card stock already and any type of paper can be used to make these envelopes. Obviously, the tougher the paper is the longer it will last! I may laminate my next set when this one runs out. Since I had all of the supplies, this cost me only time.  There are literally thousands of templates online, in various designs to fit your personality. You can even start with plain white envelopes and a sharpie like I did. 

So, DIY budget envelope system? BIG YES!! While it can take time to pull out a ledger and write each purchase down, I find that this system actually saves me time and money. I use cash, and I save the coins and receipts. Plus, it seems to help me keep my purse very organized with all of my other things. So make you some envelopes, work on that budget, and save yourself some money!!! Then:

RELAX!!

What strategies have you found effective for successful budgeting?