This page may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase then I will receive a small commission. You can see my full disclosure here.
The Clever Fox Budget Planner and Bill Organizer is an all inclusive book that can help you plan your budget and keep track of all your bills and receipts each month.
Clever Fox provided me with the Bill Organizer for free to review. I love Clever Fox products and I will always give my honest opinion.
I’m realizing more and more how important it is to keep good track of your finances. Mostly because I’ve made a lot of dumb mistakes. I’m always on the lookout for the best way to budget. And I completely fell in love with the Clever Fox Budget Planner and Bill Organizer as soon as I saw it.
First of all because I just love Clever Fox products. I’ve reviewed a few of their products and they are always well made, and well thought out.
You may also like:
This Clever Fox Budget Planner and Bill Organizer is different than the other budget planners (and regular planners) that they offer. It’s much bigger, and it is bound differently. Both of these are probably because of a specific feature that is inside that’s not in any other budget planner they offer. And it’s that one feature that I knew I wanted to try.
Because like the name suggests, this is also a bill organizer. There is a pocket in each month to organize your bills and/or receipts.
I’ll give you all the details in this post, but if you want to see a flip-through of the planner, you can also check out the YouTube video below.
Basic Details
The Clever Fox Budget Planner and Bill Organizer has a hard cover and double-O coil binding. This has never been my favorite type of binding, but with the bill & receipt pockets, there’s no way they could have made this budget planner with their standard stitched binding. I think it is worth it to have those pockets each month, so that’s a compromise I can live with.
Just like all of the Clever Fox Planners, the Bill Organizer has thick 120 gsm paper. I love being able to write and highlight without any worry of it bleeding through to the other side!
Another important detail to note is that this is a 12 month undated planner. You can start it anytime, and there’s no problem if you skip a month.
Monthly Budget Sections
Of course my favorite feature is the pockets in each month. I absolutely love that there’s not just one pocket to hold bills and receipts, but one per month!
There is plenty of room for tracking all your budget information within the month too. The beginning starts with a basic overview of the month, including a calendar.
The budget page is divided into categories, but unlike in some budget planners, in the Clever Fox Budget Planner those categories don’t have any filled in items. This can also be customized to fit your own needs if a certain section doesn’t work. It is easier to cover up the section category than to replace the individual items.
I also appreciate that there are “budgeted” and “actual” columns. Being able to see where there were differences is important in making a better budget next month.
The next four pages are all expense trackers. I like to divide these up by bank account/credit card/cash categories. But it would also work as one ongoing list, or using some of them to track spending in certain categories or sinking funds.
The last page included in each month (before the amazing pocket!) is a monthly review. I love reflecting on what happened each month, and knowing where I can improve next month.
Then, of course, is the pocket that I can’t stop talking about. It is glossy coated cardstock, and incredibly sturdy! I’m so impressed by the shape of the pocket as well. I don’t know if this is why they designed it that way, but having the two heights on the pocket make it extremely versatile and functional. A low pocket is great for receipts, but larger papers like bills, would easily fall out. A deep pocket is perfect for holding in those papers, but small receipts would be lost in the bottom and not easily reachable.
By creating a pocket with two different heights, it accommodates all sizes of papers; holding in the larger ones and preventing the smaller pieces from being lost in the bottom. This is my favorite feature of the Clever Fox Budget Planner!
Yearly Pages in the Back
The back of the Clever Fox Budget Planner & Bill Organizer has additional tracking pages to help you stay on top of your finances.
First you get 8 saving trackers, and 8 debt trackers. Then a two page spread for a holiday budget and spending.
My favorite of the trackers are the next two spreads though.
The Regular Bill Tracker can help you look at your bills over the course of the year, and see how they changed. Similarly, after that is a Summary of the Year where you can write in all your expenses, income, and savings for an easy way to see where your money went through the year more generally. I love that these are included to get a better idea of your finances over a longer period of time. When we are just looking at one month at a time, it can be hard to see how each month compares. These are great tools to be aware of where you are spending money overall.
The last pages in the Bill Organizer are dot grid notes pages. These are perfect for anything else that you want to keep track of, for making notes each month, or for important information that you may need to reference through the year.
Final Thoughts
Clever Fox never fails to impress me. And this Clever Fox Budget Planner & Bill Organizer makes me so excited to be able to keep so much information in one place. I LOVE the option of keeping important papers in each month. I’m always getting papers that I want to keep with my budget, but never have enough room to. And this makes it perfect to always have everything together.
What is the most important feature for you to have in a budget planner? Let me know in the comments!
