Happy Planner: Guest Post by Whitney

I am super excited to have my first ever guest post today! I have known Whitney for a little over a year now and I asked her to share what planner she uses and the things she loves about it!

There will be more guest post like this to come so keep watching!

So without further delay, I will turn this post over to Whitney! Enjoy!

------   ------   ------   ------   ------

Hi, Y'all! My name is Whitney Berber! I am a stay at home momma to my two year old, full of sass, but oh so incredible daughter! I’ve been married to my handsome guy for nearly 4 years now!

 I love to plan out and organize everything going on in my life, from playdates, church events, meal plans, and more! However, no matter how hard I try, my 24-year-old self just cannot figure out how to work technology well enough to utilize any sort of apps to schedule everything! So, I keep myself organized and scheduled using the good old pen and paper route! I use a planner called the Happy Planner by a company called Me & My Big Ideas. I absolutely love it! 

The style of Happy Planner I have is called Faith. There are a few different styles, including basic, student, and teacher. I chose Faith because I just love the scriptures throughout, the encouraging words, and the cover page for each month! I love to look back and see where my heart was during a certain month, to be able to see what I was praying for, and how those prayers were answered!

 So how in the world do I use this thing? I’ll tell ya! When I open up my month at a glance page, I like to have it decorated. I like to use washi tape (which I purchase from a mixture of Amazon, Hobby Lobby, or Michael’s!) to decorate the page up, I also use stickers (which I purchase from Amazon, I use the Me & My Big Ideas brand, but various different books of them), and different colored pens to help keep me organized! 

The Happy Planner also has a week at a glance feature, where I can utilize three separate sections per day to schedule out my crazy life! I don’t always have something going on, so some days, my days seem pretty empty, but a couple of things that you will always see on each day’s schedule is my scripture of the day (SOTD) for me to use to do my scripture writing and my dinner menu! Because I make the same thing for breakfast most days and I heat up leftovers for lunch, dinner is typically the only meal I need to plan!

 Speaking of meals! That is another one of my FAVORITE things about this planner! There are different extensions you can purchase to add to your planner! I have a couple! First, let’s chat about the notes extension! I purchased a note paper extension on Amazon, it was fairly cheap. It included 20 sheets (front and back) of regular note paper, like you’d see in a journal, and 20 sheets (front and back) of graph paper! I use the note paper for taking notes, writing out scriptures, even writing down songs we sing at church or reminders to schedule something. It’s been a great help in having something to write down my thoughts as I have them, instead of hoping I’ll remember them! 

The graph paper, I use for recipes! I love to cook, just ask anyone who knows me. You just had a baby? Let me cook for you! You want to bring your kids over for a playdate? Sure thing, but I’m going to cook for you! It’s just what I do! However, while I love cooking, I have so many thoughts during the day, I can’t possibly remember all the recipes for all the things I love to try! So I grab some washi tape and some colorful pens, and when I find a recipe that I’ve tried and loved, I write it down! It’s like my own personal, take wherever I want to go, handwritten cookbook! Which is fun when I travel to visit family because when we want to try something new for dinner, my cookbook is already with me!

 The other extension I have in my planner is a budget planning extension. I also purchased this on Amazon, also the brand Me & My Big Ideas.

 I utilize this one to keep track of the bills I need to pay, the income our family receives, any expenses we have, whether it be a need or a want, and a savings plan.

 This helps to keep our family budget on track and remembering how much we can actually save by only purchasing things we need, not things we want.

 In closing, I just want to say, if you are like me and hate trying to figure out technology, in my opinion, the Happy Planner is the way to go! I purchased mine from Michael’s!

 The Faith planner isn’t a traditional January to December planner. You actually purchase the kit and are given stickers to start with whatever month you choose, so my planner actually goes from September to August!

 I hope that you’ve learned a little bit about how to utilize a traditional planner and how much fun you can have with it! 

Have a blessed day!

Whitney!