Ripping out the used pages of old notebooks instead of buying new ones

Compared to last year, when I bought 3 notebooks at the beginning of the year.

I wanted a planner for 2018. My Rhodia planner from last year worked pretty well but wasn’t exactly right. The daily slots were too small. It had it organized hour by hour, 7 am to 7 pm with a very tiny line by each hour. But that’s not what I really want. I think this year I do want to organize by hour but I just don’t write that tiny.

I had a few Moleskines stashed away from 2014 when I binged and wanted to try bullet journaling. They were all partially used – maybe 1/5 used. So I ripped out the pages that were used and made a monthly planner in the fat Moleskine, with 2 lines per day and each month spanning 3 pages with a little extra room on the 3rd page for any notes or inspirational quotes. This is to keep track of longterm things- like bill payment, dog’s flea meds, jury duty and so on.

Then, I will just make daily pages as I need them on the day. This is exactly what I need. If I use it up halfway through the year, I will transfer the remaining monthly pages, to a new Rhodia notebook. I am not a huge Moleskin fan now that I use fountain pens since the ink bleeds and the paper isn’t that smooth. But I didn’t have to spend money to use them.

You can see the pages I ripped out in the photos here.

It would bother some people and it does bother me a little. But not so much that I would waste 2/5 of the pages in the notebook and spend $15 to solve a problem I can solve with $0.

In the top photo you can see the white notebooks are kind of dirty as well, but I’ll try wiping them off with soap and a little water and see where that gets me. I’ll call the dirt I can’t get off patina, which is an important word to know how to use if you want to spend less money.