It is officially October! This month is all about celebrating Halloween! Although we don’t have the culture of celebrating Halloween in Singapore, this month’s theme is largely related to it.

The doodles are all inspired by Doodles by Sarah on Youtube! Her doodles are so easy to mimic and follow.

1. COVER PAGE

My cover page begins with a beautiful crescent moon amongst the stars. I’ve also written down the calendar for October at the bottom. I just loved how this cover spread turned out!

2. CALENDAR PAGE AND THE GOALS PAGE

On the left side of the page, I’ve included the calendar with a big pot of witches’ brew. I chose not to include the important dates section because I found myself ignoring this section for the past two months.

On the right side of the page, I liked the goals page for the three main aspects of my life. My Studies is represented by a mummy. Studies are represented by the ghost (kinda non-existence as of now but I’m working towards it). My blog is represented by a vampire (because I tend to work on it through the night). These doodles are adorable and so fun to create.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to achieve these targets in the month of October. Fingers’ crossed.

3. EXPENSE TRACKER AKA THE TREAT OR TRICK PAGE

This is similar to the spread I’ve been using for a while. I find that it really helps me to track what I spend.

My expenses tracker is formed by 3 parts.

Savings Goal: This month, I have decided to include a savings goal based on the expense tracker for the last two months. I decided to use the numbers from the previous two months because I think it would provide a more accurate estimation for the target. However, you can choose a realistic enough number and work your way to getting a better estimate.

Tip: Do remember to set a stricter target so you don’t overspend. For example, you may be comfortable with saving $100 weekly and spend the rest. In that case, your saving goal should be roughly $120. Whereby, even if you overspend by $20, you can still save $100. If you don’t, then you’ve successfully save beyond what is expected. Congratulations!!

This is where the treat or trick comes in. If you have successfully achieved your savings goal, then congratulations! You can reward yourself with a treat (preferably one that does not touch the savings of yours). If you did not, then booo. You need to trick yourself. Which may mean that you should deny yourself something (this can be that cup of bubble tea for next month). The most important thing is, to be honest about it!! Otherwise, your savings tracker will not work and it defeats the purpose of having one.

Money Tracker: This is a simple tracker that you need to use to annotate your cash and bank account balance at the start of September. The next time you will need to fill the rest of it up is at the end of September. Do note that for your bank account, this is for reference purposes. I would not suggest that you write the beginning and ending balance into your BUJO for safety reasons. Rather, refer back to your bank statements to cross-check with the Debit-Credit Tracker.

Debit-Credit Tracker: This is one tracker that is to be used every day, keep track of your inflow of money by writing it into your tracker. “Type” denotes where the money is going into or coming out of from either your bank or your wallet (Cash). Do remember to separate your transactions for the cash and bank even if you used both methods on one day.

How to use these trackers together. At the end of the month, start with the beginning balance for the cash and bank respectively. Depending on the inflow and outflow of money according to the type, start to subtract it from the beginning balance.

For example, start with the cash in the beginning. Any expenses or income belonging to the physical exchange of money, subtract or add accordingly to the cash at the beginning.

Do the same for the bank.

The ending balance for each should match the ending balances which you should already annotate at the end of September.

If it doesn’t tally, you’ve probably missed out on an expense here or there.

4. WEEKLY PAGES

This weekly spread is the same as my September spread. I’ve found that it has worked pretty well for me and wanted to continue using the same spread.

For the 7 boxes on top, it is to signify the list of to-dos for that day. These are the tasks that I should accomplish for the day. I will also be using these boxes to plan out what I want to do for the entire week.

The 4 vertical boxes on the slides of both pages are used to show the 3 goals I have for the week. The last box serves as a reminder for the tasks which are due next week. So I don’t forget anything.

Finally, for the 6 boxes in the middle, I will be using them to keep track of the things that I need to remember before I plan them into my schedule later on.

If you haven’t seen how I map out each week and plan each day using just 15 minutes daily, see the blog post here.

5. QUOTES AND MEMORIES

QUOTES

This is a short quote by Eleanor Roosevelt which I hope can inspire you as much as it inspires me.

“Do ONE thing which scares you everyday”.

Eleanor Roosevelt

This quote encourages me to take the step to try out new things even if it scares you. Oftentimes, we are just frightened by the thought of doing what we need to do. But when we take that first step and get ourselves used to it, we’ll find that things aren’t that difficult after all. Of course, you must know your own limits and make adjustments accordingly.

This can be your projects which are seemingly hard to conquer and difficult to face. But once you’ve started, and work on it bit by bit, you’ll find that things are not as hard as expected. If you’re lucky, you may even grow to enjoy it.

MEMORIES

I decided that this month, it would be a good idea to start a spread on some October memories. Even with the horrible situation at hand. I will be collating these memories in the form of photos throughout the month before printing them. Looking back at these memories should spark joy which is what the Halloween spirit is about!

And that’s it for my October spread! This month, I went more doodles. I decided not to colour them in but you could always do that to add a little spice to your doodles! What do you guys think? Let me know down in the comments!

If you haven’t seen my recent Back to School BUJO, click on the image down below!