Bullet Journaling on a Budget – How to Save Money
It’s easy to find pictures of amazing, beautiful bullet journals online, with influencers recommending a myriad of different types of supplies and tools to make your journal as fancy and decorated as possible.
But while bullet journaling is be a lot of fun, it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. You can make your journal look extremely pretty or be extremely effective at organizing your whole life—without breaking the bank, and staying on a budget.
Saving money can be simple and doesn’t have to be overly complicated. One way to do this is by utilizing cheaper supplies that still work well, finding both cheap brands and types of materials or tools that work well and still make your journal look really nice.
If your goal is to have an aesthetic journal that’s artistic, one to remember is that it’s not about the supplies as much as it is about the talent or skill going into the art piece.
This applies to journaling as well. Sometimes it’s enough to just take what you already have on hand and challenge yourself to make something amazing out of that. You can create gorgeous spreads and jaw-dropping spreads with a simple gel pen or cheap markers.
If you care to have a gorgeous journal; want to make one that is artistic and beautiful but don’t have money for all the supplies you see recommended on social media, then this post is for you. Here, I will be sharing ideas and some examples of beautiful spreads that were created using minimal supplies, that are very much aesthetic and impressive to look at.
I will also be giving some tips on how to make the most of what you already have at home and recommend cheaper alternative supplies that work great for creating art in and decorating your journal.
Read also: 25 Incredible Bullet Journal Spread Ideas
Beautiful but Easy Spreads
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Affordable Materials and Tools That I Love
There’s a lot of different options for materials and supplies you can get for your bullet journal, but in reality you don’t need to start with too much. It’s enough to have a few good gel pens, possibly a tape roller if you want to paste images or bits of paper into your journal, and a few markers to start, and then just some scissors and a ruler.
There’s no need to overcomplicate the process in the beginning with worrying too much about finding the perfect supplies. Just focus on getting started and experimenting with what you have at home.
If you would like to start off with a basic list of affordable supplies that I would recommend though, I’ve made this little list of ones that I find work amazingly well for me.
No need to go out and get all of them. Get just a couple on the list and try them out first to see how they work for you.
Tombow Mono Adhesive Dot Tape Roller
This is one of my favorite supplies for bullet journaling, which is why I decided to put it as number one on the list. It’s extremely useful if you want to paste photos or snippets and tidbits of paper into your journal, and in my opinion, works much better than any glue sticks I’ve ever used.
Glue sticks are messy, get everything sticky, and also have the potential to warp the paper or not even stick correctly to the page.
This tape roller slides a strip of double sided tape over your paper that’s not all one piece; the strip is made up of tiny squares that allow you to rotate the roller and lay curved strips of tape down if you need to.
The small pieces also makes it easy to remove if you mess up; just rub the strip of tape off and it’ll come off in little pieces you can then simply brush off the page with no sticky residue or mess.
One thing that I find very cool about this product is that it not only adheres extremely well, but I’m also able to remove my photo and restick it without ripping the page, and it sticks just as well the SECOND TIME!
I’ve never seen a product this cool that works so well and leaves no mess, and you can get one for $10 on Amazon, with a pack of three refills for $15. This is the best tape roller I’ve ever found and my favorite adhesive tool for my bullet journal, so I would highly recommend this to anyone who needs it.
Pilot G-2 Gel Pens
This is a very popular brand of gel pens, and for good reason. The ink flows very smoothly and consistently. I’ve tried a lot of gel pens that either leave a lot of dry patches or blotches of runny ink and just don’t work well.
I personally use the 1 mm size for these, because I prefer thicker gel pens, and I find they work extremely well for my cursive journaling and writing my to-do list in my bujo.
I love this brand because you can get a pack of 12 of these pens for $12 on Amazon, or they’re easy to find in stores like Walmart, Target, or most craft stores.
Papermate Inkjoy Gel Pens
These are the gel pens that I first started off using, and I fell in love with them. I personally love the 0.7 mm thick ones, which are their most common size that you can find at just about any store: Walmart, Target, Staples, or get a pack of 14 for $11 on Amazon.
I love these just as much as the Pilot pens, and they’re even a bit cheaper. You can get a bunch of different colors and they all work great. I would highly recommend these to anyone into bullet journaling, whether you’re just getting started or been doing it for years and are looking for a better pen.
Crayola Super Tips
Finding markers that work well in your bullet journal can be a bit of a challenge, since so many types bleed through the page or just aren’t of great quality.
I love Crayola Super Tips because they work well for beginners just getting into calligraphy, due to their firmness that makes them easy to control and create strokes with varying degrees of thickness.
They’re also easy to create consistently thick strokes, for creating borders or highlighting, and they’re cheaper than any typical calligraphy marker you can find.
While they’re not brush markers and aren’t technically designed for calligraphy, I actually find them to be pretty easy to use for someone just starting out, more so than actual calligraphy markers would be, because of their firmness.
The more firm the marker, the easier it is to control the thickness. The Super Tips have a good amount of flexibility if you press down with some force, yet also have enough firmness to make them easy to manipulate.
They’re also water-based, meaning you can use blend them and use them with or as watercolors, and they don’t bleed through most paper.
Whether you’re looking to get markers you can use for coloring or getting into calligraphy, these ones are a great place to start, and you can pick up a pack of 120 for only $27 on Amazon.
Amazon Basics Calligraphy Brush Markers
I decided to try these when I was looking online for some new art supplies, and I stumbled upon these brush markers. I found a pack of 12 for $13 on Amazon. If you’re more serious about calligraphy and want a cheap solution that works well, these Amazon Basics brush markers are extremely worth the price.
They’re a thinner, medium thickness brush marker, that you can get a beautiful result with for headings and titles, if you have a little experience in lettering. They’re not too expensive, and I would highly recommend them to anyone interested in creating fancy lettering in their journal.
Zebra Mildliner Brush Markers
These are another great brand that I love. If you’re looking to get into calligraphy, or want light washes of color in your journal for borders and highlighting, I love the selection of pastel colors you can find in most of the Zebra Mildliner packs.
I haven’t tried their highlighters, but I personally love their brush markers and you can get a pack of 10 for $14 at Walmart.
Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Markers
These brush markers are also a very high quality brush marker that come in a pack of 3, each slightly different, for $5 on Amazon. I find they last a while, and while they’re a bit more pricey than the Amazon Basics ones, they work extremely well.
They’re slightly different than the Amazon Basics and look a little different, but they’re the same level of thickness and are pretty comparable overall.
Micron Fineliners
While I’ll admit these aren’t the cheapest fineliners out there (you can get a pack of 6 for $10 on Amazon), they work very well and are great for adding doodles or getting clean, thin lines.
While you can use a brush marker or a gel pen for drawing as well, I find that fineliners make it very easy to create strokes with a consistent thickness and they’re great for layering with markers or highlighters, as they don’t bleed or smudge at all.
I wouldn’t consider these a necessity, but if you like the idea of using markers with pens and worry about smudging or bleeding, then fineliners will prevent that problem for you.
I’m sure you could probably find a cheaper brand that may work just as well, but these are the ones that I’ve personally tried and currently use. They’re a bit cheaper than other brands out there and work very well for their price.
Decorating and Art Technique Ideas
As I mentioned before, it’s often less about the quality of the supplies you use, and more about the technique and skill being applied. You can create amazing masterpieces with the cheapest and worst quality of supplies, if you know what you’re doing and know how to work with them to your advantage.
Often the best masterpieces are created using only one tool: a single pen or marker. It’s not really necessary to go all out and buy a huge amount of supplies and materials to get started or to make your journal look good.
While stickers and decorative tapes can be a lot of fun and make the process easier, they’re not really essential and you can do a lot without them. Here are some tips I would recommend for creating a more aesthetic journal.
Add Doodles
Drawing little doodles in your journal in place of stickers can add just as much interest and brighten up your journal in the same kind of way, while also giving you the freedom to draw whatever you want and fill up as much or as little space as you choose.
I think this is a great way to add more interest to your bullet journal and make it more aesthetic and pleasing to the eye, without needing to invest in extra materials.
You can choose to keep them black and white, or add some color with markers or colored pencils. You can also draw the doodles themselves with colorful pens or markers. Either option can work great.
Related post: 12 Tips to Make Your Bullet Journal Stunning
Add Details to Headers and Titles
A great technique that I love to use in my journal is making the titles and headers stand out by adding details to them. I’ll write them with varying degrees of thickness in each letter, add drop shadows, small highlights, and little borders and outlines to them.
Whatever you can do to decorate and amplify your titles to make them more detailed, go for it. You don’t need to be a pro calligrapher to make your headings stand out and look pretty.
Plan and Sketch Out Your Layout with Pencil First
This is a great technique for beginners or just about anyone feeling overwhelmed with their journal.
Before you go in with your pens and markers, first sketch out the spread that you’re planning on creating, with the doodles or drawings included, and then go in with pens or markers once you’ve gotten everything all laid out how you want.
This technique has saved me from huge headaches and making big mistakes that are difficult to fix, or dealing with results that I’m less than satisfied with. There’s no shame in taking a bit of extra time and effort to plan out the spread to get it to look the way you want.
Read also: How to Fix Bullet Journal Mistakes
Focus on the Composition
This is a big fundamental part of art and design that many beginners struggle with. The composition is very critical if you want your journal to look aesthetic and organized.
Pay attention to the placement of each item on the page, and the amount of blank space throughout and around each item on the spread. You want your words and letters spaced evenly apart, everything laid out with equal amounts of space in between, and to avoid big chunks of awkward blank space or tightly cramming words and doodles into one spot.
I believe this is something that’s hard to get right in the beginning, which is why I recommend the previous tip, of drawing everything out in pencil first very lightly, as this will help a lot in your use of composition.
Add Some Color
Sometimes all it takes is a bit of color to brighten up your journal and make it more visually appealing. Pay attention to the types of colors you choose and consider deciding on a color palette for each spread, week, month, etc.
While your journal can look amazing just being black and white as well, having some color can add a bit more dimension to an otherwise boring spread.
Consider Adding Decorative Borders and Boxes
Making everything plain and simple can be great, but if you want to add more interest, it’s a good idea to experiment with different shapes, adding boxes and interesting borders and edges throughout your spreads.
I like to create separate boxes for each day of the week in my journal in my weekly spread, and sometimes create separate boxes and spaces in other spreads or throughout my journal for writing down goals, making other lists, or writing down reminders.
These can be very functional as well, which is why I think they can make a great addition to your journal if you’re looking to brighten it up a bit.
Bullet journaling doesn’t have to be overly complicated or require a huge amount of supplies—it’s possible to do it on a budget and still have a beautiful journal you’ll be excited to open up and use every day.
Great tips on budget bullet journaling. I really need to get going on one soon – they look like a lot of fun!