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If you are looking for a way to track your finances and budget, the Clever Fox Budget Book could be the perfect budget planner for reaching your finance goals.
I received the Clever Fox Budget Book from Clever Fox for free for review. I will always give my honest opinion.
My finances are something I have struggled with for all of my adult life. I made some careless mistakes as a young adult, and set myself behind from the very start.
Those mistakes were relatively inexpensive ones, but they set the pattern that I unfortunately continued to follow for years to come.
Because of the ways I have struggled (by my own making, I’m not trying to pretend like it wasn’t my own fault), I have also been very intrigued with finding a solution. Which is why I was so excited to be able to review the Clever Fox Budget Book.
Clever Fox Budget Book vs. Budget Planner
And along with the Budget Book, Clever Fox also has a Budget Planner. I choose the Budget Book because it had all the same features I liked from the Budget Planner, but it gave me more flexibility on the actual budget page.
The main difference I was able to see between the two was that the Budget Planner had a budget layout that was separated by category. And the Budget Book displayed the budget as one list.
I don’t have many bills right now. And I don’t have many of the standard ones that are typically included when bills are divided by category and pre-filled in. I’ve never been able to relate well to that setup actually. There are always so many things that I don’t use, and never enough room to write in the bills I do have.
So I’ll walk you through what is in the Budget Book, and how I am using it. I love the simplicity of it, and the flexibility to use it in a way that works for me.
The Physical Planner and Features
It wouldn’t be a complete review if I didn’t tell you about the physical book. And for the price point, I’m really impressed with the quality!
This is a pretty small book, at about 5.5 x 7.5 inches. And probably not much more than 1/2 inch thick.
The cover has a leather feel to it, although it for sure is not real leather. I love the embossed doodle designs on the cover too. I chose the lavender colored cover, and it comes with a matching ribbon book mark.
It has a stitched binding which allows for the pages to lay flat. Even brand new, I didn’t have any trouble getting the book to stay open to a certain page.
Also attached to the cover is an elastic pen loop. Most pen loops are made too small to fit the pens I use. This one is bigger and can be used with pens like the Pilot G2 and PaperMate Flair. Although I did struggle a bit to get it over the rubber grips on the G2, and the PaperMate InkJoy was nearly impossible to slide through (since the whole thing is a rubber type material). But overall, it was a much better elastic pen loop than probably any that I have tried before.
The paper is smooth and a nice weight at 120 gsm. Writing on it with the InkJoy Gel pen didn’t leave any shadowing on the opposite side of the page.
There is also an accordion style paper pocket in the back of the planner. The accordion sides are made of a durable ribbon-type material that will hold up much better than if they were made of paper.
And last of all, it also comes with a sheet of stickers, which is a plus for most planners. There is a mix of functional and decorative. They are a decent quality, not cheap feeling at all. And there is even rose gold foiling on some of them.
Monthly Budget Sections
There’s not a lot of fluff within the Clever Fox Budget Book. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s simplicity is something that I love about it.
After the title/name page, most of the book is taken up with the monthly sections. There is room for an entire year of budgeting, but it is undated so you can start at any time.
The first page has space for your monthly goals, a checklist, upcoming purchases, upcoming bills, income, and savings. The second page is the monthly budget page. It is setup as one list that is divided into 4 columns: Category/Expense, Budgeted, Actual, and Difference. The bottom space you can include your total income, expenses, the balance remaining, and your total savings.
I love how this gives me an overview of the entire month.
If the sections on the first page don’t fit what you need, they can also easily be changed. The writing space on each section is generic enough to be used however you need.
And if you want your budget divided into categories, they can be added as a line on the list. But this way still gives you the flexibility to create your own categories and expenses.
The last part of each month are four expense tracking pages, and two dot grid notes pages. I plan to use the tracking pages for different accounts. They could also be used to track cash spending categories, or just one place to list all of your transactions. The dot grid pages are perfect for anything else that you might want in each month. You could use them to create a different tracker or weekly check-in, or just use them for notes through the month.
Additional Pages in the Back
There are a few extras in the back for more long term tracking.
Savings Tracker – There is space for tracking eight different savings categories. These could be used either for different long term or emergency savings accounts, vacations, a new car or house. Or use each of them to track a sinking fund.
Debt Tracker – Just like the savings trackers, there is also space for eight debt trackers. This is a nice reference to be able to see how your accounts are doing through the year.
Regular Bill Tracker – I think this is intended to track your normal bills so you can see how they are changing though the year. Using this for utilities would be perfect since bills like electricity and gas tend to vary based on the outdoor temperature and season.
Summary of the Year – Similar to the Bill Tracker, this allows you to see at a glance what you spent money on during the year. This page also includes total income, expenses, the difference, and savings. The remainder of the page is labeled by category, which implies that it could be used to track what is spent in categories like food, entertainment, clothes, etc.
Dot Grid Notes Pages – The last thing in the Clever Fox Budget Book are 11 dot grid notes pages. I’m impressed with how many pages there are for adding in additional notes and trackers. It seems like most bound books will only give you a couple pages and that’s rarely enough for everything I want to include. So I love that they included more pages for individual customization.
I also made a video flipping through and reviewing the Clever Fox Budget Book that you can watch if you’d like to see more of how it’s set up.
Where to buy the Clever Fox Budget Book?
All Clever Fox products, including the Budget Book, can be purchased on Amazon with free Prime Shipping, or on the Clever Fox website.
They have a variety of planners and notebooks to choose from, along with many different color options for the cover. I’m also reviewing the weekly planner and food journal in the coming weeks and will link to them here as well once they are published.
Who would benefit from the Clever Fox Budget Book?
If you need a simple budgeting system, the Clever Fox Budget Book would be perfect for you. It has everything that you would need if you are just getting started, or don’t need to track a lot of intricate details.
There are a lot of budgeting systems out there that are very complicated and detailed, but I love how the Budget Book is taking it back to the necessities for getting a grip on your finances. It’s perfect for simplicity where other planners can be too complicated and have more than needed.
How do you keep track of your finances? Do you use a planner, an app, a spreadsheet? Let me know in the comments how you budget.
