Friday, October 15, 2010

Mama Likes It Easy Planners



When I received a "Mama Likes It Easy" planner in the mail to review, I'll have to admit I was extremely impressed! The planners I've been using are the cheap $5 ones that just have some lines and boxes to fill in dates. I'm a fairly simple person and I never thought I needed more than that, but now I know what I was missing out on!!
The "Mama Likes It Easy" planners were well thought out and designed by busy moms who know what moms need to stay organized and it definitely shows in their product! When I got past the fun things, like the fabric cover, the little charm on the front and the elegant font, I started looking at the categories of inserts that came with the planner. These are the categories with their descriptions:

*Daily Calendar of Events or Weekly Calendar Our Daily Calendar of Events features 3 months of dated easy-to-use 6 family member columns to schedule timed activities throughout your busy day. Daily list of things to do, journal entry and today's food menu also included. If our daily calendar is not what you are looking for we also offer our Weekly Calendar of events featuring 52 weeks (1 full year) of undated pages consisting of things to do columns/appointment tracker, menu planner, and special event reminder. One full week is printed on two side by side pages so that you can view your entire week. Additional daily and weekly calendar refills are available. See inserts page for details.

*Monthly Calendar Pages, Four-Year Calendar, Important Dates to Remember including Card & Gift Record.

*Family Medical Records- Keep your family doctor visits "painless." List important contacts, prescriptions, insurance information, appointments & vaccination records. Keep it all organized for convenient reference use.

*Meal Planning- List restaurants, take-out food favorites and recipe entries. Reference cooking measurement guide also included.

*Family Activities- (our personal favorite) Team sport section featuring coach & team parent contact information, game & practice schedule, photo & snack mom dates. Class activity & volunteer project outline pages also included.

*Holidays & Parties- Keep track of all birthdays & dinner party details including food, entertainment & guest list. Record your holiday greeting card list including who sent YOU a card.

*Travel- Bon Voyage!... From hotel reservations, airline flights, car rentals, destination sites & packing lists, you'll have all vital travel information conveniently at hand. Useful travel phone/website reference pages also included.

*Contact List- We go way beyond a typical address/telephone directory. Now, you can include your favorite websites with usernames and password information.

*Note Pages, Shopping Tablet & Notes to the Teacher Forms Gone are the days of searching for a piece of paper to write your child's school absent note...we know what a busy Mommy needs at 8 a.m.


I was impressed with the layout of each of the pages and the amount of detail! For example, in the 'Medical Information' category, there are areas to list allergies and blood types for each family member. Or in the 'Weekly Calendar' category, there is a spot for each day to plan out your meals! How awesome is that!?

I was also sent extra inserts to look over including the categories: Babysitting, Troop Leader, Household Projects, Pets and Christmas. Of the extra inserts, my favorites were definitely the Household Projects and Christmas:

With the hectic Christmas season quickly approaching, I got excited to see the different pages in the Christmas insert and how useful they would be to stay organized. I could keep track of my greeting cards, gifts and then there is an area to list the tasks needed to complete the last 6 weeks before Christmas! Right now, these lists are in 3 totally different areas of my house and I constantly lose track of them...I'd love to have them all in the same place!

The 'Household Projects' insert also excited me. The 'Cleaning Projects' page is an area where I could list all those things that I've been meaning to clean, but always forget because I never write them down. There is also a 'Home Improvement' area which would really come in handy when we work more on fixing up our house! It has places to list paint color, where to get it, the type (flat, satin, etc.) and is very comprehensive! Then there is the 'Maintenance Schedule', which also excited me! It lists the things that need to be done at different times of the year to keep everything in the home running efficiently and safely...for example cleaning the ventilation duct of the clothes dryer and clean/replace the furnace filter.


BUY IT: I could honestly go on and on with all the qualities that I LOVE about this planner, but I'll let you check it out for yourself (click on button below). The price of the planner starts at $55.99 and includes all the inserts listed in italics above, choice of charm and cover. Extra inserts vary in price from $2.95 to $45.00 (for the 9 month Daily calendar refill). Shipping is FREE for all orders over $75. I honesty feel all the pricing is very reasonable for what you are getting and how much I'm sure it will help keep life organized! :-)



In the end, I definitely think I'll forgo my $5 planners and invest in one of these "Mama Likes It Easy" planners in the near future! I already love how organized the planner could keep me now and with Morgan and Blake getting old enough to start in activities like Wednesday night youth programs at church, 4-H, Girl/Boy Scouts and T-ball, without a planner like this, I'm not sure how I'd ever stay organized!

Thank you to Carrie at "Mama Likes It Easy" planners for this review opportunity! :-)

*Disclosure: I was provided with this planner to review and return so I would be sure it was a product that I could stand behind before joining the Mama Likes It Easy Affiliate Program.

3 comments:

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Great review. Sounds like an awesome product.

Shauna said...

SWEET! Hope you'll come visit and follow me too :)
Shauna from http://www.trying2staycalm.com/

Alexis AKA MOM said...

OMGoodness those are so freaking awesome. I never use them anymore because I did get sick of the cheap ones that were more pain then what they were worth.

 
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