Hmm. I’ve been doing this tactic for almost 15 years and never thought I was a trendsetter:

Make your own day planner pages.

Christian PF tipped his readers off to the DIY Planner site, where you can set up your own day planner templates. All you need beyond a computer, printer and paper is a hole puncher and a paper trimmer. Here are the detailed beginner instructions.

Well, here’s the Monroe on a Budget system:

• Use whatever calendar program the blogger’s husband has installed on the home computer.
• Look for templates and preferences within that software that are coded for day planner pages.
• Print off calendar pages in appropriate format.
• Punch holes and install pages.

Now, why did I start going the DIY route instead of purchasing pretty refill pages at the office supply stores?

When I acquired a “formal” day planner to keep phone lists, work schedules and family appointments, I was finding that I had to update our family calendar about once every two weeks. We also needed to keep recent copies of calendar pages in the kitchen where husband and daughter could look up appointments when I wasn’t home.

Now, since I prefer to use pen rather than pencil for visibility’s sake, the pretty refill pages in my day planner and the pretty images on a traditional wall calendar didn’t stay pretty for long.

I realized it was just as easy for me to create calendar pages on computer, where I can make updates and replacement printouts for both wall and book formats as needed.

These days, as soon as I am done updating the database, the husband downloads the latest computer calendar entries into his wireless phone.

But we still post a paper version of the calendar in the kitchen for a quick reference.