Three weeks ago, I began a newsletter series focused on my comprehensive plan for a successful low spend planner year. If you missed the first post, you can find it here.
To very quickly recap, this plan takes the following 4-prong approach throughout the year:
Self-reflection (January)
Inventory (January)
Measure, Prevent, and Adjust (Daily, Weekly, or Monthly)
Final Review (December)
If you’ve been following along, you’ve already put in a lot of preventative and self-reflection work that should help set you up for success this year! Now let’s graduate from our journey with the final step in this strategy. Ideally, you’d do this step in December. However, I’m showing it to you early so you know what to expect.
This very last step won’t happen until the end of the year, assuming you’re doing the one-year journey. It’s your final review and wrap-up step. It involves 2 parts:
Collecting your numbers for the year and reviewing them
Final self-reflection journaling
Final Review
For your final review, you must collect all your numbers for the year. This means tallying up your planner spending for each frequency period. You should also look at the annual budget number you decided on (which might also require a little bit of math, depending on how you decided to pace yourself).
If you’re keeping all of this information in a planner, I’d create a special spread for this final review. If you’re reading this post before December 2024, go ahead and draw the spread out so it’s waiting for you (and you can’t avoid it) when December arrives. 😂
Don’t overthink your spread. It can be as simple as writing out all periods and totals of planner spend, adding one total annual planner spend line, and then adding one line for the total annual budget amount.
Final Self-Reflection
The last part of this strategy is reflecting on your final progress report. How did you do? Did you overspend in some periods? Overall, did you exceed your budget or keep your spending down?
Regardless of how you did this year, you should give yourself a pat on the back for getting this far. Not everyone will meet their goal, but trying a new strategy and being more self-aware is part of the journey. You’re growing without realizing it.
If you didn’t meet your goal this year, use the following journaling prompts to explore why. Then try again in 2025. You’ve already laid down the foundation (ahem, the inventory), so your prep time will be greatly reduced for 2025.
If you did meet your goal this year, congratulations! #success #youdidit You have now completed a journey of self-discipline. You can use the learnings from this experience in other areas of your life. You should still complete the following journaling prompts to give you greater self-awareness.
Journaling Prompts
First, read your answers to the journaling prompts from the beginning of the year. It will help with your new journaling prompts.
Next, fill out the following, final journaling prompts. Here are the journaling prompts I intend to end with this year. Feel free to add any others you think might be useful for your journey:
Summarize how I did this year. (Numbers, feelings, splurge moments, great periods of no spending, times when I really wanted to spend but didn’t, funny or good memories, etc.)
What are some areas I need to improve on for the future? Was there a pattern to the types of planner supplies I splurged on? If so, why do I think that happened?
How did my planner journey evolve this year? Did my low spend planner year impact the types of planning activities I did this year? If so, what was impacted and how do I feel about that?
Were there any planner activities I shaved earlier in the year that I’d like to reconsider for the upcoming year? (unsubscribing to vendor emails, spending less time on social media, etc.)
How do I feel I’ve grown over this past year? (self-awareness, self-discipline, etc.)
How has this experience made me a better person overall? How can I use the learnings from this experience toward other areas of my life?
Wherever you are in your planner spend journey, a hearty congratulations for being open and willing to try something new! You are now done with your low spend planner year! #manypatsonyourback #onwardandupward
All posts in this “A Plan For a Low Spend Planner Year” series:
My Self Accountability
You’ll see this new section in this year’s newsletters. I’m going to include a self-accountability section so you can follow along with me on my personal low spend planner journey.
January 2024: I spent a total of $64 on planner supplies. I’m shocked. I thought I would’ve spent more, seeing as how it was also my birthday month. 😁
My planner spending in January was spread across two purchases:
Field Notes notebooks, which I absolutely don’t need any more of—they were offering a special rare notebook with purchase and I fell for it. I’m going to unsubscribe from their emails now.
Monochrome washi tape and stickers to match my goth EDC bujo theme. I don’t have a lot of monochrome planner supplies, so I “felt” I needed them. I’ve used them once so far. Guess I didn’t “need” them. 🤣
For my low spend planner year, I don’t have a monthly budget. I have an annual one. My goal is to spend less than $500 for the year on planner supplies, so I will be tracking to that number.
In February, my goal is to spend $0. Let’s see if I can do it!