I was on the hunt for a planner – when am I not? 🙂 – that would be ideal for blogging. I wanted something compact but still large enough to have a functional amount of planning space. I ended up coming across the Sarah Pinto Planner.

Features of the Sarah pinto Planner:

• 5″ wide x 7″ high (small)
• Thick cardstock cover
• Wire binding (the coil is small so if you used a lot of stickers you may have to rip out previous weeks for the pages to fit on the coil)
• Dates at a glance for the current and next month on the weekly spread
• Horizontal weekly spread with 2 sections for each day
• Weekly spread starts Monday
• 2 page monthly spread (starts on a Monday)
• No tabs
• 2016, 2017 and 2018 dates at a glance page
• Plenty of lined notes pages (with good line spacing – not to close and not too far apart) at the front and back of the planner
• Minimalist black and white inside pages
• Thick paper

While it doesn’t look like the company will be releasing a planner for 2018, you could always use some date dot stickers to cover up the dates.

The Cover

This Belongs to Page

Dates at a glance

Monthly Calendar

The monthly calendar starts on a Monday with national USA holidays pre-printed. It has a large to do list sidebar but it’s unlined.

Rather frustrating since it’s a small planner, the dates are combined into the same box rather than re-starting the numbering in the top row. It really frustrates me when planners do this – it makes no sense – you can’t fit anything in the space, especially when they pre-print holidays onto the calendar.

Weekly Planner

2 page weekly spread starting on a Monday. Yay, a planner that has the same start date for the monthly and weekly spread 🙂

The writing space is small – I could only fit a couple of things for each day. If you’re someone that is prone to over-scheduling, this may be a good planner.

The planner is very minimalist – a bit boring for my taste – definitely needs some colored pens, stickers or washi to liven it up!

The planner is a very similar size to the MAMBI Mini Happy Planner. I took the photo below using my hand to give a better idea of the size (I like to think my hands are average size!)

Contacts Pages

Not sure why some planners still include this since most people keep their contacts on their phone but the pages are there if you need them.

Pen testing:

The only pen that bled through the page was the Stabilo point 68 which is a marker style pen and seems to bleed through every planner. The ballpoint and gel pens had some ghosting but none of them bled through. I also did a test with some stamps and highlighters. The MAMBI stamp bled through the page (seems to bleed through every planner) but none of the highlighters did! 🙂

I used the Monte Marte Mini Fineliner pens 0.4mm (from Stacks discount store here in Australia). These pens are similar to the triplus color 0.3mm but much cheaper ($7 for a pack of 12) but write just as nice (and the colors are very similar too!) The yellow as a bit hard to read though.

Pros of the Sarah Pinto Planner

• The monthly calendar and the weekly spread  both start on Monday (many planners don’t keep it consistent!)
• Very light – weighs about the same as my kindle
• Affordable
• USA holidays pre-printed on the weekly and monthly spread

Cons of the Sarah Pinto Planner

• Tt’s very small so if you have large hand-writing it’ll fill up fast
• No tabs
• The weekly spread is a bit plain / boring – definitely needs some colored pens or stickers to brighten it up!
• Rather than re-starting the numbering, the planner does my pet peeve where they combine 2 dates into the space of 1 day. Even worse they split the box diagonally rather than horizontally i.e. make both of the days in the box useless. I don’t know how anyone can write anything in the tiny space! When planners do this, I use white out and re-start the numbering on the top row

Would I use this planner?

Yes, I used this planner for blogging and meal planning. More on that in an upcoming post!

Overall, this planner is ideal if you need something simple, light weight, small and portable.

More planner reviews:

• Carpe Diem A5 Planner (by Simple Stories) Review & Flipthrough 
• Ashley Shelly Planner Review – Weekly Planner (pros, cons and a walkthrough)
• MAMBI Mini Happy Planner Review (pros, cons, should you buy it?) 
• Mi Goals Planners Haul & Review (Planners made in Australia)