I have a confession: I’m horrible at making and sticking to a budget. I have to sort of trick myself into it. But I started doing something a couple of years ago that has helped me a bunch, particularly in the area of grocery shopping, and now I’ve designed a product around it!

The Shopping List Booklet

On the back of my shopping list I started keeping a tally of what I was spending as I put something in the cart. As the sheet began to fill with scratches, I became horrified, then convicted, at what I was spending and just how I was spending it.

Unfortunately, being a designer, and having two babies and a 5-year-old traipsing around the store with me as I shopped, I got tired of trying to read tally marks, so I designed something better.

It’s a small booklet that fits in my back pocket. Inside are lined pages with checkboxes and bubbles for keeping my tally. The bubbles are in blocks of $5 so I can quickly glance at my list and see where I am and where my limit is. This helps me stick to only what I really need. I’ve been using it for almost a year now. I’ve done some math and figured out I save an average of $20 each time I shop!

Each book is hand-stitched with needle and thread, not because I have the time, but because I did it once and felt really lame the next time I went to do a stapled saddle-stitch. :D

I just love the look and feel of the hand-stitching. I even made myself some little blank journals to keep in my bible and other books. It makes a great bookmark (they’re pretty thin) and it’s a place I can keep notes while I read. Since I’m a library girl now I can’t make notes in the margins anymore!

So take a look at my Shopping List Booklet and be on the lookout for the blank journal. If there’s enough demand for it I might be persuaded (with chocolate) to stay up later to make some!