Plum Paper Review

I am so excited to tell you about a completely personalize-able planner and notebook company that I have been trying for the past couple of years. I am so impressed by their products and their company, they deserve a proper applause -crickets- but since this is a blog, I’ll just boast about them instead. The company is called “Plum Paper” an amazing online company that allows you to personalize a planner or notebook of your choice. It is all done on their user-friendly website, plumpaper.com. First you select a style of book, you choose the size you want. All their planners and notebooks come in three perfect size options; 5.8”X8.3”, 7”X9”, and 8.5”X11”. After you have decided your preferred size, you can explore layouts with the suggested cover or CUSTOMIZE.

Personally, that is one the few things that makes this company so amazing to me, the ability to customize your cover. They have so many design options to choose from that are conveniently organized into different categories (and for you teachers reading they have a design category just for you) everything from florals to holiday patterns. Then after you choose a cover, you have the option to add a center cover design (name, initials, quote, photo, etc.) and one at the bottom of the page, and you choose the desired year for your planner or notebook (yes, you read that write you can even get the year printed on a notebook.) After you have finished your cover design you are able to choose your layout.

For 8.5”X11” notebooks there is only a few layout options and are limited to 60 pages (front and back) no matter the layout style. However, if you choose the ‘Narrow’ style it does add a 12-month spread of special dates pages and the ‘Ideas, Plans, Goals’ pages at no extra cost. For notebooks you also have the option to get dotted, graph, blank or gradebook pages instead of regular lined pages. The Lines pages range from college ruled down to primary (the thick double lines with the dashes in the middle.) Not many options for layouts for notebooks, but it is just a notebook so there aren’t many options anyway so in retrospect its actually really a lot. However, if you choose the one of the smaller sizes this opens 12 new lifestyle layouts to choose from business to recipe books.

For planners the layouts are a lot more complex and a there is wider selection of options to choose from. The Layouts are organized into to different categories; Vertical, Horizontal, Monthly, Daily, Grid, Teacher, and Goals. There are so many different options you are bound to find something to suit your needs. Many of these layouts are specifically designed for teachers, students, and small businesses in mind. They can be as minimal as just a monthly calendar and as complicated as 12-month-hourly-daily layout. The thing for me that really makes me love Plum Paper is the ability to customize the layout with your own text, you can add your class names, your students, as a SAHM I love adding a to do list and cleaning section. The options are endless and entirely up to you! However, if you have trouble deciding what you should include and where the custom text section does give you suggestion; or you can even leave it blank and write it in later.

After you pick the layout and customize it you choose the color scheme you want for tabs and inside pages. Personally, for me this is kind of a con on the list as it varies depending on the cover you choose, and the color schemes are VERY limited and don’t always look good with what you’ve chosen as your cover design. However, I love Plum Paper enough to look past this slight snag in the designing process.

Next you get to choose your start month, so if you order in August, you can start your planner for August. (Note: Keep in mind the time it will take it to ship to you, so you don’t start it before you actually receive your book. Learned that the hard way! You are welcome. 😊) You also have the option to order a planner or notebook up to two years in advance, and can combine years. So, if your book starts July 2022, it will circle around to July 2023, and for an additional $2 per month you can go up to 18 months. Another cool feature you can do at this time is start your week on a Monday or Sunday. Then you can decide to add holidays or opt out. You can do this based on your religion or country or for $5 extra can add your own (i.e., birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) The available countries to choose from include United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia. The available religions to choose from include Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim/Islamic or a combination of both. You can even edit the holidays you don’t want to include by unchecking them from the list (personally I uncheck Groundhogs’ Day.)

Another great thing that Plum paper allows you to choose is your binding option. For planners this includes metal coil (which is a firm, great quality metal), disc punch or loose leaf. I love the coil binding, but the disc punch option is great if you have a portfolio to add your planner or notebook to. The loose leaf is great as well, but you will have to punch the hole yourself if you’d like to put them in a binder.

Finally, the thing that for me really makes Plum Paper special, the add-ons. You have the option to do add on tab categories or disperse them throughout depending on your preferences. There are so many add on options it would be too much to go over them all, so instead I am just going to tell you about my personal favorite options. So, for dispersed pages I really enjoy the bill tracker, blog planning, and fitness. For tabbed add-on I really enjoy the reflection, prayer, and scrap book pages (includes monthly scrapbook stickers.) I have some of the others and they just didn’t fit my needs, but I do think they are useful. These pages being the meal planner, baby tracker, password pages, and specialties (travel, wedding, etc.) Another way to personalize your book is with the many different stickers page option to choose from. There is an 80-page limit for planners and 100-page limit for notebooks, and they do fill up quickly so make sure you are really thinking about what you will and won’t really use. (Note: Some add on options are not available for notebooks.)

Now that we have discussed the many, many, many different ways you can customized these awesome books to really make them your own, let talk price. Now the base prices vary based on style and size. For planners they are 5.8’ X8.3” for $35.00, 7”X9” for $38.00 and 8.5”X11” for $45; for notebooks 5.8’ X8.3” for $16.00, 7”X9” for $18.00 and 8.5”X11” for $20. Then depending on the layout, you choose the prices vary and change the base price to be more or less the base price. Then based on the quantity of your add-ons and preferred style (dispersed or tabbed) this will increase the price. It is only a few dollars at a time but there are so many options it can go from an $18 notebook to a $100 notebook quickly. So, again really be thinking about what you will realistically use. It can be a bit overwhelming with there being so many different options and ways to personalize it.

My advice is once you have your finished product, save it, and over the next week or so really pay attention to your life and think about the pages you included and imagine using them. If you come back and you have add-ons you didn’t even think about, you probably don’t need them. If there are some you don’t have but now realize you will need them, add them on. This way you can benefit the most from your Plum Paper personalized planner/notebook.

I really do feel like the price is really worth what you get, they include so much detail and allow you so many ways to make them your own. Aside from planners’ and notebooks Plum Paper also sells customizable stationery and office accessories. So even if the planners’ or notebooks don’t interest you there is bound to be something for you on their website. I really hope you found this interesting and if you would like a discount code to order your own book. Send me a message or leave a comment with your email and I will email send you your very own discount code to save on your very own Plum Paper personalized planner/notebook.

Sources:

https://www.plumpaper.com 2022Plum Paper, LLC. All rights reserved. "Plum Paper" and "Personalized For You, By You" are trademarks of Plum Paper, LLC.