Five Ways to Afford Planner Pretties

One of the things that is most overwhelming with the planner craze is how much STUFF there is available. You want it all, but how do you afford it? Here are 5 ways I keep my accessory budget to a minimum:

1. Use your craft store coupons.
    Stack them if you can. Wait for the 25% off including sale items if you want to buy a lot,         or just go often and use the 40% off coupons. Installing the phone apps makes this easy,     and I've seen up to 55% off offers.

2. Ask for things for birthday/Christmas presents. 
    Make sure people know to use the craft store coupons here as well, or just ask for gift           cards to your favorite craft store!

3. Three words: Target Dollar Spot
    You can find all sorts of stationery items, pens, stickers, sticky notes and some really             awesome washi tape among other things for $1-$3.

4. Swap groups
    Search Facebook for private groups that swap supplies. I am part of a washi swap group       and a planner supply swap group. It's a lot of fun to get 'happy mail' and I've met some         really awesome people. 

That moment you realize you have enough washi to sort it by color :)

5. Reward sites

    There are several reward sites out there; I personally use Swagbucks (yes, that is a referral          link). If I really put the time in, I can earn $25 a month in points. Typically though, I earn

    $5-$10 a month, mostly from using it as my search engine. Searches will randomly award     you with Swag Bucks in varying amounts.I also answer the Daily Poll, watch Sponsored       Videos (I'll admit I mute these), and sometimes play the Swag Games. Shopping online at           certain sites will also earn points. You can earn bonuses for meeting goals each day. You     then redeem your Swag Bucks for gift cards, the most popular being Amazon, Visa gift         cards (to be used online only - buy an Etsy gift card with it!), or a PayPal deposit (your           Swagbucks email must match that of your PayPal account). I love saving up for a little           guilt-free shopping spree!

Look for the guy with the laptop for some easy Swag Bucks - often it will let you go through multiple times!

BONUS: I save a lot of money on planner supplies by not buying things I have found I don't really use. For me, this means sticky notes. I have a dashboard with some sticky notes, but I don't use many of the page flags or larger notes, so no matter how pretty they are, I don't buy them! 

Hopefully I have shared at least one new way to maximize your planner pretties budget - comment below to share YOUR tips!