Comments on: 14 Ways a Notebook in Your Pocket Can Save You Money

By: Des

Des — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:45:45 +0000

It’s funny, one of my new years resolutions was to carry around a pocket notebook for some of the very reasons mentioned here. Another thing it can help you do is track those small impulse buys that add up and how much they cost. Like the daily chococlate bar or coffee.

By: Megan

Megan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:49:55 +0000

I’m totally on board with the whole “pocket notebook” thing. I have a small Moleskin book that my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas that perfectly fits in my purse that I use to jot down notes and Christmas ideas and my husbands never ending list of CDs he wants to own.

The thing that I have trouble with, is what I do with the information after I’ve put it in the notebook. I’ll start a list of groceries on one page, and then I’ll have a completely unrelated idea and move to jot it down on a different page, and before too long I have a bunch of random ideas on seven different pages and I can’t remember where I put the information when I want it.

Do you run into that at all? If you do, how to you resolve it? And if you don’t, what do you do to avoid it? How to you process the information?

By: leslie

leslie — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:36:13 +0000

I use my iphone for all of this and it is much more practical for me than having to carry around a notebook and a pen at all times. I ALWAYS have my phone on me! I wouldn’t always carry the notebook (for one reason or another).

Also, instead of just writing down the sale price of an item; I can take a picture! This is also extremely useful if you’re trying to color match something from home (at least to use as a guide). Which can save you from buying the wrong color of fabric or paint!

By: Another Dave

Another Dave — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:22:37 +0000

@ Robin- I keep a loose page in my journal for the “To Do” and “Shopping” list’s. I can move that page along the current page, so it’s easily found, update the list, and cleanly remove it when completed. It also saves me Journal space in the my book since those are temporary entries. Once they are crossed off they are usually not needed agian.
I also keep a .txt file on my computer desktop for this purpose for the journal purpose. It’s an easy place to copy/paste things found online for remembering later.

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:22:17 +0000

I love this idea, and have my own, but my main problem lies in keeping all 14 of these ideas organized. It’s difficult at the end of the day to organize the shopping list items vs. blog post ideas vs. good sale prices vs. contact info. I suppose just putting these in the appropriate places when you get home works, but sometimes I need to go to the grocery store right after work, and trying to find the 5 items I wrote down within the course of a day and 6 notebook pages is a little daunting. I think I need to find a good way to organize this information before I just start writing it down – any ideas?

By: Perry

Perry — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:15:39 +0000

I meant to type ‘purposes’, not ‘purchases’ in my previous post.

By: Perry

Perry — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:14:09 +0000

I’ve thought about carrying a notebook, but I already carry a phone, pocket knife, change pouch, keyring and iPod Touch and don’t want to have more stuff to carry around. I can and do use my phone and iPod for a lot of these purchases but inputting text on those devices is so tedious and timeconsuming that I often just skip it. As for using the phone’s camera, I have a hard time getting a decent shot in any but the most ideal conditions. Not to mention the hassle of getting it from my phone to another device (such as a PC) where it would actually be useful.

By: Another Dave

Another Dave — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:36:19 +0000

I see alot of notes here on using phones for this task. I use mine for appointment reminders, and un-expected photo ops. (like catching a pricetag w/ options. Or For-Sale Signs on the side of the road quickly) But I’m curious to the use as notepads. Do you folks have Qwerty keys, or basic phone text? What type of phones? I have always had a basic phone, and only have a camera because I can’t get a decent phone w/o one. Do you text alot with them, therefore have more use already? I’ld like to see some more discussion on this.

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:25:58 +0000

Having a small notebook is a great way to compare prices, keep reminders of sales or dates and just to take notes. With phones now, that has replaced the notebook.

By: Little House

Little House — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:45:36 +0000

Like Vicky, Tamara and Single Guy Money, I too use my phone for things like these. I make notes to myself about groceries, gift ideas for friends and family members, I even made a note to myself after visiting a museum about a prefab home called the Lustron.

Obviously a notepad or paper works just as well, but I find it’s just as easy carrying only my phone. Besides my purse becomes too cluttered anyway with scraps of paper receipts, deposit slips, and tissue!

By: Peggy

Peggy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:00:50 +0000

Ah, I used to carry all this and more in my PDA before it bit the dust. Can’t afford a smart phone. It helped quite a bit to have a place to jot down things in my head before they either got lost or kept me awake at night.

By: evi

evi — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:43:56 +0000

I have a piece of paper (a very long one, in fact – just a couple of inches broad but as long as a legal-pad-page) in my calendar and put everything that comes to mind on it. It works like a charm.
I love #14 – it sounds odd at first and will probably look weird to other people (e.g. if you leave a note on their door ;->), but who cares? It’s a great reminder!

By: John DeFlumeri Jr

John DeFlumeri Jr — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:39:57 +0000

I always have 2 pens with me as well.

By: Another Dave

Another Dave — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:34:25 +0000

I started doing this around the same time you started talking about it online. It was a carry over from work where I’m constantly having to keep notes. I figured it would help me with daily life adn start journaling. It works great. I had to laugh about the furnace filter point because the wife and I did that last night! I carry a leatherbound journal. Pages are 4.5″x6.5″ so the book is slightly bigger overall. And I use it for a million reasons. My biggest issue is finding consistant notebooks. I hate when I find a product I like and want to keep using, but they are discontinues after the first one I purchase!

By: Jenni

Jenni — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:51:20 +0000

I used to do this, but women’s clothes aren’t useful to hold something like a notebook. Maybe I will try keeping one in my purse.

By: SingleGuyMoney

SingleGuyMoney — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:42:19 +0000

Like Vicky and Tamara, I also use my phone to do this. There is a nice app on the Iphone called Notespark that allows you to write notes on your phone or on the internet. The application then syncs to make sure your information is always up to date.

I know you can’t leave a note for someone this way but to make up for that, I can just send them a text or an email.

- SingleGuyMoney

By: Tamara

Tamara — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:04:14 +0000

Like Vicky, I use my phone for almost all of these. The only one that won’t really work is leaving a note for a friend at their house.

By: John

John — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:30:11 +0000

How big is your pocket notebook?

(Great post as always!)

By: Daniel @ Sweating The Big Stuff

Daniel @ Sweating The Big Stuff — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:13:40 +0000

You’ve written about this in the past, and it encouraged me to carry around a piece of paper each day (I couldn’t do the entire notebook, so I made the idea my own).

What do you think of Google Notebook?

I always seem to lose my piece of paper once every week or two, and now I’ve started to “back up” my information by copying it to Google Notebook every few days.

By: Vicky

Vicky — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:11:35 +0000

:) Great post. I use my phone for nearly all of these things.

For prices, I just scan the barcode and save the item for later to look it up.

For notes and other various things, I just write a quick note in my phone.

I also use my phone as my main piece of budget equipment – I have an app called Loot that helps me keep track of all of my accounts very effectively.