I have a common settings.py file which starts with:

  ROOT_PATH = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
  configs = {
      '/path/to/my/local/dev/folder': 'alex',
      '/var/www/www.mywebsite.com/test/private/django/mywebsite': 'test',
      '/var/www/www.mywebsite.com/prod/private/django/mywebsite': 'prod'
  }
  config_module = __import__('config.%s' % configs[ROOT_PATH], globals(), locals(), 'mywebsite')
  for setting in dir(config_module):
      if setting == setting.upper():
          locals()[setting] = getattr(config_module, setting)

Then I have alex.py, prod.py and test.py all in a config subfolder. All under version control, with my settings.py automatically choosing the right environment based on where it's deployed to.