Binder ideas

I went looking for a binder today in which to collect our Private Eye sheets, so it needed to fit a half page, 5.5 x 8.5 in.  Staples does have a "memo binder" that is the right size with a 1" ring.  They carry a $3.79 version and a clear-view $5.99 version, both of which I thought was rather pricey for a small binder.

After I went to Walmart, and they happened to have the Franklin Covey planners on clearance, and probably because it is the end of the school year other retailers may have similar clearances. I was able to get a zipper-close leather binder for under $6, and it included a ruler and two pouches, as well as various dividers and pages, most of which I will discard.

The significant down-side to this great bargain is the need for a 7-hole punch compatible with the planner system.  Franklin-Covey sells a metal one for over $20 that I was not about to buy, especially when I would be punching at most 3 pages at a time!  I searched Amazon and found one through a third party vendor that was slim and would fit into the binder itself.  My plan is to use the dividers and keep completed sheets for all three kids in the binder.

As it turns out, instead of discarding all the pages, I kept one to use as a template that I place over our nature sheets and then use a pencil to trace the seven holes.  I was able to use a standard hole punch to punch through three folded 28# sheets together by lining up the punch with the drawn circles.  Works for me!