Y’all I’m starting to turn into one of those planner people. All that’s next is buying enough stickers to cover every inch of the planners! Just kidding, but I did buy new planners!

I did a quick flip through of the new planners and talked a little bit about what I plan to use them for in the coming months. Since I’m pretty focused on budgeting and saving money lately a big focus will be monthly budgeting and meal planning.

While I’ve tried budgeting with apps like Mint and Every Dollar, the most effective way I’ve found is writing things down. It forces me to take more time and analyze our purchases instead of just looking at an app that is doing everything automatically. Sure it’s old school, but combining my love of paper with my need to budget better seems like a good plan!

Here are the two planners I will be using*:

Large Happy Planner for budgeting and meal planning:

Small Dabney Lee planner for weekly spending tracking:

I’m probably going to end up adjusting this system as I go since it’s all trial and error to figure out what works best. I’m hoping using a planner and stickers and such makes it fun so I want to stick with the process instead of giving it up.

If nothing else, I’m hoping to get my life a little bit more together now that I’m both working and being a mom. There is a lot bouncing around in my head at all times these days so hopefully writing things down will help keep us all a little more organized.

If you use a planner, what do you use it for? How do you keep track of things like spending or meal planning? I’m always open to new ideas!

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