I am an avid planner fanatic, mostly because running 3 businesses and having a family REQUIRES me to be organized with my scheduling. I have been using, and loving, an Erin Condren Life Planner in 2015, but when it came time to shop for 2016 I hesitated to spend the money. That’s when I stumbled onto the Happy Planner.
The Happy Planner is a disc-bound planner system that has a very similar layout to Erin Condren. The EC planner has worked so well for me, that I never really considered switching, but a couple of months ago my husband and I decided to crack down on our finances and pay off our debt once and for all. That means seriously limited spending money, and that has forced me to explore all of my options when purchasing something.
A friend of mine recently got a Happy Planner and told me how similar the layout was to EC. My interest was piqued enough to go to Hobby Lobby and check them out. I couldn’t decide! There were things I liked about the Happy Planner, but there were things I liked about Erin Condren. Some of the Pros for the Happy Planner were:
•Price – it comes in at less than half the price of an Erin Condren Life Planner
•The ability to take things out and put them in – since the Happy Planner is a disc-based planner, I could make my own inserts with my ARC punch, or take out expired months.
•Paper quality – the paper in the Happy Planner is slightly thicker than the paper in an Erin Condren, which is a plus for someone like me who likes to use stamps!
There are a few cons, which may not even be negatives, but things I was iffy about.
•Slightly different layout.
•Lack of note pages in the back.
•No zippered pouch.
•Disc-bound is more difficult to turn pages than coil bound.
I was 90% sure I was just going to order an ECLP, but I decided to go to Hobby Lobby one more time to flip through a Happy Planner. I am the most indecisive person in the world, in case you hadn’t already drawn that conclusion.
I flipped through a few planners and realized that each cover had different colors on the inside (tabs, etc). I didn’t like the innards of the planner with the cover I liked, so that pretty much sealed the deal that I was going to get an Erin Condren. Then, I saw ……a box set.
It had a 12-month planner (vs. the regular ones that are 18 month), had hot pink discs, and came with several extra goodies. It went in my cart and the rest was history. I was able to use a 40% off coupon, and got it for about $22 including tax.
The 12-month planner has a little different layout than the others – it doesn’t come “dated,” but instead comes with stickers so you can date it yourself. That way you can start in any month without wasting pages.
I have already started booking some stuff for January, so I have written a few things in it, but haven’t done any decorating yet. This planner came with stickers, magnetic bookmarks, and sticky notes.
It is REALLY similar in size to my Erin Condren, so should slip in my purse about the same.
I am thinking about utilizing two planners in 2016 – one for appointments and to-do’s, and one as a blog and social media planner, so I may end up with another Erin Condren, but for now I am excited to try out my Happy Planner!
Kelly K Morris says
did you ever go back to EC?