In addition to the priority quadrant planning method I shared in a previous post, for week 45, I used the Sarah Pinto planner for blog planning and meal planning.

I purchased the planner myself and was not compensated for this post. As always, all opinions are my own. 

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

I did a detailed review of the planner in this post.

Planning using the Sarah Pinto Planner

Since the planner is small I opted to use it for weekly blog planning.

The paper feels quite thick so I thought highlighter stamps (the stars in the photo below) wouldn’t bleed through the page – unfortunately some did bleed through the page and there was also some pen ghosting 🙁

Since I switch between planners all the time and rarely use the same planner for an entire year, I just flicked to another week of the planner and covered the dates up with date dot and meal planning stickers to turn it into a meal planner. I wrote the lunch and dinner meals on the right and the ingredients needed on the left.

I hadn’t meal planned / written the grocery list like this before – I didn’t mind it! I crossed off items I already had so I could see what I needed to purchase. Since the planner is very small it’s an ideal size to take to the grocery shop. This planning method worked alright but I have gotten used to sticky note size and out of habit / ease of use I’ll probably stick to using sticky notes. But if you find sticky notes are too small, planning this way may be something to consider.

Pens Used:

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

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 stamps bled through the page (seem to bleed through every planner) but none of the highlighters did except for the highlighter stamps I ended up using. Note to self, stick to the Frixion erasable stamps which never seem to bleed through.

Supplies used:

Blog planning

• Star highlighters (purchased from an Etsy shop)
• Texta click retractable pen in pink (from Target, comes in a few different colors)

For meal planning:

• Monte Marte Mini Fineliner pens 0.4mm (from Stacks discount store here in Australia) – they’re similar to the more readily available Triplus Fineliner 0.3mm
• Date dot stickers
• Meal planning header stickers

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

Cons of the Sarah Pinto Planner

• The planner is 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 monthly calendar pages of 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

I did a detailed review of the planner in this post.

Would I use this planner again?

I liked the size of this planner. At only 5 x 7 it’s very portable and weighs hardly anything. It’s similar to the mini Happy Planner  and would be ideal for on the go planning. It was the perfect size for blogging and meal planning so I may use it again for those purposes. However, the planner would be too small for me to do general weekly planning.

I can’t find any 2018 versions of the planner – it appears to have been discontinued 🙁 

Catch up on past week’s of the challenge:

• MAMBI Mini Happy Planner Review (pros, cons, should you buy it?) 
• Best paper planners if you have large handwriting (and planners you should avoid) 
• Weekly Planners That Start on Sunday (Planner Roundup) 
• Alternatives to the Erin Condren Teacher Planner

More planning posts:

• Planners you’ve probably never heard of (but will want to know about!) 
• Practicing Calligraphy: Free printable brush lettering worksheets 
• How to make lined note paper DIY planner insert refills in Photoshop (quick and easy step by step tutorial) 
• Highlighters vs. Highlighter Pencils: Are they worth the cost? 
• Cheap versus expensive pens: is there actually a difference in quality?