If you like to keep meal planning separate to your weekly planner and need a cute notebook – try the Plum Paper Meal Planning journal.
This is not a sponsored post. I purchased the planner myself and as always, all opinions are my own.
Quick facts
- Size: 6.75″ wide x 8.5″ high
- Glue binding
- Colorful inside pages
- Shopping lists
- Weekly meal planning (2 page spread)
- Take out menu
- Undated
Price: $14 USD
Let’s take a closer look!
This notebook is from my 3rd Plum Paper Haul. I showed a quick peek inside this notebook from 30 seconds to about 1 minute into the video below.
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).
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The Cover
Typical for journals with a stitched or glue binding, this notebook has a thin cardstock softcover. While it’s more prone to wear and tear it does mean it doesn’t weigh much.
Approx 1cm thick.
Take out & Restaurants
Not sure if anyone would still use these types of pages but they’re there if you need them.
You could re-purpose them for another use. I’d probably convert them into a recipe reference list e.g. recipe on the left, main ingredients needed for that recipe on the right. I’ve done these types of lists before – they’re a handy quick reference when you want to make something from things already in your pantry.
Grocery Stores and Markets
Note sure how often these pages would actually be used since if you go to a shop frequently you’d know the opening hours off by heart. And if not I’d just Google it not go to the effort of writing it down.
Weekly Shopping List
If you don’t mind carrying this notebook with you to the shops (I’d classify as medium page size I.e you’d probably want a trolley to rest it on, I wouldn’t carry it in one hand while holding a basket with the other).
Unlike most categorised shopping lists the columns are wide so you don’t need ant size writing!
Weekly Meal Planning
I know this is a meal planner but when I saw this layout I thought it’d make a good weekly planner – especially for blogging. Whiteout the B, L, D on the left and use this to write down the blog post, then the workflow tasks on the right. The meal prep plans would make a good to do list and the blank box could be turned into a habit tracker.
Pros of the Planner
- Portable size
- Subtle color without being over-done
- Affordable & good value for money
- Bright white paper
- Like all Plum Paper planners, the paper is smooth to write on
Cons of the Planner
- Glue bound – would be better if it was coil bound where it could be folded back on itself. Having to keep 2 pages open could get annoying while going around a grocery shop
- No favorite meals pages
- No notes pages
Would I use this planner?
Not for meal planning. I don’t meal plan in a lot of detail (I don’t have a kids). However if I did I know this would come in handy. I’d probably take a photo of the shopping list and refer to my phone instead of taking the whole book with me to the shop.
The layouts in this notebook are flexible so if you wanted to ‘hack’ them for a different purpose you could.
This could be a good notebook but there is an important page missing: favorite meals list (or at least some notes pages). Or separate pages for 30 minute meals, 45 minute meals, slow cooker etc.
For this reason, I would recommend choosing a Plum Paper notebook and selecting from their add on’s to create a custom notebook. A little bit more expensive but you’d get exactly what you want. Plus they’re coil bound so you can fold the pages back on themselves without needing to have 2 pages open. This is what I did to create a custom recipe book (review in this post). I’ve also requested Plum Paper send pages unpunched and then punched with my Arc (tutorial here).
Plum Paper Cooking add ons
More planner reviews:
- Best Fitness Planners Roundup (Health, Wellbeing, Exercise, Food Log Trackers etc.)
- Recollections Menu Keepsake Planner and Recipe Book
- MAMBI Happy Planner Recipe Organizer Review
Planning Tips:
- Color coded monthly meal planning using sticky notes
- Minimalist Planner Decorating: Title Ideas for your Bullet Journal
- 7 Planner supplies that aren’t worth the hype
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The list of grocery stores, hours etc, would be useful for listing ethnic markets or specific source markets for special items, liquor stores, farmer’s markets, food pantries and so forth. You could also trade the time slots for the stores’ sales & stock up cycles. All stores have them & they are all different. You can
list those that carry specific items you only buy occasionally, like the lowest Sodium Soy Sauce I use. Low Sodium means different levels to every LS brand.
I might repurpose a section for items I can only get from Amazon. Low Sodium
Worcestershire comes to mind & my herbs & Spices. I use a separate dedicated pad for menu planning that goes in a sleeve & resides in my Bujo. The format is useful for meal prepping too. I was impressed with this one’s grocery list. I had a similar printable I made on my computer for years, it took me weeks to set that up ! It was much admired at the market by other shoppers. I just wanted an organized list that worked with any market setup. It also meant grabbing the exact items we needed, not being tricked into the shelf setups that try to grab your eye. I do agree that a binder is better than a book. Mine were loose sheets I kept in an old clip portfolio with my calculator. I like hitting the registers with a total already. Nice planner if it were wire bound. I do my shopping online these days. But some folks might like an organized printable, it saves time in the market! Thanks for these reviews, I’m a lefty & use a loose leaf binder Bujo, but I get great Ideas from your articles. Thanks for your hard work. MA Boston, MA USA.