I’ve been a long-time planner addict and my sister finally jumped on the bandwagon few years ago. So much so that she stocks a ton of planner stuff in her shop including the MAMBI Happy Planner. I was super keen to get my hands on the Happy Planner! I’m all about keeping things honest so in my video review I go through all of the pros and cons of the planner:

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Happy Planner Classic Size

At the start of the planner is the important dates/year at a glance pages:

Each month has a monthly planning page as well as a pretty cover. The one in the image below is my favorite! Polka dots <3

I’m not a fan of the monthly planning page as most of it is ‘dead’ space to me. I am very much a functional planner person so wouldn’t use the ‘loving, eat, drinking’ etc. section on the left.

Each month gets a color that is used throughout the entire month, and the colors alternate between the months. The boxes for each day provide ample planning space and because this is a discbound planning system (similar to the Arc planner), you can pull the page out of the planner, write on it and then pop it back in – no more awkwardly trying to write on those days that are next to the binding!

The weekends have a shaded box and the weekdays have white boxes – a feature I <3!

What I found odd with this planner is that the monthly view starts on a Sunday but the weekly view starts on a Monday. Maybe I just got a dud but that seemed kind of weird to me and I imagine it would be quite annoying when using the planner.

Another thing that bugged me was that if the 30^th/31^st of the month falls on a Sunday or Monday, rather then starting again on the top line, the last boxes of the month are split into 2 triangles so effectively you can’t write anything in those boxes and it’s dead space (I forgot to take a photo of a month where that happened – sorry!)

The weekly planner layout is basically exactly the same as the Erin Condren vertical life planner.

While the patterns at the bottom of the pages are nice, I’d prefer extra planner space or if this space was smaller

The vertical daily planner space is a bit odd – there’s a dark colored line separating the box into 3 sections but it’s dark so you can’t write on it, it’s not big enough if you did want to write on it anyway, so it ends up being a bit of dead space. I’d prefer if this was a thinner line or wider like the Erin Condren Header boxes.

At the back of the planner is a notes page – there is definitely a lack of notes pages in the planner and there aren’t any notes pages dispersed between each month 🙁

The colors/layout style are different depending on what cover you choose. The photos above are of the planner with the gold polka dots and ‘Enjoy the Little Things’ cover planner.

Pen Test

The Happy Planner has one of the thickest (best) papers I’ve come across. There is really only ghosting (and a little bit of bleed through) for the marker pens.

Update: A few years have pasted since the above pen test… and the paper quality is still just as good. Here’s a pen test I did in the Happy Notes

As is the case with all of the other Happy Planners, the paper is thick and holds up well with no ghosting for most pens and very minimal ghosting for marker pens

Happy planner pros

Weekends have shaded color boxes to separate the weekend from weekday
Large notes sidebar in the monthly views
Classic Happy Planner Size (7.75″ wide x 9.75″ high, the actual planner pages are 7″ wide x 9.25″ high) – portable (MAMBI also have a full page size planner and a mini size Happy Planner)
Laminating on the cover is durable
The discbound system. I’m a huge fan of discbound planning systems (I use the Arc Planner)
You can purchase larger disc sizes if you need more space or want to add additional pages to the planner
The discs come in nice colors. The gold is a very pretty gold and looks like quality not cheap
The colors are very nice – love their use of the gold foil effect
Love most of the cover layouts – simple & colorful
Nice patterns on the dividers
Tabs are laminated
Each month gets a color that is used throughout the entire month (I’m a big fan of color-coordinated planners)
For an 18 month planner it’s actually not as thick as I thought it would be – it’s about 1 inch wide. The great thing about the discs is that you can rip out pages as you use them to reduce the bulk, and you can print your own printables, add extra notes pages etc.
The dates for each date are placed above the daily writing spaces giving you a lot of room to write in each day
The daily planning boxes are the same size making it easy to plan your week with stickers etc.
The discbound system means I can add my own pages and pull out pages I don’t want or won’t use (tutorial for resizing printables for the Happy Planner in this post).
Each planner comes in different colors and styles – a different cover means different inside page designs
The price is very affordable – especially since it’s full color printing

Happy planner cons

The monthly view starts on a Sunday but the weekly view starts on a Monday
If the 30^th/31^st of the month falls on a Sunday or Monday, rather then starting again on the top line, the last boxes of the month are split into 2 triangles so effectively you can’t write anything in those boxes and it’s dead space
The public holidays/events on the monthly view are at the top beside the date rather than the bottom right hand corner giving more room to write
No notes space in between the months
The calendar for each month on the left is printed onto cardstock and on the right it’s printed onto paper – maybe consider this depending on what pens you like to use in your planner
The tabs have color printed on the front but not on the back
The vertical daily planner space is a bit odd – there’s a dark colored line separating the box into 3 sections but it’s dark so you can’t write on it, it’s not big enough if you did want to write on it anyway, so it ends up being a bit of dead space. I’d prefer if this was a thinner line or wide like the Erin Condren Header boxes
There are pretty graphics or quotes at the bottom of the daily planning space but I’d prefer if that was removed (or made smaller) to provide more daily writing space
If you want to add extra pages, you’ll need to purchase the happy planner punch – but it’s so worth to give yourself that extra customisation to make your planner your own and it’s cheaper than the Arc discbound punch
You can’t choose the start month – they sell 18 month pre-dated planners so sometimes you may end up paying for a couple of months you won’t use. However, you can cover the dates with date dot stickers

Overall, I love the discbound system, the pretty colors and the ample writing space of the happy Planner. I’m not so much a fan of the monthly planning page, the split daily boxes for the dates at the end of the month in the monthly view and the fact that the monthly calendar starts on a Sunday but the weekly view starts on a Monday.

I hope you found this honest review helpful! If you did want to purchase a Happy Planner, my sister stocks them (plus all the accessories) in her planner supplies shop.