After Mia wrote about her new planner, I was sold and begged asked Santa Husband to be sure one these ended up under the tree on Christmas morning.
Since blogland is so heavy into planners, I thought I’d share an in depth review of the Plum Paper Planner and compare it to the highly coveted Erin Condren Planner, which I had for 2012.
Plum Paper Planners are completely customizable. The husband picked out the cover (so it was still technically a “gift from him) but I ordered everything so I could customize it the way I wanted. I chose the regular planner with the weekly spread option 3: lines, and I had the planner start in January.
I absolutely loved that you could chose how to have the days/weeks broken down. They have four options:
The planner itself is $31. Shipping was $8.95. I ordered the day after their guaranteed Christmas delivery date but it still arrived in time to be wrapped and placed under the tree (impressed). It took 18 days from when I ordered until it was in my hands. I imagine they were probably extra staffed for the holiday because it says on their website to allow 2-3 weeks between ordering and shipping.
I also added their Repositionable Sticker Sheets ($3) to my order, and I have to say I’m hugely disappointed in them. 1) They are not respositionable. I tried to remove one and it ripped my planner. 2) YOU CANNOT WRITE ON THEM. At all. Not with any kind of pen. It seems they must have realized this because they are no longer available on their website.
Now for the good stuff, why you’re actually probably here. Because you want to know how this compares to the Planner Bible of Blogland…the Erin Condren Life Planner.
- The covers. The Erin Condren planner has a gorgeous laminated, vibrant cover. The cover for the Plum Paper Planner is printed on thick(ish) cardstock with a frosted plastic cover that closes over it.
- The Plum Paper Planner has thinner paper. The quality of the pages in the Erin Condren planner is better, but keep in mind that the thicker paper also means heavier.
- The Erin Condren Life Planner has a thicker coil. Thicker, I guess, is supposed to mean sturdier. I don’t see the extra thickness as anything necessary. The Plum Paper Planner coil seems sufficient and again…not as heavy.
- The EC Life planner comes with two pages of labeled stickers (party, game, pay day just to name a few) and one page of blank stickers that you CAN write on. In order to get these with the PPP, it was an extra charge and the quality of the stickers weren’t great. I won’t hold that against PPP because it seems they’ve caught their error and I imagine they’ll be providing a new (and better) option soon.
- The EC Life Planner comes with more note pages. The PPP comes with what I feel to be a sufficient number of note pages per month. You can add more starting at $1.50 if you feel you need more.
- The base option for the PPP is sufficient and significantly cheaper than the EC Life Planner. If you don’t need all the extra bells and whistles that the EC LP offers, you’re paying for stuff you won’t use.
- While the cover for the EC LP is beautiful and the paper was thicker within the planner which made the planner look and feel expensive…the planner was expensive. And HEAVY.
- I liked that I could completely customize the Plum Paper Planner to what I needed. Beyond the regular planners with the customizable weekly layouts, they also offer teacher planners, wedding planners, family planners…so on and so forth. And within all of those, you are able to customize as you need. They also have an abundance of add ons to suit whatever need you might have.
I love planners and customizing stuff so this sounds awesome! I usually swear by a regular Moleskin planner, I like the page layouts & pocket, but I bought one in July (18months) and it is just not getting used anymore! I am always writing on scraps of paper or putting notes in my phone, so it is just wasting away! I wish I could be as organized as you- it would be much better than having all the scraps!
Santa husband haha. Love it. That planner is super cute though. I should probably invest in something like that instead of using a million different pads and my phone. I hope that you are having a good day so far too. 🙂
Ohhh your planner looks awesome!!! I was going to go with that brand after reading Mia's review too but then I saw one at Target that I really liked for $7 and I was afraid that I might not use it the whole year since I have a bad record with them since being out of school. Perhaps if I keep up with my cheap one this year I will invest in one next year!
Love their planners and I actually won the giveaway that one of the girls was having so I'm due to get one very soon!!! So happy that you are loving yours!! xo, Biana – BlovedBoston
Thank you so much for this review girl! I actually ditched my EC planner as well because it was so freaking heavy. Every time I had it in my bag it would make my arm go numb. Good to know that this one is significantly lighter!
Great review! I'm planning on doing the same, but wanted to give myself two months with the Plum Paper so I can really know the ins and outs of how it works for me daily!
I also ordered a Plum Paper Planner for the year, and I love it! My only issue is the small spaces in the day view. I write big, so it's been a challenge for me to write smaller to fit everything. Other than that, I love it!
Ahh I literally just ordered one of these on Sunday night – boo to missing out on the discount code, but a huge YAY to getting this planner! I cannot wait to receive mine and fill it up with tons of lists, color coding and to-do's! Thanks for providing such a thorough review and it's making me even more excited to receive mine! xoxo, – M @ The Sequin Notebook
I'm on the fence about getting a planner this year, maybe I'll decide at some point haha.
I love planners but I never use them! At this point it's so much easier to stick everything in my Google calendar, task list, and Google docs, so despite my initial excitement, I only used my blog planner for 2 weeks. Lazy here. 🙁
Great review, I agree 100% on the noticeable differences. Like you, they don't bother me and I feel it's definitely worth the major price difference and size 🙂 I'm enjoying mine for sure! I had a lot of stickers left from my EC one last year, so I cut those and the clear ziplock bag out and they are in the little folder in the back of my Plum Paper one. I've been using washi tape in mine though, loving it! I was kind of mad at myself for not ordering those stickers, now I'm glad I didn't. Bummer!
Awesome review! I still have not gotten into the planner thing – I guess I'm just unorganized? Or not an officially blogger? haha, either way it's nice to have an in depth review if I ever take the plunge. You had me at it's more affordable… thanks!
such a cute planner! i totally already have one for this year, otherwise i'd be all over it!
Oh man I wish I'd had that code last week when I ordered! Mine should be coming soon hopefully. I had an EC life planner for a year and a half and barely used it. I'd write stuff down then never look back at it. Too big and bulky for me. I was actually looking for something much smaller this year but never found anything I liked that wasn't sold out. So I'm getting the PPP. 🙂
Thanks for a great review! Love your blog!
I adore the way the pages are set up with columns and checklists. I liked that about EC too, but I think the EC planner was wasted on me. I have the Simplified Planner from Emily Ley and it was $42. I could've added extras to it but didn't because I never used them with the EC one. It's made of some sturdy materials so I'm happy with that. I might look into Plum Paper next year.
Your cover is so cute and I love the tabs! The customizable option is awesome too and definitely beats paying a lot of money for one of the more expensive planners. I'm just using a monthly one this year because it works best for me, but if I switch back to weekly in the future I am definitely going to keep the plum planner in mind! This is an awesome review!
Great review girl!! I love my new Kate Spade one but I definitely don't write as much as you do… just look at that January week!! I feel like I need a planner just for the blog instead of printing out separate sheets…. but then again I feel like that's a waste of money lol. Damn planners!!
Hmm… makes me feel like I should get one. I ditched a paper planner a few years ago and began using cozi on the iPhone because I knew my phone would always be with me. But you're making me rethink that. Maybe I should check these out.
I've been meaning to order mine for weeks now but hopefully I'll get it ordered today! After so many good reviews, why pay for the more expensive one?!
I just got a Plum Paper planner too and I love it!! I was wondering what your stickers were…good to know that they were useless. Glad she's taken them off. I love all of your color coordination 🙂 Oh and I also got my sister the wedding one! Yay!
So glad you posted a review because while I've seen the planners, I've never seen the insides. I like that it's customizable but none of the layouts are what I want, so I wouldn't order. You know I hated the EC planner (hashtag waste of money) so I'm thinking my $10 Target planner with the layout I like will be perfect for 2015! If my handwriting wasn't so big, I would really like the checklst layout of this one!
I just ordered my planner today and before doing so did a search for a coupon code, which led me to your site. Thank you for sharing! I'm super excited to get my planner (in 3-4 weeks!). Oh and just so you know, the stickers are available again. It doesn't look like they are advertised as repositionable though.
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I love my current PPP, but I wish it had the elastic band to keep it closed. My frosted plastic cover doesn't lay flay anymore and bows up, which is why I am contemplating switching to another one like the EC planner. Great review, though, and very informational…thanks! 🙂
I love the look and layout of the plum paper planners. However, their customer service is atrocious. It is virtually impossible to contact them directly and they do not respond to customers in a timely fashion. My experience with them would keep me from reordering with that company.
has your discount code expired yet?
Also, how comparable are the layouts of the Ec vs the PPP? Would EC stickers still fit into the PPP?
Boo- discount code doesn't work anymore.
Hi Joey! I just wanted to let you know that I just ordered a Plum Paper Planner, and to say 'thank you' for your coupon code, too! (so you know, it worked for me). This is my second PPP, and I love being able to customize it to my personal needs as well. This year, I've added extra planner notes pages, To-Do List pages, a Blog Planning section, and Fitness Tracking section, and with all that, after applying your coupon code, and including standard shipping fees, I still paid less than $50 for an EC planner's starting price! Whoo Hooo!!!. Thanks again for the coupon code. Hope all is going well with you. – Trisha
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