setting up the moleskin

i call it my "analog blackberry" 

a few years back i got my first moleskin notebook calendar.  i needed something that i could keep my bankbook/checkbook, the little check registry i got with my checks (and yes, i still use checks regularly) just wasn’t cutting it.  i couldn’t keep track of my receipts.  i would lose my receipts and things like that.  i was at the bookstore one evening, doing some clean up of the store.  at the time, the calendars were half off and there was a bin of these black notebook calendars.  i’d heard of moleskin before, matter of fact, i had (and still have) a small moleskin notebook that i keep in the bag that i carry with me.  i would use that little notebook when i was out, if something struck me that needed to be written down, or i would leave notes to myself about this and that in it.  

at the time, i was trying to find something that would help me keep myself more organized.  when i saw these notebooks i pulled one out and flipped through it.  i knew in my mind what i wanted.  i wanted a calendar that i could carry with me.  i had a rough idea in my head of what i was looking for, but i wasn’t sure how to put it in to words.  it turned out that the moleskin notebook calendar (actually called the Moleskin Weekly Calendar Notebook) was exactly what i wanted.  on the left page is the week monday-sunday and on the right is a blanklined page.  

the first year, 2009, was kind of a figure it out year.  through some trial and error i found what worked for me.  to look at the 2009 one is interesting.  i guess i didn’t look it at closely enough, first off it was an 18 month book.  it started in june 2008.  so by the time i started using it, in jan 2009, i had six months that were just kind of sitting there.  i took one of those big black heavy-duty paperclips you can get and clipped those months i didn’t need together, which in hindsight was kind of too bad, because i missed an important part of the notebook.  that year at the beginning of the book they year was laid out in a truly notebook style.  each page has two months and there is a line on the page for each day.  i hadn’t seen that the first time.  i wanted to a way to not keep track of my finances, but also my bookstore work schedule.  so that first year i just kind picked a page towards the beginning and started writing down the days i worked at the bookstore.  that worked, but it was kind confusing, particularly when i ran out of page and had to use another one.  

i tuck a pencil into the book and use that write things down.  i never do math with a pen.  i just can’t.  there have been times when i’ve messed up the page i was using as the financials, if you will, so i get a piece of notebook paper, usually from a legal sized writing pad and redo the whole thing. staple that in over the week.  that doesn’t happen very often, but from time to time it does and its easier to just tuck in a new sheet than to go back, erase, and redo.  

last year, i bought the calendar earlier and had a chance to literally flip through it before i used it.  and i discovered that nifty month on a page feature.  i decided that’s where i would put my work schedule.  it has worked very well.  i can see when i work and sometimes, i add up the hours and figure out approximately how much i’ll get paid.  its all very neat and tidy.  this year, sadly, they didn’t set it up like that.  now each page is a typical monthly calendar with the little boxes.  it’ll work, but i think i liked the page lay out instead of the box layout.  (i’d put pictures in here to show you what i mean, but i’m just too lazy to do it).  

i carry it with me in my leather bag.  so, it pretty much goes with me where ever i go.  its kind of a talisman or a security blanket, maybe.  i don’t know.  it keeps me honest, to a degree, but, more than anything, i carry with it me so i can put receipts in it and not worry about losing any.  

what i started to do with the first notebook was to layout "budgets."  i would do one every two weeks.  in conjunction with my payday from the library.  anytime i used my debit card i would put the receipt in the book with that week and staple it in.  after a years worth of receipts the book starts to get pretty fat.  2010 is just under three inches thick.  2009’s was just over two inches thick.  keep in mind, these notebooks started out at less than an inch thick, actually less than 1/2 an inch thick.  so you can see how they grow.  

since i started this "system" i done much better keeping track of what’s going on in my bank account.  as a result, i haven’t overdrawn, but once or twice.  that is another big deal.  i used to get hit with overdraft fees often because my record keeping wasn’t very good.  i can hear some of you asking why don’t you keep track of it online?  i do, i have my bank account online and i’m able to check what has cleared and what hasn’t.  

i do add something else to the notebooks.  i print off a calendar from the computer for each month at the beginning of the year and tug each one in its respective month in the calendar.  i write on those when each bill is due.  this all probably seems terribly complicated, but its helped me keep my bankbook in, relatively good order and balanced.  "Relative’ is the operant word here.  

in the back of the book, i pick a page and write down the outstanding balances on the credits cards, my student loan, and my car payments.  every month i update those so i can see how the payments are going and see the balances go down.  its, to a degree, an atta-boy.  it shows me in black and white that i am making progress.  and i can go back to the first year and see where i was and can compare it to where i am now.  i obviously decided to start doing that in july of 2009; so one of the my card balances (the highest one) then was $7,342 (yeah, i know, i’m embarrassed by that).  i’ve paid that card down to $6,566.  i cut it up and threw it away, i haven’t used it in over a year.  i can hear you saying, but that’s only 776 dollars in a year or so that you’ve paid off.  i look at like this: i paid off 776 dollars.  to me that’s a big deal.  its a dent, but a dent is better than nothing. 

its actually interesting to go back through and look at the notebooks. in a way, its kind of like having a financial journal, or diary.  its been interesting to go through 2010 and see how i spent money.  

after i set up the new moleskin, which is nothing more than clipping some pages together and then drawing some lines so i can continue the credit card tally, writing my name, address, phonenumber, and email address in the "if found please contact" section i’m pretty much ready to go.  i closed the book and ran my hand over the cover.  and though "i wonder what 2011 is going to bring?"  its a brand new notebook.  thin. ready to go.  expectant, if you will.