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This Living Well Planner review provides information on the specifications, features, advantages, and drawbacks of the Living Well Planner from Living Well Spending Less.
I struggled to straighten my spine against the 10 pounds hanging next to my side. The weight of my purse straps seared into my shoulder.
What’s worse than standing in line at the DMV? I asked myself.
My response? Standing in line at the DMV with a useless planner weighing down my purse.
Spoiler alert: That planner WAS NOT the Living Well Planner.
That planner WAS another well-known, pretty, ultimately run-of-the-mill planner.
Which shall remain nameless.
I’d been lugging it around in my purse for 2 months after I’d stopped using it, its weight a constant reminder of the fact that I’d failed. Again. At using a planner.
Sound familiar?
Once I finally dumped that planner from my purse, I searched high and low online, looking for something I’d actually use consistently. Something that was more than just an overpriced ream of paper, filled with the same old stuff. Something I’d be excited to whip out and use again and again.
Enter the Living Well Planner.
Living Well Planner Review
As you may have guessed, I’ve been enormously impressed with the Living Well Planner. There are several things that make it pretty special.
Created by a Woman Who Walks the Walk
Before I get to the Living Well Planner review itself, I want to take a moment to introduce you to the woman behind the planner.
The Living Well Planner was created by Ruth Soukup. Ruth is a mom, blogger, and business owner at Living Well Spending Less, where her motto is “Practical solutions for everyday overwhelm.” If you follow Ruth’s blog, you know she is a master at planning and achieving goals, whether it’s getting dinner on the table or launching a new product.
The Living Well Planner follows in the footsteps of her blog. As she says on the information page for the Living Well Planner, she couldn’t find a planner with all the amazing features she was looking for, so she created it.
She gets what it’s like to be crazy busy at work while trying to manage a household. As a result, she designed a hard-working planner that runs circles around others on the market.
More Than a Planner… a Life Hub
It’s not just another planner… it’s more like a life hub.
The Living Well Planner includes things that almost every woman needs to keep track of – all in 1 place. Beyond that, it helps you plan and track your goals – a unique focus that takes it above and beyond all the other pretty planners out there. It’s like a planner, budget binder, journal, reference sheet, and goal setting workbook all rolled into one.
Whenever I shop for a planner, or anything else, I want to know EXACTLY what I’m getting for my money. And I want you to, also! As a result, this Living Well Planner review is in-depth and lists all the features of the planner.
Specs
- The planner measures 7.5″ x 9.5″.
- It’s wire O-bound.
- It is hardcover, front and back, with smooth matte finish on the outside of each cover.
- Protective (And stylish) metal brackets are on the outside corners of the front and back covers.
- The pages are non-glossy.
- It’s printed in full color.
- The planner covers 12 months, with a tab for each.
- The planner is undated.
Features
My Living Well Planner review would be totally remiss if I didn’t break down all the cool planner features for you. Let’s do that now. I separated them into categories to keep your head from spinning. The categories below do not reflect the organization of the planner itself, and are there only to make this Living Well Planner review easier to digest.
Big Picture Planning
- Year at a glance – This is a basic feature of probably all premium planners on the market today. Useful for getting a big picture view of the year – vacations, can’t miss events, projects, etc.
- Important dates – Record birthdays, anniversaries, maybe even your cat’s adoption anniversary. Or is that just me?
Mini Command Central
- Important information – Incredibly useful for that handful of occasions when you need it. For example, someone rear-ends you and you realize you forgot to put your new auto insurance card in the glove box. The list includes emergency contacts, insurance plans and contacts, banking info and contacts, plus blank space for other info you deem important.
- Monthly budget – A 2-page spread with columns for budgeted, actual, and difference amounts. Plus, it has 11 categories and 48 line item expenses(!)
- Monthly expenses – A single page with date, description, and amount. Great to use in conjunction with the monthly budget section. I also like it for jotting down business expenses and random tax-deductible donations to charity.
- Cleaning schedule – A single page toward the back of the planner. It includes space for major home projects, a suggested list of daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal cleaning, plus space to record your own weekly cleaning routine.
Goal Setting & Motivation
- Inspirational quotes – A quote is presented at the beginning of each month. My favorite: “Don’t let comparison steal your joy.”
- Do It Scared™ purpose statement – A fill-in-the-blank page that helps you set the tone for the year ahead.
- Long-term goal-setting – Set your big 3 goals for the year, plus other goals in 6 areas of life. You can also create a motto statement and word of the year. My word for the upcoming year? “Do.”
- Monthly goal-setting – 1 page per month. Almost identical to the long-term goals page, but on a monthly basis instead of yearly.
- Crush It™ goal setting framework – 1 page per month featuring Ruth’s Crush It™ goal setting/achievement framework. I wish there were more than 1 page per month, because I tend to have more than 1 goal per month. But, there’s always that thing called a separate sheet of paper!
- Project planning – 1 page per month with space to record project details, notes, important dates, to-dos, and brainstorming. These are so handy because most women always have something in the works. Great for home improvement projects, school events, fundraisers, etc.
Journal
- Thoughts & thanks – 1 page per month to record your musings, express gratitude, write down funny things your kids did, etc.
- Notes & ideas – 1 page per month, plus more sprinkled throughout the planner.
Actual Planner Stuff
- Month at a glance – Traditional 2-page calendar spread with space for notes and important dates.
- Daily planning – Daily planning is set up in a 2-page, 7-day spread. It includes hourly timeslots from 6 am to 10 pm. It also includes daily to-dos, a weekly list (for shopping, books to read, whatever you list you need!), and important days.
- Meal planning – Part of the daily planning 7-day spread. There is space to plan daily meals right below each day’s hourly timeslots, so meals are easy to see at a glance.
Other Cool Features
- The planner is completely undated. For the most part, this is a huge advantage. Regardless of whether you start using it on January 1st or July 1st, you get to use the whole planner because you can start using it on whichever date you choose.
- The planner includes a sticker sheet with month tabs and month labels, plus a few other stickers for special occasions. You can purchase additional stickers from the Living Well Store.
- There’s a little pocket folder on the inside of the front cover, for any papers you need to keep handy.
Tons of Support
If you struggle with using a planner like I used to, you’re in luck. As of this writing, each copy of the Living Well Planner includes access to 3 (Yes, 3!) forms of support.
- First, Crushing It Central includes training videos, resources, and some free printables to help get the most out of your planner. A paid upgrade unlocks additional printables, many of which aren’t available individually in the Living Well Shop.
- Second, you receive an email mini-course called Crushing It Bootcamp, which walks you through setting up your planner.
- Last, you have access to the Crushing It Community Facebook group, which is a positive, supportive full of other Living Well Planner users.
Why I Love It
If it isn’t already obvious, I am a huge fan of this planner. The reasons why are simple.
- It’s a one-stop shop for almost everything I need to keep track of. Finances, important info, my schedule, meal planning, projects, goals – all in one place.
- I haven’t mentioned this yet, but it’s colorful and happy, and just plain fun to open up and use.
- It’s intuitive to use. The first time I opened it up, it made sense to me.
- As stated above, the support is amazing. Ruth and her team actually WANT you to use the planner, and they include tons of resources to help you get the most out of their product.
Drawbacks
The drawbacks of this planner are few and far between, so this will be the quickest part of my Living Well Planner review.
One of the few cons of the planner is that writing in the individual day numbers for each month was sort of a chore.
I suppose you could write the dates in a month at a time as you go. However, that isn’t realistic if you schedule anything more than a month in advance – which you probably do. The benefit of being able to start using the planner at any time definitely outweigh the inconvenience of having to write in all the dates.
As I hinted above, it would be nice to have more than 1 page per month of the Crush It™ goal setting framework and project planning pages.
I get why Ruth and her team opted for 1 page of each per month, though. Adding just 1 more of each page per month would increase the planner’s page count by close to 30 pages. That would make it a lot less pleasant to lug around!
As of this writing, the Crush It™ framework and project planning pages are available as printables on the Crushing It Central website, as part of the paid upgrade. Problem solved!
Living Well Planner Review: Conclusion
The Living Well Planner is a life hub that helps track and manage the most important areas of a woman’s life. It does the work of 4 or 5 separate things – all in one beautiful, happy, easy-to-use planner.
I hope this Living Well Planner review has helped you decide if this planner is a good fit for you. If you’re looking to get control of your finances, hammer out your schedule, juggle your to-dos, and achieve your goals, then the Living Well Planner might be perfect for you.
Trust me, this is one planner you won’t end up cursing as dead weight in your purse… even while standing in line at the DMV.
Thank you so much for this review! I just purchased the Living Well Planner this morning and it cost me a fortune. With the delivery rates and converting the price into Australian dollars… eeshk. But I am super happy and can’t wait for it!