Clever Fox Budget Planner - Expense Tracker Notebook. Monthly Budgeting Organizer, Finance Logbook & Accounts Book, Bill Tracker, A5 (Dark Green)The Forest Stewardship Council

When you actually use the book the way you're supposed to it's one of the best tools I have to keep myself organized with my finances, lol.Here's what I find most valuable:1. Finance goals - there is a short section where you can list what your goals are in the beginning of the book. Next to it there is also a section where you can detail what you need to do to meet those goals.2. Checklist - this is great for listing out what you want or need to get done for the month. It's a short list of about 10 things so that means you have to prioritize. For each thing you get done you can check off the circle next to it.3. THE CALENDAR 🙌🏽✅️ - I NEEDED this. Seeing exactly what I have to pay and when puts everything into perspective. *** I actually went and put the total amount I'd be spending each week in the margin space next to the calendar to keep me from buying unnecessary items.4. Monthly budget page - Here is where you lay out everything you plan to make payments on along with the expected amount. The book neatly sections your most likely expenses into categories for you. You write what you're paying (Verizon), how much you expect to pay ($65), and then once it's paid how much the actual payment came out to be ($50). At the bottom of the section you add up all the expected amounts, then all the actual amounts, and subtract the two to get what's left over.5. The Expense tracker - OMG I needed this part too 😭 lol. If you happen to be an impulsive spender like me this will help you prioritize. This, to me, was the most intimidating portion of the book because, 1. you have to be diligent in recording every purchase you make, online and in person, cash and card. The tracker can't help you if you don't keep up with this. And 2. the expense pages show you just how much money is flowing out in comparison to what's coming in. It's not easy to look at an issue of your own making, but the silver lining is once you see it you realize things. For me it was that I actually do have enough money to take care of all my monthly necessities, it just looked otherwise because I kept spending it on wants.and finally 6. & 7. the Saving and Debt trackers - These pages give you room to list out things you want to save for (a new tv, cheer camp, whatever 😊) and debts you owe and take on (old and new subscriptions, online store installments, etc.). For Savings you write what you're saving for (dishwasher), the amount needed ($1000), and the due date at the top. underneath this you can list each deposit, the date you made it, and an updated balance. For Debts you write the debt name (Affirm), the starting balance ($100), and the minimum payment ($15) at the top. Below this you write the amount paid, the date you paid it, and the updated balance.These are the only sections of the book I've used so far. At the end of the month there is also a Monthly Budget Review and Spending Analysis page where math is involved and being honest with yourself is necessary.All in all I love this tracker/ budget book. It's beautiful, functional, and well worth the purchase. The only thing I would change are some of the stickers that come with it. I've never liked sayings such as "live below your means" because it always felt like people were telling me to be satisfied with being poor. More stickers that promote a healthy positive attitude towards money and money management would be greatly appreciated 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾.Lovely product. I would definitely recommend it.

I'm on my last month & have ordered my second Clever Fox budget book, which will be the Budget planner pro. Highly recommend this or the pro version for anyone looking for a tangible budget tracking.Overall: This is great notebook for anyone starting out. The pages help get you organized, and the layout is generous enough to accommodate different money management approaches. In addition to external financial advice & quarantine, this book helped me pay off +10K in credit card debit, by seeing wasted expenses, painfully writing down charges that I could no longer remember and being able to budget for new quarantine hobbies while staying on plan. The one piece that was missing from this notebook & all of versions from Clever Fox is the lack of an investing section. Would also like to see a bigger savings section. As I finish the book, in future versions I would love to see a picture of where I started and how I ended. You can cobble the picture together with the provided layouts but would love a two-page view to show consolidated savings, cash, investments, & debit that includes where I started, how much I put in/withdrew, current balance, and write some goals and reflections. I tried multiple apps and a different planner brand before clever fox, and it did not result in any changes because of the passive engagement, limited budget layout and lack of monthly assessment and reflections.Below is more detail review.The first few pages, My Financial Goals, My Mind Map, My Strategy, My Tactics, and year at a Glance are nice to get you focused, but I honestly rarely remembered they were there or used any of them except the first two. May be more helpful for someone with a more complicated financial picture or goals.Month & YearEnjoyed the calendar section at the beginning, helped me figure out why I kept downing my account by writing down the days of known monthly expenses, scheduled savings, and income. As a result, I did request some of monthly services to change the bill date and was able to pay additional money towards my credit card debit (end of month) while also having money for rent (1st of month). After I paid off my credit card, I found the savings section to be too small and there is no section for investing.Monthly BudgetInitially loved all the subcategories, it helped me change the way I was thinking about expenses and better prioritize. As I got better, the subcategories were annoying because I wasn't using a lot of them. If you are more advanced or these categories don't apply to you, I recommend the budget planner pro which has the same layout less the subcategories.Expense tracking- straight forward, no razzle dazzle but also not neededMonthly budget review + Ideas & NotesHated the pie chart, used it once.....was more frustrating that helpful. The table under spending analysis was enough for me. Enjoyed the reflection questions and notes section, big reason I chose this notebook. After using for a year, the monthly review would be more helpful next to the budget. You already have to do a lot of page flipping to fill in the actuals, and then more to fill in the review + year summary. In the pro version the monthly budget and review are on the same two-page spread. (Clever fox Budget Book and Budget Planner are similar but have key layout differences)Savings & Debit Tracker - Prefect, especially if you have a specific goal like pay off credit card and save for a bougie birthday trip. If you don't use all of one type of the trackers and want more of the other, its super easy to repurpose the pages.Holdiay Buget, Gifts, Spending - 100% didn't use. I don't plan that far in advance, and the captured those needs on the month & year pagesRegular Bill Tracker - Personally do not have a lot of standard bills, or ones that vary by amounts, so 100% didn't use. Might be helpful for someone trying to get a handle of those types of expenses. I just had a shopping addition, hence the credit card debit.Summary of the Year - forgot about these pages until the last four months. Will be using in new planner to monitor shopping expenses, membership fees, and savings goals over time. Again, a net worth page layout would be great. Would also like the top section to mirror the monthly budget review section. Since notebook is set up to exclude savings from expenses, there needs to be two separate lines for savings vs balance. If you prescribe to giving all your money a job, it is hard to see how many months you made it to zero.Check Register, Account Information, and blank pages - 100% didn't use. Personally, wouldn't write down my account information in the same book that shows how much is in those accounts.....the reasons should be obvi. The check section is only two pages....not sure what you capture here that is not your monthly expense section. Might use the blanks when I finish this last month, to write happy messages to myself.

This little budget planner has everything you need to be successful month in and month out. The quality is solid. It offers you the flexibility to track things that work best for you. I’m a pencil and an eraser guy. No need to be an Excel wizard or purchase expensive software.