My Life Notebook

We are thrifty, frugal economic refugees. In order to own a home we could afford outright we had to move pretty far out in the boonies. 

The distance from town creates a challenge for shopping, and when emergency situations arise, such as my husband's double bypass, being organized is critically important. 

To cope with this, I've developed a simple system of organization that might be helpful to others. I'll start today by sharing how we use our Life Notebook.

The Life Notebook has goal planning, meal planning, health summary pages, budget & financial registers and vital numbers in it. There are also pages for each asset, with deed and title numbers and policy information. There is also a list of account numbers and, gasp, passwords. Of course, this could be a security issue! So could my filing cabinet, my purse, and all our online accounts. I'm not sweating it. We're all more vulnerable than we could ever imagine. And I know if anything goes wrong, I grab that book and one portable file and we're good. 

Since we live near 3 active earthquake faults and in a wildfire zone, and in the 12 years we've been here have never had a theft even when the house was left unlocked, my priorities are clear. 

Cover photo taken on a morning walk

Our binder has small rings because A) I've learned to be concise and B) there isn't a whole lot to track for 2 people and a cat and a dog. But this could easily be scaled up to handle many more people and assets. The key idea is summary pages with all essential information in one place.

Goals for 2012 & a little calendar grid

This binder is front and center every day. I take it out when I need to:

• Record expenses
• Balance statements
• Pay bills
• Plan our meals
• Create a 2-week shopping list
• Log household repairs and auto maintenance  
• Record doctor visits or medication changes
  
• Do a weekly update in my calendar

Next time I will show how I shrunk my calendar from a Plannerpad to a Filofax to an Exacompta Space 17 planner.  And why that probably won't last either.

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