For the past couple of years, I have relied on a planner to help me to stay motivated and organized. I have always been a list maker and I was obsessed with my Trapper Keeper when I was a kid. I decided to try to make my own planner this year, one that was more suited to my needs. The first planner that I used for 2016 was a nice planner, but it was wrong for me. The planner was organized by each month. Then, each month had pages for each week. So, if you opened the book, the pages that were side-by-side were for each week. The week pages included each day of the week broken down by the hour. It was way too much for me. I think that kind of planner is great for someone who is super busy and juggling many tasks and schedules. For me, I felt like I had to schedule each hour like I had to fill in the time with chores, tasks, and goals. Then, if I fell behind schedule or didn't complete each task, I felt like a failure. Not to mention, the planner was uninspiring.
For 2017, I needed something a lot more simple. My husband got me a planner that I really liked. It was a pale blue moleskin cover and it was a day planner. It was organized by the month, with a calendar for each section and then each day had a section to write down anything that you wanted to remember to do, almost like a journal. It was what I needed then. I never felt like a failure for not getting stuff done.
For 2018, I wanted a planner that had a little bit of everything in one spot. I wanted a section for keeping dates and a schedule, I wanted a section for organizing the budget, I wanted a section for meal planning, and I wanted a section for blog planning. That way, everything would be kept in one spot and it would be so much easier for me to function, it is my household binder of sorts and I love it.
You can buy all kinds of planers out there, but since my needs were so specific, it made more sense for me to make my own. I bought my supplies at Walmart and The Dollar Tree. The actual three-ring 2-inch binder came from Walmart. I found it in the stationery/office supply section. Sold right next to the binder was a bunch of dividers that were the same size s my binder, so I grabbed those too. Then, I bought a bunch of fun paper clips with flags on them, also at Walmart, I think I spent less than $10.00 on all the supplies that I bought from Walmart.
The rest of the supplies I got at The Dollar Tree. This includes stickers, washi tape, notepads, notebooks, an elasticated headband, gluesticks, a desk calendar, pens, and hot glue. I adhered velcro to the back of the notebook (above) and to the inside of the cover of the binder. That way I could remove the notebook if I wanted to write things down. On the inside of the back cover, I hot glued a cute sticky notepad that I found at The Dollar Tree.
On the back of each month, I glued these sections of the desk calendar. That way, I'd have a place to write down more notes and I wouldn't be wasting part of the calendar. I had already had cardstock on hand. I cut the desk calendar to size and glued it to the cardstock in order to make it sturdier and then I marked where the rings were and used a hole punch to make the holes to poke the rings through.
Then, I began the fun part, the decorating of the calendar. I was inspired by the planner videos of CheapCraftyGirl on Youtube. I intend to get more stickers for each month as the month approaches and jazz up the pages more, but this is just the starting point. I think that approaching each month at a time and sitting down to decorate the monthly pages will be fun and a nice way to relax, it will also be a great creative outlet. I think that starting each month with decorating the pages will keep me motivated to stay on track.
For the meal planning section, I designed my own weekly chart on Windows and I laminated it. That way, I could write down a meal plan for the week with a dry erase marker and be able to edit the plan as needed. Then, when the week was done I could erase it all and start fresh. I also printed out a meal idealist that I made on my computer a long time ago. I just wrote down meals that were cheap and easy to make and that my family enjoys. This list has helped me come up with many meal plans; it's great to have when I can't think straight or when we have a tight budget. Having all of the ingredients listed in the meals makes it super easy to make a grocery list!
For the budget section, I printed out monthly budget charts that I found for free on Pinterest, so I printed twelve of those. I also printed out a bill tracker chart that was for the entire year. That chart was also free to print and found on Pinterest. I also found a nice weekly blog planner free to print on Pinterest. Lastly, I went on Pinterest and found a bunch of inspirational quotes and I printed them out to stick throughout my planner. Sometimes, it's nice to read kind words when you're being hard on yourself. Lastly, once my planner was assembled, it needed something to keep it tight. With all of those pages and additional notebooks, the binder wanted to splay open a bit. So, I bought a bunch of headbands from The Dollar Tree. The packet came with an assortment of colors and I chose one that I thought would complement the teal. I simply used hot glue to glue the headband to the back cover of the binder and positioned it where I felt it could keep the binder closed. I like the way it came out. I really didn't spend a whole lot on this planner/household binder. I will continue to buy more stickers and washi tape for each month, but I will be buying them at Walmart and The Dollar Tree since I am able to find adorable supplies at those stores and they are very inexpensive. I can't wait to go find some Valentine's themed stickers! This is going to be a lot of fun! With any luck, this planner will help me feel more confident in my managing of the household and I will feel less scatterbrained. Soon, I will be decorating the house for Valentine's Day and before I know it, it will Be March and I will be decorating for St. Patrick's Day! Until next time~ Toodahloo!
