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I shall be using this blog to witter on about my stationery finds in general and diaries/planners and Filofaxes in particular. Please feel free to witter along with me!

Friday 4 May 2012

Bargain Filofaxes & Filofax diaries - what a savvy shopper!

Hello all!
 
Well I had a most pleasant experience in Staples this morning.
 
Last night, I spent the evening frowning at the fact that my handbag is quite heavy, due to my Finsbury compact.  I blogged about my setup here.  I really really love it; the diary is a great size for me to put all my appointments, reminders and to dos in and I can see it all a week at a time.  It’s not even stuffed to the gills really . . . although it is reasonably full.  But it’s just . . . heavy.  So whilst I definitely don’t have planner fail, I am thinking that I am approaching Filofax Fail!  I’m really gutted.  It’s a shame they don’t make Dominos in a compact size because they are very light.  That would probably solve my problem!  I have seriously considered getting a slimline which could potentially work, but they are all either too expensive or too dull!  There’s no way on this earth I would use a black or brown Filofax.  My only options would be a red Amazona or a damson/magenta Adelphi.  And they’re as rare as hens’ teeth, at a reasonable price anyway!
 
Regardless, I digress.  All this ‘heaviness’ got me thinking about reverting to one of my pocket Filofaxes - not something that I really wanted to do.  I totally loved my aqua Finsbury but it’s a bit battered and faded now, and it's not the lightest one I have.  I also have a violet Domino and a raspberry Chameleon.  The Chameleon is quite light and has smaller rings (15cm I think) so I thought about slimming down my inserts and putting just what I need in there.  I thought what I’d try was using six months’ worth of ‘week per page’ inserts (for appointments and time-specific reminders) together with a month’s worth of dailies as well for my ‘to dos’ and more detailed information.  And I’d also use my pocket templates without dividers – just put them all behind one divider.
 
My next task – to have a good rummage through all my Filofax paraphernalia and find a 2012 ‘week per page’ pocket diary.  FAIL.  Oh dear.  So, after some surfing on t’interweb, I found one here at Staples.  For 42p!!!  Yes, you did read that right.  So in my basket it went, only to discover to my horror that the total price including VAT and delivery came to £5.70!!!  Well stuff that for a game of soldiers.
 
Then I remembered.  A while ago (January I think), I decided to buy a label maker.  It was about £12 (ish) on the Staples website but I didn’t want to pay for delivery when I have a Staples just down the road from me.  So I went to the store only to find the exact same make was over £30!  Needless to say, I queried this and they checked out their website to confirm what I was saying.  I ended up paying the price quoted online and I went home with a very large smile on my face!
 
So, this morning, my cogs were whirring.  I wanted to try a new setup but didn’t want to shell out much money in case I didn’t like it and it didn’t work for me.  I was going to have that diary for 42p, come hell or high water!  Off I trekked to Staples and found the diary in question.  At £3.75!  Blimey they are cheeky.
 
I found a very nice man who could help me and explained my dilemma.  After lots of searching on their website (he clearly didn’t have as much experience as me when it came to searching for Filofax products on the net . ..), he found the product in question at the grand total of 50p.  (Their prices obviously included VAT.)  He looked rather horrified at the low price but checked it out with his manager and said I could have it for 50p!  (I wasn’t going to argue for the sake of 8p . . .)
 
So, I handed my 50p over to the lovely lady at Staples and left with, yet again, a very large smile on my face.
 
The moral of the story?  If you don’t ask, you don’t get.  Or, it pays to ask.  Next time you want to buy something from Staples, check the product out online first and take a printout of it with you when you visit the shop.  You could save yourself some decent wonga!
 
P.S. – While I’m on the subject of Staples, they currently have the London Olympics Filofaxes at rock-bottom prices, starting from a fabulous £5.63!!!  Wow!  Check them out here.
 
If you want one at the price online, take a printout of the item with you in case it’s more expensive in the shop.  I believe that they have to sell it to you at the price quoted online.  It certainly worked for me!






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7 comments:

  1. I feel a Staples browse and shop visit coming on in a few weeks I think... :o)

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  2. I don't blame you, go for it! I hope you get some fabulous bargains x

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  3. That's an astonishingly great tip, thanks very much - not an Olympics fan, but at that price my principles can go do the long-jump!!

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  4. Just ordered one of the Olympic ones, so excited - and I needed a more rugged organiser than my Songbird for the holidays anyway.

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  5. I've ordered the pink olympics filofax from staples, there's a store down the road from me so got it delivered to store, going to pick it up on Monday and have a little shop around while i'm there!!

    Thanks for visiting my blog :)

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  6. Looking forward to seeing your photos of it! And my pleasure; thanks for visiting mine!

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