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February 6, 2020

Golden Coil Weekly Planner Review (custom planner – you choose the cover & inside pages)

My favorite planners are the ones where you can customise everything. I’d been stalking Golden Coil for more than a year waiting for a sale. So when Black Friday finally came around I finally ordered my very own custom planner – including the cover and all of the inside pages (and the page order)!

Quick facts

  • Size: Approx 7.5″ wide x 9.75″ high
  • Hardcover (you choose the cover)
  • Wire binding
  • Choose from daily or weekly pages
  • Choose your add on pages
  • Choose your page order
  • You choose what holidays to add, upload your family’s birthdays etc.
  • You choose the planner duration
  • Ships from the USA

This is not a sponsored post. I purchased the planner myself and all opinions are my own. 

Let’s take a closer look!

To enlarge the screen of the video, click the square icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video (it will say ‘full screen’ when you hover your mouse over the icon).

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more planner videos!

This is a long, detailed blog post. I’ve structured it:

  1. Review of the planner I ordered
  2. A look at the ordering process and page layout options
  3. Price
  4. Pros & Cons List
  5. If I’d buy this planner again

The Cover

Linen covers costs $2 extra (base cost for the planner $64) so I just opted for pattern cover.

golden coil custom personalised planner how to order tutorial

I liked this one but could barely see the brand name / font

golden coil custom personalised weekly planner ordering process

So changed my mind for a 3rd time and opted for Sunset. The finished product was true to the website!

golden coil custom personalised weekly planner review cover inside page layouts weekly spread you choose

golden coil planner review custom weekly planner weekly spread daily add on pages pen testing wire bound you choose the cover video walkthrough

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound_01

Approx 1.5cm thick – a bit less than 0.75″ (I ordered a 6 month duration planner)

custom planner review golden coil

Monthly Calendar

Traditional box format with 2 pages per month.

The calendar starts Sunday which is consistent with the weekly spread.

You can enter in birthdays, holidays or any other events you like and they’ll print them on the pages for you. As well as national holidays and random things like national food days which I opted to add. I didn’t realise there were quite so many – they actually take up a fair bit of room (and are printed again on the weekly spread). I probably wouldn’t choose that option again.

Upload birthdays, contacts etc. and they’ll pre-print them in the planner for you

golden coil personalised custom planner ordering process choose page layout extra pages add ons

ordering a custom golden coil planner tutorial

golden coil custom personalised weekly planner add events and birthdays pre-printed choose start date duration monday week start

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound_12

They add a 6th row instead of splitting a box into 2 or restarting the numbering on the top row:

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound_13

Weekly Spread

There were so many weekly spreads to choose from I had a hard time deciding! I narrowed it down to a few (I’ve included screenshots of them at the end of this post), but ended up choosing this one:

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound_09

I’m going to use it for blogging on the left page (with blog / shop to do’s in that sidebar column) and then personal to dos, travel planning tasks etc. on the right page

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound horizontal monday start

There are different quotes for each week:

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound_14

Add on Pages

There are plenty of add on pages to choose from! More details on all of the options at the end of this post. You can even choose where to add them. At the front I opted to add a goals page, annual overview planning and the mood tracker (which I think would make a great habit tracker or gantt chart style goals / project planner).

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound_04

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound_05

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound future planning monthly annual overview

While this is a mood tracker I’d change it to a project planner and use the graph like a gantt chart to map out what projects / shop products I’m working on when

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound year of pixels mood tracker

At the back I added:

  • Kitchen conversions
  • Lined note paper
  • Dot grid paper
  • Monthly budget
  • Weekly meal planning
  • Projects
  • To do checklists

There is a limit to how many add on pages you can have. If you order a 12 month planner I doubt you’d be able fit many add on pages, or you’ll need to upgrade to a bigger coil.

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound kitchen conversions golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound kitchen conversions cooking

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound monthly budget

I think this page would make a great weekly planner instead of meal plan + grocery

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound_19

I like this page as an overview project planner but I wish I’d added it to the front along with the annual overview and goals pages.

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound_20

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound lined notes pages

One of the add on page option is dot grid pages with 5mm dot spacing. You could make an entire custom notebook with dot grid pages, lists etc. if you didn’t want a dated weekly planner. However, keep in mind that since it’s completely custom it’ll be expensive.

If you want to make a notebook you can choose from all of the add on pages (I’ve listed the options at the end of this post). The only thing that makes it different to the planner are no weekly or monthly spreads. The cover options are the same.

Related: My Favorite Dot Grid Notebooks for Bullet Journaling

Not sure if I got a dud or if this is how all of the dot grid pages are set up – the dots were very close to the edge of the page on the right side but then had a gap on the left closer to the binding.

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound_27

Of course I chose some checklist pages as one of the add ons!

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound_24

Single sided cardstock pocket folder

golden coil planner review custom weekly 2 page spread budget meal planning usa habit tracker goals wire bound pocket folder

Pen Testing

The paper is thick and instead of smooth has a textured feel. As such there is some resistance when writing – all pens write ok on the paper but ballpoint pens glide across the paper smoother than fine tip pens.

Only the MAMBI stamps bled through the page (as always). There was no bleed through for any of the pens but there was heavy ghosting which I was surprised by as the paper feels thick.

I forgot to erase the Frixion pen before taking these photos. It does erase but due to the textured paper there’s some smudging – it feels like you’re ripping through the paper a bit when you erase. I don’t recommend using the Frixion pens in this planner.

golden coil planner review pen testing ghosting bleed through paper quality golden coil planner review pen testing ghosting bleed through paper quality thick cream paper quality

Pros of Golden Coil

  • Step by step look through / preview at the end of making your planner so you can see exactly how your planner will turn out
  • Pocket page is included as standard
  • Plenty of weekly spreads to choose from (and many unique layouts – not just the basic horizontal, vertical etc.)
  • Can choose to include the add on pages at the start of the planner, end of the planner, for each week or month
  • Can add birthdays, events (and other important dates)
  • Plenty of add on page options

Cons of Golden Coil

  • Expensive to begin with + the add ons. My 6 month planner ended up costing $63 USD + shipping (note: this doesn’t include the Black Friday discount which was 15% off)
  • Limited cover options
  • Hard to see all of the options – should be a page on their website that shows you all the options all at once rather than flicking between the categories of the add on menu and the weekly spreads – if all of the options were in the one place would make it easier to compare layouts and faster to order
  • Expensive international shipping
  • Whatever events / holidays you pick will be printed on the monthly calendar AND weekly spread. I only added 1 (the food days) but it looks cluttered even without adding birthdays etc. I wish there was an option to pick either on the monthly OR weekly OR both
  • Website / planner builder is slow to load
  • Comes in a keepsake box – nice to have but not necessary and makes it expensive to ship
  • Not enough information on their website about the ordering process – a general overview / info page would be good
  • Wire bound is the only option. Some custom companies will allow you to choose unpunch if you want to use it with a discbound system
  • If you did a full 12 months you won’t be able to include many add ons before hit the 242 page limit. With a 6 month planner and lots of add ons, I was at 106 / 242 pages
  • No notes pages included by default? Could find a standard inclusions list anywhere on their site
  • I’m not a fan of the paper (doesn’t work well with Frixion pens, prone to ghosting and the textured feel creates a resistance when writing – especially with fine tip pens)
  • Only ship to selected countries (see the list later in this post)

I ordered my planner during Black Friday sales for 15% off. I’ve stalked them for a year and they don’t seem to offer anymore of a discount that that. However it’s a completely custom planner that’d be time intensive to do each order so understandable that you’re paying extra for it.

Weekly spread options

There are so many weekly spread options to choose from including plenty of unique layouts. If you like to use a 1 page weekly spread with checklists (my favorite weekly spread) there are a few to choose from too!

Here are a few (of the many) options you can pick from:

golden coil weekly layout 1 vertical hourly schedule lined golden coil weekly layout 1 horizontal lined checklist 2 golden coil weekly layout 1 horizontal lined checklist

golden coil custom personalised weekly planner inside layout options 1 page per week golden coil weekly layout vertical 3 sections per day unlined golden coil weekly layout horizontal 4 day per page 2 page spread lined weekly checklist golden coil weekly layout horizontal 4 day per page 2 page spread unlined

 

golden coil custom personalised planner how to order tutorial non-traditional weekly layouts golden coil custom personalised planner how to order tutorial non-traditional weekly layouts 2 golden coil custom personalised planner how to order tutorial non-traditional weekly layouts 3

Some of the daily spread options

golden coil daily planner day to a page schedule hourly

golden coil 1 page per day daily planner review checklist monday start

Add on page options:

  • Calendar – Annual overview, monthly calendars
  • Food – Variety of meal planning layouts, recipe pages, kitchen conversions
  • Health – Mood tracker, measurement tracker, baby chart (feeding, diaper etc.)
  • Projects – Project planning, storyboard, social media, homework planner, freelance finances (invoicing tracker)
  • Lifestyle – goals, budget, home care, travel, event planning, bucket list, reading, online orders, holiday crafting, password tracker
  • Standard – To do, spreadsheet (like a workflow chart / student attendance or grades tracker), staff (music lines),  fillable list, dot, graph, lined, blank

You can choose if you want the add on pages at the start or end of the planner

golden coil add on page options custom personalised weekly planner review

Some of the pages you can choose from:

golden coil custom personalised planner add on pages how to ordering tutorial checklist

golden coil custom personalised weekly planner project planning ordering tutorial

golden coil custom personalised weekly planner review meals grocery list fitness recipe

 

Price

From the Golden Coil website: Our planners and notebooks range in price from $62.00 – $79.60 (shipping/tax not included), depending on the number of pages inserted. Each planner or notebook starts at a base price of $62.00/$64.00 (Patterned cover vs. Linen/Leather/Designer cover) for 86 pages. Each additional page up to 242 pages is an additional $0.10.

golden coil weekly planner coil sizes

I started with a pattern cover $62

6 month planner = 86 planner pages

  • Within the page limit = $62

12 month planner = 130 planner pages

  • $62 for the first 82 pages
  • Add $4.80 for the extra 48 pages to reach 130
  • = $66.80

So if you want to keep it ‘cheap’, do a quarterly planner to test it out rather than buying a whole year.

When I was experimenting with the cost of a day to a page planner – the cost went up to $77 for 6 months.

Mine came to $53.55 for a 6 month planner (including a 15% off  for Black Friday plus shopping. $10 shipping to the USA…. and $43 to Australia. All up this planner cost me $96.55! The price isn’t too bad if you’re in the USA but to get it to Australia… it’s far too expensive.

golden coil international shipping rates custom personalised weekly planner daily

Countries they ship to

At the time of writing this (2020), they ship to:

  • United States
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • UK
  • Malaysia
  • Taiwan
  • Israel
  • Germany
  • France

Is that not the most random assortment of countries? Australia but not New Zealand? What about the rest of Europe… why only Italy and Germany?

I will never understand companies that don’t ship worldwide. If you don’t offer free shipping and the buyer is paying the shipping, then what does it matter where in the world you ship to. Postage companies have charts with weight and shipping rates. Or you could put estimated amounts on the website. You could be losing sales by not shipping worldwide!

Price comparison of custom planners

Golden Coil is one of the most expensive of what I consider truly custom planners.

  • My custom Agendio planner cost $59
  • Personal Planner cost $31.95 AUD including free worldwide shipping

I think the base price for just the cover and the coil is too much. $62 USD!

Time to make the planner

Including taking screenshots and making notes for this blog post, it took 1 hour. Without doing that would probably take 30 min which is quite quick for a completely custom planner.

Would I Use this planner?

It’s completely custom… so of course! This planner would be better if it had a lower price tag, cheaper international shipping and better paper quality.

If you can’t decide between the Golden Coil and a custom Agendio, see this post for a detailed comparison.

More custom weekly planners

  • Agendio Review (custom, personalised weekly planner) 
  • Personal Planner Review (affordable, completely customisable weekly planner)

Planning tips

  • Quick and easy weekly meal planning using sticky notes 
  • Favorite dual tip highlighters for planning (roundup) 
  • Project Planning Using the Action Method Book

Browse all posts

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golden coil completely custom planner review pros and cons pen testing you choose the weekly layouts monday week start dashboard layout comparison with agendio

golden coil custom weekly planner review personalised weekly daily monthly add on pages you choose the cover design video review pen testing

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Posted In: Horizontal Weekly, Planner Reviews, Rachael's Favorites · Tagged: best custom planner, best custom planners, best custom weekly planners, completely custom planner, create your own planner, custom personalised planner review, custom planner with add ons, custom weekly planner, golden coil, golden coil custom planner review, golden coil planner review, golden coil weekly planner, horizontal weekly planner custom

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Welcome to All About Planners! I’m Rachael, a 20-something Aussie addicted to graphic design and all things planning. On the blog you’ll find more than 1,000 posts about all things planning including planner reviews, tips, favorite supplies and some of my past weekly spreads.

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