As you might imagine here at You Can Journal, we’re a tiny bit obsessed with journaling. We’re firm believers that there’s no area of your life that wouldn’t benefit from a journal…including your budget.
Enter the Clever Fox Finance Planner! This planner looked so helpful that we had to get one for ourselves. And today, after five months of daily use, we’re sharing our thoughts in a Clever Fox Financial Planner review.
Clever Fox Financial Planner Premium Edition Overview
From the moment we unboxed the Clever Fox Finance Planner and flipped through its pages, we were highly impressed with its premium quality eco-leather hardcover, thick 120 GSM paper, pen holder, accordion pocket, sticker sheet assortment, and overall dream-like approach to financial organization. Thankfully, the pages are undated, meaning we could start setting financial goals smack-dab in the middle of the year rather than waiting for a new year to start.
Similar to all Clever Fox planners, the Clever Fox Financial Planner doesn’t just offer a space to jot down your financial goals (up to 8 financial goals, to be exact), it guides you in creating a practical strategy to actually reach those goals. This includes pages:
- My Strategy
- New skills I need to learn to achieve my financial goals
- My money affirmations for wealth & prosperity
- My Tactics
- Actions I will take to earn more money
- Actions I will take to cut my expenses
The goal-setting continues into the monthly calendars, which include areas to write both your monthly goals and financial to-do list, plus record income, savings, and bill due dates. We used the calendar feature on the monthly calendars pages to record upcoming events that would incur expenses (birthdays, local activities, etc), but you could also use it to record bill due dates, paydays, and more.
The next page offers a monthly budget planner spread, including places to record the budgeted, actual, and difference in amounts in the areas of home, food, health care, credit & loans, personal, transport, entertainment, and other. This spread makes it easy to both create a monthly spending plan and see if/where your personal finances actually fall into that plan.
The monthly budget page spread is followed by four expense tracker pages, which we personally found to be enough room to record our monthly expenses, even on spendier months. (We’re looking at you, December!) If you need more room than that (or want to make any additional notes), you’ll find space in the two blank dot grid pages at the end of every month.
Did you think we were done talking about monthly sections? Think again!
There’s another monthly budget page at the end of each month, this one helping you to view your spending categories as percentages of your total expenses, and assess the effectiveness of your monthly spending plan. It asks:
- My biggest wins this month
- Did I meet my budget? If not, why not?
- Did I achieve this month’s goals? If not, why not?
- Where did I have the most trouble? What could I improve next month?
- Actions I will take next month to increase my income
- Actions I will take next month to cut my expenses
Then come the dot grid pages we mentioned, for anything the templates might have missed particular to your personal finances. While we didn’t find we used those pages, we could certainly see using them to create a weekly planner, dedicate to a financial gratitude journal, dream up business ideas, tie in your financial tracker with your other Clever Fox planners, or more.
But this journal is so much more than a monthly budget planner! The back of the planner is jam-packed with a plethora of resources to help track and guide your personal finances.
With 8 savings trackers, 12 debt trackers, a holiday planner, annual bill and expense trackers (to help you see how your bills/expense categories trend over the year), and 12 more dot grid pages at the back, we’re not really sure what more you could ask for!
The holiday planner spread was especially nice!
It offers sections for holiday budget, holiday gifts, and holiday spending. While it’s obviously intended for the holidays, we could also see it being repurposed to plan a birthday, wedding, or other major event.
And just when you think the fun is over, you’ve got extras! Two sticker sheets, five durable cash envelopes to help manage cash spending, and an accordion pocket at the back of the planner to hold it all.
Add that to the premium quality elastic band and pen holder, and the gift box it all comes in, and you’ll actually feel excited about budgeting. That, my friend, is no small feat!
This budget book is crazy comprehensive.
While we didn’t utilize every page, we found every page to be incredibly helpful and were thankful for the abundance of resources. The Clever Fox Finance Planner would be a great match for a financial novice needing some guidance with their personal finances or a seasoned budgeter looking to upgrade their regular bill tracker.
Clever Fox Financial Planner Review: Key Features
Financial Goal Framework
Setting up financial goals can feel daunting, but this planner offers a solid framework that makes it easier to break down ambitious plans into achievable steps.
Each month, you’re guided to outline your objectives and the actions it will take to reach them. This approach has crazy motivational potential, since seeing your progress mapped out can help you stay on track and give you a real sense of achievement.
Undated 12-Month Layout
We’ll be the first to admit that we don’t love having to date undated planners. But in the case of this Clever Fox Financial Planner, we were thankful.
We wanted to start budgeting and making better choices with our personal finances now…not wait until the new year to start working toward our money goals. The flexibility of this undated planner is terrific for anyone else who’s not interested in waiting until January to get their finances in order.
Expense and Debt Tracking
It’s really satisfying to have all your expenses and debts tracked in one location. You can see both your spending habits and your progress on outstanding debts for each month.
There are also special trackers for savings and holidays, which can help keep you disciplined about setting aside money for emergencies and gifts. The only downside is that if you have more than 12 debts, you may need to use the dot grid pages at the back of the planner to extend your tracking.
Premium Accessories Included
The eco-leather hardcover and 120 GSM paper make writing in Clever Fox planners a really pleasant experience. And those little extras – the cash envelopes, the sticker sheet collection, and the premium quality gift box it arrived in – truly add value.
While the cash envelopes help manage physical currency, they may not be as beneficial for those who predominantly use cards or apps. We personally used them to collect cash savings for small trips and home projects, to physically remove the money from our checking account so it was truly “set aside.”
Clever Fox Financial Planner Review: Pros and Cons
Pros
Some standout advantages of the Clever Fox Financial Planner include the versatility and structure it offers, especially in setting and reaching money goals. The quality of materials is also worth noting; the eco-leather hardcover and thick 120 GSM paper give it a premium feel and durability.
The inclusion of cash envelopes and stickers help make the budgeting process not only more organized but also a little fun. The additional holiday budget section and debt trackers cater well to the seasonal spender in us and anyone juggling multiple repayments.
Cons
It’s honestly difficult to think of any drawbacks to this budget book.
If we had to think of something, we might say it’s an A5 notebook, which makes it more of a desktop planner and less of a throw-in-your-bag planner. But…it could fit in a lot of people’s bag!
It also obviously lacks the convenience of a digital budgeting app. But we personally find we’re more mindful of our budget when writing it out and checking boxes by hand, rather than glancing at information an app has automated and organized for us.
It’s also not the cheapest budget book out there, especially if you’re trying to pinch pennies. But the quality is head and shoulders above other finance planners and we’re convinced the utility of this Clever Fox budget book paid for itself within the first week.
Overall, we highly recommend the Clever Fox Finance Planner and would challenge you to show us a better finance planner! This one feels like a tiny financial advisor sitting on our desk…and we’re here for it!
Frequently Asked Questions
What features make the Clever Fox Finance Planner stand out from other budget notebooks?
The Clever Fox Finance Planner offers a thoughtful structure for financial goal setting, with sections devised for a detailed monthly budget plan and expense tracking. The addition of cash envelopes complements a hands-on approach to managing finances.
It’s undated, which means you can start using it at any point in the year without wasted pages. Plus, there’s a holiday budget section, which is pretty darn handy for special occasions where we often overspend.
How does the Clever Fox Budget Planner facilitate better financial management?
The monthly calendar, budget plan, and expense tracker layouts guide users into a habit of meticulous financial review.
It houses 8 savings trackers, which help to boost motivation to reach your savings goals, and 12 debt trackers that help you stay on top of repayments. This structure breaks down your larger financial picture into manageable pieces, encouraging consistent review and adjustment.
Can the Clever Fox Planner accommodate bi-weekly budgeting effectively?
Even though the planner is set up for monthly budgeting, its undated format allows you to adapt it for bi-weekly use. Several Amazon reviewers noted they split the monthly sections into two to help manage their budget according to their pay schedule.
It involves a bit of tweaking but definitely serves the purpose for bi-weekly budgeting. Alternately, you might consider using the Clever Fox Bi-Weekly Budget Planner to save yourself some work.
What are the best tips for maximizing the use of the Clever Fox Finance Planner to organize bills and expenses?
One of the best ways we’ve utilized this planner is by consistently updating it as transactions are made, which kept us more accountable. We also suggest using highlighters to color code different category expenses within the expense trackers—it made it easier to add up category totals and identify patterns in spending at a glance.
Disclosure: While all opinions are our own, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and other affiliate advertising programs, designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites, at no additional cost to you.