Plum Paper is the company I’ve bought the most planners from over the years. They release new daily and weekly layouts each year (faster that other well known planner companies) which keeps me coming back for more!
This what I ordered this time
- 7 x 9″ Weekly overview
- 7 x 9″ Weekly quad lined (pre-punched pages so I can add discs)
- 7 x 9″ monthly hourly daily
- A5 6 month daily (pre-punched pages so I can add discs)
- 7 x 9″ ultimate financial planner
- 7 x 9″ ultimate goal planner
- Color coding stickers
- Sticker book storage (6.6″ wide x 8.8″ high)
- Glitter tabs (freebie that came with my order)
The standard page layouts are still the same as they have been for years since I posted my very first Plum Paper review here.
- Start planner in any month
- Choose from 12-18 months
- Month & Year-at-a-Glance Pages
- Monthly Highlights Pages
- Monthly Notes Pages (usually 1 per month)
- Double Sided Pocket Folder
- Aluminium Binding Coil (or you can choose unpunched or pre-punched for discbound)
- Colorful tabs to separate each month or add on pages if you choose them
- Paper Weight: 70lb text
- Tear proof & water resistant cover with a clear plastic protective sheet
- Each layout can be either colourful inside pages or neutral (same price). See my comparison of the two in this post
I accidently had a bit of a color theme with this haul – pink, blue, orange, red and teal. There are many other cover styles and color options – some of which you can see in my past hauls and reviews here and here.
All of the planners I purchased also come in Plum Paper’s 3 page size options:
- A5
- 7 x 9″
- US Letter (8.5 x 11″)
US letter size planners are too big for me so I’ve only ever purchased Plum Paper’s A5 and 7 x 9″.
You can also choose any of the add on pages Plum Paper offers. I did a detailed comparison of Plum Paper’s layout and add on pages here.
7 x 9″ Weekly overview
First up, let’s look at the planner I was most excited about – the weekly overview.
Being a long-time lover of the notes and days layout, I immediately liked this layout. This new layout is better if you’re ok with smaller boxes for Saturday and Sunday and need more structure than an open ended checklist.
- Weekly priorities (top 3)
- My week (can add appointments)
- Don’t forget
- To do list
- Grateful for
- Notes
You can customise the titles to whatever you need.
The line spacing is the same as their other layouts (7mm).
I’ve been getting better with sticking to using the same planner for a month (sometimes more!) which I hope will be the case with the weekly overview spread. For this reason I chose a few add on pages to the monthly spread:
- One double sided dot grid page
- Monthly blogging – one page double sided with important dates & holidays, to do this month, blog priorities, giveaway & review notes, advertising & sponsor notes, post idea brainstorm, blog post schedule, post month review, blog statistics
- Monthly habit tracker – broken down by week, habit reflection and next month’s goals – track up to 5 habits
At the back of the planner I also chose meeting and brainstorm add on pages – these sections come with their own tabs too.
7 x 9″ Weekly quad lined
This is one of very few companies offering a quad layout. You can choose between lined and unlined, I chose the lined. The boxes for each day are 3.25″ wide x 3.75″ high.
There’s 2 lines for each day’s box where you can highlight anything important like appointments and assignment due dates.
I chose the ‘modern’ color scheme which I hadn’t tried before. It’s ok but much like their other colorful layout it has lots of pastel / washed out colors. I hope they come out with a more traditional rainbow / bright color palette in the future.
I opted to get the pages pre-punched for this layout…
… And here’s how it looks after I added the discs!
Related post: Where to find discs to make a discbound planner or notebook (downloadable comparison)
7 x 9″ monthly hourly daily
This daily layout offers something other than the generic daily schedule + to do list layout that many planners have. I think this layout would be great for someone that’s juggling work and home life, self employed or a student.
- 3 boxes for anything you want
- My day 7am to 5pm
- Home to do
- Work to do
- To do list
- Gratitude
Three columns is a bit too narrow for my liking at the 7 x 9″ page size, each is only just under 2″ wide. This one might be better at US letter size and then keep it on your desk.
A5 6 month daily
I don’t use a daily planner but the layout of this one is flexible that I think I can tweak it to create a weekly planner.
There are 2 columns instead of 3 in the other daily layout. You can customise the categories / text in all of the headings for each section.
Here’s how it turned out when I added my own discs (from my sister’s shop, Carefully Crafted).
I chose this layout as the schedule doesn’t have pre-filled times which works so much better for me (I’m not a morning person and most daily planners start so early). I’m going to try using this for my Saturday and Sunday planning.
7 x 9″ ultimate financial planner
This planner has a few different pages (not just a different weekly layout) so I’ll be doing a separate review post.
The weekly spread has a full page to record your expenses for the week and bills due, with one page to plan the week. I really like this one page weekly spread, it reminds me of some of Agendio’s layouts.
As you can see in the photo below, the left monthly planning page is the same in the budget planner as it is, in all of Plum Paper’s planners.
The page on the right is unique to the budget planner and has sections for income, debt, fixed expenses, savings. The only thing missing is an investments goal section but you could use the savings goals section for that.
The monthly calendar is the same boxes layout that’s in all of Plum Paper’s planners.
There is no lined notes page for each month, instead there is a detailed monthly review page for spending by week, start and end balances for each bank account, budget comparison and debt pay off.
I also chose the budget add on pages so I can show you a comparison between the two (in another more detailed blog post). The add on has more detailed pages if you want to do monthly budgeting. The ultimate financial planner has more weekly budgeting pages.
7 x 9″ ultimate goal planner
One of my favorites from this haul is the goal planner. Some goal planners have add on pages that are goal focused then the weekly spread is generic. This planner is the opposite. Unfortunately there aren’t unique overall goal pages for the whole year for big picture planning, but the monthly planning and weekly spread are very goal oriented.
This planner has an extra monthly planning page (in addition to the monthly planning page that comes with all of Plum Paper’s planners) but it’s in exchange of the lined notes page.
The weekly spread has the days of the week on 1 page and then a weekly ‘mini goal’ on the other page. I like the mini goal with the steps, habit tracker and everything else going on on that page, but I’m also itching for just some blank checklist or notes space and there isn’t any on this spread. I’d have replaced the ‘my favorite’ section with an open-ended space.
There is also a unique monthly review with things like a wellness scale.
Color coding stickers
Can never have too many color coding stickers! There are 2 sheets in this set with a variety of circles and squares (approx. 0.25″), triangles and bunting stickers (just over 0.5′).
The sticker sheets are just under 5.5″ wide x 8″ high.
Sticker book
I ordered the teal version but there’s also blue, pink and turquoise.
This sticker book has 12 vinyl pockets with a plastic cover and is 6.5″ wide by 8.75″ high.
I wouldn’t order this sticker book again. I don’t like that you add the stickers from the side of the sleeves as the sheets slip out really easily. I much prefer when the opening is at the top and the pocket is the full width of the book.
Related: Making your own planner stickers: the tools and resources you need
So which one is my favorite from this haul?
Hard to choose! Probably the weekly overview layout but since I need more space on the weekends I’m probably going to convert the priorities / task list page into a weekend planner. Otherwise I may try this with the daily A5 on weekends.
I’m also excited to try the quad lined. I can use it with tasks for each day or it could easily be modified into 8 mini checklists with categories for the week.
Similar to Happy Planner’s extension packs, I wish Plum Paper would offer unpunched (or discbound punched) refill pages for the weekly layouts so you don’t have to buy another entire planner to test out a different layout. There’s also no option to download printables of sample layouts to try before you buy and see if the sizing of the various sections on the spread are going to suit your needs.
Some of the clear covers had scratches and what looked like glue residue on them which hasn’t happened when I’ve purchased from Plum Paper in the past.
Some of the pages of the daily planner were scuffed at the top and on some of the mushroom stems. However, I’m willing to accept that as the pre-punched saved me so much time. I timed myself and it only took me 6 minutes to load the whole planner onto discs.
I’ll be doing another post testing Plum Paper’s pre disc punched pages compatibility with popular discbound brands e.g. Happy Planner, ARC etc.
There are always plenty of cover designs to choose from every time I place an order and the cover designs are different. They’re not the same generic patterns that most companies have, and there’s hardly any quote covers which Happy Planner has far too many of.
Shipping
I’ve had a few Australian readers email me asking if I’d had any issues with shipping costs from Plum Paper. They’ve told me they’ve placed an order and then Plum Paper has emailed them asking for extra money to cover unexpected increasing shipping costs. The first time someone email me about this was in December 2021. Plum Paper seem to be a bit misleading leaving the cheaper international shipping rate on their website as I’ve had more people email me asking the same thing in the months since. My sister is still in some planner Facebook groups and has noticed people commenting with the same issue as recent as last month. The extra shipping costs in some instances, seems to be almost as much as the whole planner!
I placed my order during their Black Friday 2021 sale and maybe because it was a large order, I wasn’t asked to pay extra shipping costs.
More Plum Paper Reviews
Planning tips
- Pen Brands Comparison (and my favorite pens for each brand)
- 6 Ways to color code your planner to increase productivity
- Planner Newbies: The 7 Planner Stickers you need to stock up on
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I am super excited about you including the quad layout in this review! I am thinking of buying it next year. The brand TF Publishing has a similar option that is printed on kraft paper, which is the planner I am using for this year. I bought mine on Amazon but I’ve also seen them sold at Staples or Michaels. If shipping costs are feasible, that’s another planner/layout you might like to try! I like that it’s a good mix between a horizontal and vertical layout 🙂 As usual, I love your posts!