As soon as you acquire any kind of ring binder, whether a Filofax-style organiser or a standard 2 ring A4 folder, the issue of how to punch holes in paper comes up.

With the standard 2 ring binder it’s easy – you can pick up a 2 hole punch at just about any store that stocks stationery. Even the supermarkets here sell a variety of them, including the handy flat ones that you can slip over the rings of the folder and always have on hand.

So, I’ve been drooling over a 6-hole punch to fit my organiser. It needed to punch holes with the Filofax A5 sizing. There’s quite a few to choose from, but they all seem so expensive. Even the cheaper ones come with a hefty postage cost. There’s also the issue of quality to take into account. From reviews it seems that some are just not that flash at their job and I’m not keen on spending the money to buy one only to find it’s not as whizzbang as I expected.

Then there’s the whole deal about trying to cut down on our “stuff”, both as a means of decluttering the house and to save some dollars for a future family adventure. That got me thinking, do I really need a dedicated punch for this task? I mean really, how often do I actually punch a page to insert into my organiser? What would my cost per use work out at?

Ha ha, if you know me you’d know I have already run the figures. I punch around 5-10 pages a week, and usually all in the one sitting. If I bought the punch with the best reviews and a fairly reasonable price point that would work out at around 9 cents per hole punched. Hmmm. With those stats, I think I’m much better sticking with this little fellow and my current punching method than spending more money.