Using the Erin Condren Deluxe Monthly Planner for Financial Planning

I have something that borders on an obsession with planning products. With 6 kids, several work at home jobs, a house to manage, and everything else that ends up on my to-do list, staying organized is essential. I was so excited to hear that Erin Condren had released the new and improved 2018-2019 Deluxe Monthly Planner. They sent me one to check out and I’m so impressed. The Erin Condren Deluxe Monthly Planner is perfect for keeping your finances in order. This has made my personal finances so much easier to manage and helped me keep the rest of my life on track too.

My life is a bit crazy. I feel so much better when I have a system in place to help me stay in control. As a full-time working/work-at-home mom with several jobs to juggle, I have to stay organized or I end up dropping the ball on something.

I absolutely LOVE the Life Planner from Erin Condren for keeping all my work commitments in order, but this year, I’m trying to separate work responsibilities with family responsibilities. The new and improved Deluxe Monthly Planner is the perfect solution for keeping my home responsibilities organized.

I’m actually pretty terrible at setting boundaries. That’s the risk that comes with working from home. Your work is always there, and we know there’s ALWAYS more to do. My stress level has gone way up this year and I can directly link it to the fact that I’ve let my work take over my life.

So, boundaries are going to be super important this year (and here’s crossing my fingers I can stick with them and find some semblance of balance, whatever that is).

My trusty Life Planner lives on my desk and keeps my work responsibilities in line. The new and improved Deluxe Monthly Planner is going to be keeping my personal life in order, with a huge focus on my personal finances.

I absolutely love the idea of separating work and home life. For my responsibilities at home, the Deluxe Monthly Planner has everything I need. I don’t need daily planning pages for my home life. The monthly calendar pages, goal sheets, and note pages are perfect.

You can customize just about everything on this. Choose the cover that fits your personality, the color of the rings, the starting month, the number of notepages, etc.

I love how many special touches are in this, like all the motivational quotes. I love seeing these when I’m a bit overwhelmed by my to-do list. They are always great reminders to keep chugging along.

I love having the year at a glance handy. The Deluxe Monthly Planner  can begin at the start of the calendar year or school year. I really like starting fresh at the beginning of a school year. By January, I’m a bit burned out from the holidays but in the fall I’m ready to organize everything I can get my hands on.

I stocked up on these colorful circle stickers so that I can track any important dates on the year at a glance.

I’m a huge believer in setting goals, so the goal section at the front of the Deluxe Monthly Planner is definitely a favorite feature. I want to use it for so many things, so for now it sits empty. I just need a few more pages exactly like this apparently!

Using the Deluxe Monthly Planner for Personal Finances

I have my personal schedule down to a science. Other than keeping track of a few outliers on the calendar, I have things under control. What I need help with is organizing my personal finances. I have some big financial goals this year, and to reach them is going to require a strict budget and a lot of planning.

To set up the Deluxe Monthly Planner for financial planning, the monthly calendar pages will mostly be reserved for tracking income and expenses.

I’m color coding income and expenses so I can clearly see what is coming and going. Expenses will be written in red (I started with them in pencil so I could change things if I needed to, but now that I have a solid idea of what comes out when, they are written in red). Income will be written in green.

I am a very visual person, so having everything laid out in a monthly format is so helpful.

Each month includes quite a few note pages. I’m using those for more detailed planning.

One of the customization options allows you to add additional note pages at the back of your planner, so I added quite a few. I’m sure I’ll come up with a use for them!

I plan to get a better handle on planning debt payoffs, savings goals, and entertainment budgeting by using the Deluxe Monthly Planner. Those are all areas I’ve failed at bit at in the past, so I love having all my goals and records in one place.

I’ve been using the pocket at the back to store any bills I need to hang onto or receipts that need to be filed. The dry erase back cover has really come in handy for quick notes.

One of my favorite things I added into my planner was a few dashboards. These are laminated clip-in organizers that not only can be used to mark sections in your notes but can help keep other areas of your life organized.

I added the Monthly Bill Tracker (Check this link out to see it all set up) to the front of this, since my goal is to keep my finances organized. I love that it gives me a complete look at my monthly bills in one quick glance. I can check off each bill as it is paid, to make sure I’m not missing anything. There’s a section for quarterly bills (or yearly) at the bottom so you can track things like auto registration, holiday gifts, etc.

I use a few other dashboards in my planner to keep everything else on track. I use the menu planning dashboard in this, because meal planning helps me to stick to my food budget. My absolute favorite, though, is the snap-in To-Do list dashboard. I can keep a running list of to-do items, plus use the back for weekly planning.

 

*I was sent product in exchange for this post. This post contains affiliate links.