home management binder {part 1}

I think its time that I finally get on the bandwagon with everyone else. I'm finally going to make a real home management binder. I figured I'm 24,  and I hope to not live with my boyfriend's mother forever, its time for my own management binder.

It's not like I am completely unorganized now, I have a system going on, sort of.
It kind of looks like a disaster, but its better than nothing.

And just for the record, my calendar was even already on the right month! I didn't even have to stage it for the photo- woot!

notice the sweet dog statues that fill the rest of the shelf (and by shelf I mean top of the radiator cover)
but that awesome thirty-one magazine I just received should make up for a little?

This is obviously not an ideal situation, but its not my house and I don't really have anymore space than that, I had to smoosh the dog statues to get that little bit of space.  So I'll take what I can get.

I have a file box that I've had my things in for a while now, the calendar on the front was an addition I stole from a blog, however I'm not sure which one because so many people have done posts like that now.

The calendar is actually a big help for planning out my bills. With a teacher's aid salary (which, let me tell you is not very much!) and a once a week check from Menards, I have to do some serious planning to not leave myself with $12 for the rest of the month. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that my teeny tiny check comes once a month, on the 20th. Super cool, I know.

Its sort of organized, really I promise. Or at least I know what is in each file if I look at it. Labels are definitely lacking though. Maybe I will get around to the labels when I do my home management binder, as I'm sure there will be some things rearranged.

Okay, here is the beginnings of my:

Now, I have done some serious pinning to prepare for this project and I think I have all the inspiration {and a few freebies from other wonderful bloggers} to get started. Check out my pinboard if you'd like to see my inspiration.

I also purchased these cute binders from Target, for  $5 something each, which is way more than I would ever spend on a binder. But I wanted it to be cute and they are eco friendly. Plus I got 2 other coordinated ones to make a coupon binder and a blog planning binder (those will be in another post). I haven't decided which two will be the matching, probably coupon and management will match and blog will be different.

If there is anyone else who has not made their home management binder yet, feel free to join me!
I think it will take me a few posts to get it done. But if I can get blog savvy enough by the end, I would like to try a link party.
If you already have a home management binder, maybe you'd like to update yours, or just share it anyway.

Quick, get out there and find your binders!