The Happy Planner 2019
So Black Friday 2018 cost me a lot of money to me & my big ideas! I found two planners and lots of accessories to go along with my planners. I already told you about my 2018 planner and how it worked for me. Now I want to share all of the planners and accessories I bought during that sale, and I want to share with you my experience with my new planner for 2019. I wanted to spend a few weeks working with it to see how it was going to work best for me.
Let’s start with all of the accessories first. I really loaded up in this department, ha! So one thing I bought on a complete whim because of the sale was a book of stickers. I still have stickers left from the very first planner set I bought from Costco for 2017. So why would I need more stickers? Well these looked really useful. Sure there were a few pages with some quotes on them, but most of the pages had stickers with to do lists, graph paper, dots, etc. In the last month I have used them every week. I have made it an effort, but I have used them. I am certain these will last me quite a while though, ha!
I also bought a dry erase board set. I am going to be honest, I haven’t even started using these. I bought them thinking it might be a good replacement for the meal planning pieces of paper. But honestly, I like having the paper, ha. In addition to the meal planning page, there is a grocery list {not useful to me at all}, a planning board {not sure this makes any sense since you use your planner to write these things down anyhow}, and a board to simply write things down on. And I am certain that if I place them in my planner, the marker will rub off when I open and close my planner. I will probably test these out later this year. When/If I do, I will do an updated post.
I have no shortage of notepads after my Black Friday spree. I bought some full page sheets this time because I didn’t have any last year. I had some in 2017, and I really found I used them a lot when I didn’t have any. I will say I was disappointed that half of the pages are notebook lined while the other half are graph paper. When I purchased these, I thought the front was lined while the back was graph paper. Thankfully I like graph paper too, but not everyone does.
While I wasn’t in need of meal planning sheets yet, I did go ahead and buy another pack to have on hand. This time I bought a pack that was a bit more colorful. Each day is a different color, and there is still a grocery list on the back.
I bought two sets of half page notes. The first set is plain and simple. It is double sided, white, and is notebook lined on each side.
The second set has 4 different pages included in it. The purple pages have bullet points which are great for making lists that you need to check off. One of the green pages is full of dots. I would use this for making lists too, but I am sure there are many uses for it. The second green page is a simple note page just like the white ones I bought above. And at last are the pink pages. They are just covered in graph paper. I find that I can use all of these to make really good lists. My favorite are the bullet points though.
One of the new things I wanted to try and find this year were bookmarks. Seems simple, but I wanted to buy some to help me always find my place in my planner. They had quite a few different ones, so I went with what was most cost effective and cute. Well I made a mistake in doing that. While I received 20 bookmarks, they are very flimsy. They are just like heavy cardstock. It may take all 20 to get me throughout the entire year.
Now to start discussing the planners I bought.
The first planner I bought is actually not for me to use this year. I bought it because it was such a great deal. I got the box set for only $7.50. And it is undated which made even more sense.
The planner itself is very similar to my 2018 planner. The only real difference is the color scheme.
In addition to the planner, it came with 4 sheets of stickers, sticky notes, and bookmarks.
Two sheets of the stickers are quotes and cutesy things. The other two sheets have numbers and the months of the year to help with labeling the planners. This is nice because in my 2018 planner, I had to label nearly everything by hand.
The sticky notes are nice because they snap into the planner, but I will unlikely use them. I have a set from my 2017 planner, and I use them rarely.
The bookmarks are much nicer than the ones I bought separately. I just wish I would have noticed that they came in the box set before buying the other ones. These are magnetic, and they seem to hold up really well.
Now the planner I have been using for 2019 so far. It was more expensive than the other planners I have bought, but it looked very intriguing. It is dated, but in the pictures online, it looked like it had everything included that I could ever want in a planner. I still liked having some of the accessories to go along with it, but it looked super useful. And it is pretty cute too.
So it is a Super Mom planner. The planner itself is cute like I said, but I will end up covering it up with the rose gold cover, so that wasn’t very important. It also came with premium metal discs. This is nice, but honestly, I will end up replacing them with the larger discs that I bought for my 2018 planner because it will become so thick it will need them!
The first page shows the 2019-2020 year.
Each month starts out the same way. On the left page, the top contains the calendar of the month before, current month, and month after. It has a master plan section, birthday section, notes, and important dates. I will unlikely use the master plan or notes, but I am using the birthday section. And I may eventually use the important dates. I am sure this will change some overtime as I use it though.
The right page is simply a divider for the month. It is a bit thicker than a normal page so it stands out some.
Once you open the month, you will find a monthly calendar for that specific month. I love to use this to put everything I have already listed in my phone here. Sometimes you just want an overview of the month.
There is also a place for your monthly goals, to do list, and top priorities. I am only unsure if I will use the to do list. I like to focus on what I need to do on a more weekly basis, but we will see how the year goes. The goals and priorities will be nice to always look back and refocus and regroup.
So now comes the best part, the weekly view.
The left side presents some new options that were not part of my 2018 planner. I find myself using a lot of the stickers I bought above on this page. While a lot of this information I also include in my daily account on the right page, I like having it broken down here too. I can list all of my errands, things I need to buy, phone calls I need to make, and bills to pay so that they can easily be seen. I also use this page to work with Brad on anything he may also need to do. I list those things here and follow up with him throughout the week. I don’t always include those things in my weekly plan but I track them here. There is also a focus section. I use it to list one thing a week I want to focus on. It may be watching carbs, exercising, finishing Disney plans, etc.
On the right side are daily listings. One thing I love about this page is the “what’s for dinner” section. Our breakfasts, lunches, and snacks are pretty consistent but dinners do change daily. So having them listed front and center each week is really nice. I still use my color coding system from last year, and I list out everything we have to do or having going on each day. I also try to incorporate stickers where I can.
In the very back is an “extra's” tab. It contains a handful of pages that can be used on a weekly or monthly basis. The front of each page lists each day of the week and the back has some areas for notes.
I have been using the planner for almost a month now. So far I really love this planner. The weekly information is great and really useful. I am enjoying the organization it provides me. I plan to update you as the year continues on any changes I make or feelings I have about this specific planner. Oh and I made a video below of the unboxing of all of my accessories and planners.
