Jun 6, 20204 min read

The Erin Condren Deluxe Monthly Planner: A review

Updated: Jun 7, 2021

What inspires you?

If you are a huge organisation geek like me, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favourite lifestyle organisation brands - Erin Condren.

I work in government so June is an incredibly busy time for us with what we call the 'End of Financial Year (EOFY) frenzy'. To plan ahead and keep abreast of the programs I manage, I use my company-supplied diary and smartphone's calendar to make sure I have a pulse on everything happening and didn't miss a deadline or meeting.

Truth be told, my inner Island girl loves my vivid floral prints and neon color swatches. Also, glitter may be from Satan and terrible for the environment, but cue my phone cover and you have a peep at what my soul dubs, 'pretty'.

So that black Collins diary, whilst extremely handy and hardy, didn't make my creative side smile. EOFY had me thinking about what I should be prepping for in the coming financial year (July to June next year) and what better way to end June than with a review blog on my hands down fave stationery inspo brand?

The Erin Condren Deluxe Monthly Planner Review

IF this is all resonating with you, I'd like to introduce Erin Condren's Deluxe Monthly planner to you! I love my notebooks and my lists, so finding Erin Condren was like finding my soul - in notebooks.

Sidenote: I also use Evernote (the app - which is also available on the App Store) as my inner millenial understands you may not always have a pen and some paper handy for when you need to write something down RIGHT. THIS. INSTANT.

But I adore the tangibility of holding my thoughts in my hand - for color coding my lists - and taking my notebooks out and refining something on my laptop that I was working on last year - or even five years ago. (I'm possibly describing underlying traits of OCD, but that's absolutely how I function).

So! Back to where we were. The EC Deluxe Monthly Planner! There's an amazing range of stationery and accessories available on the EC websjte, but this one is my personal favorite. Some people may use this as their main planner or as a support planner - either way, it's amazing.

I'll be straight up, the base price for one of these, without all the additional extras is USD 40 (SBD 334).

A lot to spend on a notebook, you might say... But what if you broke that down into how much you'd be willing to put aside per fortnight, so you could buy this come December this year or January 2021? With six months to the end of the year and an average of two fortnights per month (that's $334 ÷ 12 fortnights), you're putting aside $27.83 from today, till January next year.

Easier to visualise when you break it down into reality-sized bites. But I'll let you make up your mind after the review.

The EC Deluxe Planner at a Glance:

Base price, as mentioned is USD 40 for non-metallic covers, and USD 45 for metalluc covers.
You can choose your start date - to begin at the month of your choice. This is only for 12 months.
You choose your personal color tone preference for the inside pages - whether, neutral or colorful.
The planner comes with 40 notes pages, with an option to add more for an additional price. You can choose whether the extra pages are dot grid, productivity or lined pages.
The planner also comes with two sheets of stickers coiled into the planner.
The binding coil color option is also up to you. The silver/platinum option is generic, but other options such as rose gold (as pictured below), come at an extra price.

The Layout

The EC Deluxe Monthly Planner is absolutely ideal, if you have specific projects in mind.

You can use it to plan your twelve months, your way - whether it be for budgeting, project planning, even fitness tracking, or just plain old goal setting. Nothing speaks to your motivation more than seeing your goals written down and your plans for tackling the obstacles in your way to achieve them. You're given 40 lined pages in the EC Planner, but you also have the option to add more (I always end up writing in detail, so I love the flexibility this option gives me).

Firstly, there's a two page yearly overview at the front.

The same two page spread follows, with 12 lined boxes, for each month. I'm sorry, but how adorbs is this?

Next comes the 'Month page' spread, that comes with one lined page on the left, and an inspirational quote page on the right, where the month will start.

Next is what Erin Condren calls the 'Monthly functional page' which is basically the dashboard overview of the coming month and again, covers two pages.

Following the functional page is the full two page 'Month spread' with a notes column on the side.

Four lined pages precede the Month spread, and are handy for your personal notes for that particular month.

This ends up being 10 pages per month section (unless you order more notes pages) and repeats for each of the consecutive 11 months.

The next part is what's called the 'Future Planning section' for your notes to include in a future planner.

That is followed by your 'Notes pages' - 40 lined pages in total in the Deluxe version. There is the option to add more pages (at an extra price) that are dot grid, productivity or also lined.