Do It Yourself Yearly Planner – Cheap and Easy!
Who can believe that it’s a new year already? They say the older you get the quicker time sees to fly by and I must say, I couldn’t agree more. I remember being little and counting down the years until high school, then my drivers license, graduating and the list continues. Now I am running the other direction away from my next birthday.
Anyway, I am a sucker for buying new planners at the beginning of each year. I am still a bit old fashioned in the sense that I still like to write everything down on paper. There’s nothing worse than searching through some sort of electronic device in a rush only to have it freeze or crash. Not to mention the occasional glass of wine that just might happen to get spilled on to your laptop wiping out the entire memory. Not that that has ever happened to me or anything…
Though I am planner crazed, those bad boys are costly. Last year I paid almost $50 for a planner! Granted, it was customized with a picture of my girls on the front, but nothing a printed out picture and some tape can’t fix! I have decided to come up with a planner that cost me less than $3 and it’s way more functional than any planner I could ever purchase. I can customize it to my exact needs which is my biggest frustration with store bought. I feel like I need 2 or 3 of them to accommodate everything I need to plan for.
Here is my $3 version of my very own DIY Planner. It has exactly everything I would need because I put it there!
Materials:
- 7.5″x9.5″ notebook – Walmart for less than $1
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Sharpie
- Crayons or colored pencils for decorating (optional)
- Calendar for information (or you can look online)
Directions:
1. Start by opening your notebook to the 2nd page.
2. Using a ruler, make a 6 1/16″ x 5 3/4″ box.
3. Now make 5 vertical Columns 1 3/16″ wide (if your using a standard ruler, you can trace the width of your ruler).
4. Then you can make two rows by drawing a line through the center 2 13/16″ wide.
5. Measure 5/16″ on each row and draw a line straigh across to write the days of the week.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for all 52+ pages.
7. Then look at a calendar to begin writing your days of the months, days of the week, and dates. I saved some room for other things I need to write in like blogging stats, goals, etc.
8. Use your colored pencils and crayons to personalize even more. I used a crayon because they were left on my desk by Josephine from the night before. Easy and convenient!
9. On each page you can write a daily or weekly bible verse to personalize your planner even further. A little bit of motivation goes a really long way.
10. Use your sharpie to decorate the cover by writing the year or whatever else you find fitting. I did happen to find some picture paper that was sticky on the back. I might just print out another picture of the girls and slap it on the front. That will show those $50 planners who’s boss!
You can also get all kinds of cool stickers and other supplies to make your planner rock. Here are a few awesome finds from Amazon:
Be sure to check out all of our other awesome DIY projects while you are here!