Happy New Year — in September. (And My New Bullet Journal Set Up)

One of the reasons I love September and the new school year isn’t just because the kids go back to school and things are quiet during the day and I get some breathing room.

It’s also because September is a fresh start and the beginning of a new “year.”

It’s a great chance to start over and work on new habits and establish new routines.

I haven’t written a bullet journal post in a while, and this is a really big reason why I love bullet journals so much. Because you can start a new one at any time.

I just happened to fill up my last one in August, so the timing is perfect.

New school year, new bullet journal and a fresh start across the board.

I love when that happens!

So I thought I’d show you how I set up some of the pages in my new journal.

A couple years ago when I first started using a bullet journal, I was pretty gung ho in the bullet-journal-decorating-department.

Although I love decorating and coloring and designing my bullet journal, I have simplified how I set mine up considerably over the last year in the interest of saving time. Cause there is only so much time in the day.

I still use the (affiliate) Leuchtturm 1917, and I got myself a nice, new teal one.

It’s so pretty!

I printed out a super girly floral calendar I found online, and I glued it into the first page.

I filled in the table of contents for what’s in the journal so far.

The first few pages of my bullet journal are inspiration pages for me.

I love the beach, and I also love Jocko Willink. So I turned a couple of his quotes into pictures using the Wordswag app, printed them out, and glued those in first.

(USE A GLUE STICK AND NOT ELMER’S GLUE IN A BOTTLE BECAUSE THAT WILL MAKE YOUR PAGES ALL WRINKLY!)

I have dreams of owning a beach house in a tropical paradise and spending the whole winter there, and if that’s gonna happen, I need to stay disciplined.

Hence the discipline equals freedom picture.

And get after it is pretty self explanatory.

Next I have a couple pictures of Puerto Rico, a place I love but haven’t been to in fourteen years, since I was pregnant with Number 3.

I WILL GO BACK THERE IN 2020 WITH MY FAMILY.

Then I have a picture of the kids on our most recent trip to the beach and the beach cottage I want to own before I hit retirement age.

So I can start every day looking at my inspiration and reminding myself what my goals are.

Then I have a simple monthly layout for September and my September habit tracker.

The September spread isn’t completely filled in yet. And the blacked out squares on the habit tracker are because some of the habits I’m working on aren’t always daily habits.

Next I have a workout calendar for the month.

I’m running the Hartford Marathon in October, so I really need to plan my workouts out in advance and make sure I block out enough time, especially on the days I have to do the longer runs.

Then I have a couple pages to keep track of grocery shopping. I shop at the same five grocery stores. Some weeks I go to all of them. Other weeks I only go to two or three. It depends on what’s on sale and what I have coupons for.

I made this layout so I don’t have to redraw it every week, and I made the boxes the right size for the Post-its I have.

I just swap out new Post-its for the next week . And I can grab the ones that are in the journal when I am heading to the store if I don’t bring my whole journal with me.

Next I have a couple pages for meal planning. I used Post-its again so I don’t have to rewrite all this stuff.

Instead of wasting time each week writing the same things out, I wrote down our favorite meals on small Post-its.

Each week, I plan what we are having for dinner around what’s on sale.

Once I have my lists of what’s on sale at the grocery stores, then I come up with what we’ll eat for dinner.

And I just take the meals from the “favorite family meals bank” and plan them out for the week.

I used the same color Post-its for each group of food. That way I can also see if I’ve planned seven consecutive nights of chicken pretty quickly.

I also do my best to use different Post-Its the next week so we have at least some variety in our meals from week to week.

And many of those meals (like the meatballs and the sloppy joe meat and the taco meat and the lasagna and the chili) are things I’ll make double or quadruple batches of so I can freeze them and have them on hand quickly the next time I plan those for dinner.

Next week I’ll just put this week’s Post-its into their categories on the previous page.

I am not awesome at keeping track of how much money I have spent throughout the week, so next I made a spending log, and I am hoping this helps me spread my weekly budgeted amount of money out a little more evenly.

I have $350 a week allocated to groceries, gas, and miscellaneous items (like the birthday present I had to get for a party today), and that goes pretty quickly if I don’t stay on top of things.

So this is a new spread, and I’m hoping to stay on top of it.

Finally, I have my weekly layout.

One of the habits I’m trying to develop is sitting down every night and thinking about what I need and want to do the next day. So this is pretty sparse right now, but every night, I should have a plan for the following day.

I put quotes in each week as reminders.

I have a really big tendency to get distracted and start new things before I finish stuff I’ve already started, so that’s the reason for Focus.

And discipline equals freedom. Again. To remind me to do the stuff I don’t feel like doing because that is what is gonna get me to those inspiration pictures in the beginning of my awesome new bullet journal!

I am not really an app or digital person. I just function better writing stuff down. That’s why this bullet journal system works so well for me.

I’m looking forward to a super organized (and disciplined) September!

 

If you want to get yourself a bullet journal, you can order one here from Amazon: Leuchtturm 1917 Bullet Journal