Thursday, October 29, 2015

FREE 2016 Printable Planner


I first created this printable planner for August 2014 - July 2015 and it was so popular that people requested pages for August 2015 - December 2015. Since then, I have had additional requests for a 2016 Calendar. I had hoped to make this available sooner but I switched software programs which made updating the planner more complicated. Then my son had some health issues that required surgery and pushed me into a long blogging hiatus. Now life is returning to our new "normal" and I am back to blogging. Better late than never, right? Anyway, here are updated calendar pages for 2016! Sometime soon I hope to share some pages that allow you to enter the dates yourself so that you can continue to use this calendar even if I am not able to update it for subsequent years. 


All of these pages are sized to fit a standard 3-ring binder. I love having my planner in a binder because I can change things around if the layout isn't working for me (which I have already done a few times) and I can include flyers from school and sports schedules.

TO PRINT:
Under each category heading there are links to the pdf file for the different layout options. Click on the one that you want to use and there should be a little printed icon at the top for you to print it out!

COVER & SPINE

If you choose to use a plain binder with clear cover sleeves, here is a colorful cover and spine to make your planner more fun and easy to spot.


2016-2017 Yearly Calendar

Monthly Calendar
The monthly calendar has several lines for each day, national observed holidays marked, and a space for notes.

   

January 2016 - December 2016

Weekly Planner
The weekly planner is available in either a one page or two page format. The one page layout has spots to write details about each day. The two page layout has the daily planner PLUS a spot for notes, goals, daily meal plans, and mini monthly calendars for the previous, current, and next month.
   


To-Do Lists
The cleaning schedule has basic cleaning tasks plus daily tasks to make sure that each room gets a deep clean every week. There is a basic to-do list to write down all of your tasks. Or you can use categorized to-do list to split jobs into: household, blog posts, church, and misc.


Monthly Menu Planner
The monthly menu planner lists the produce that should be in season along with items that typically go on sale that month so you can plan your menu around what is freshest and cheapest. You can print a different one off for each week or you can plan on making enough of each item for four meals and freeze the extras for later in the month. Once you know what you are going to make, there is a spot to jot down all of the ingredients that you will need.

Food Inventory
To make sure that you have enough items on hand or to make sure you don't buy something you don't need, you can easily keep track of all of your food and personal use items with these inventory sheets that are broken down into categories. There is also a spot for expiration dates so that nothing goes to waste.


Bill Paying Checklist
To make sure none of your bills are past due, keep track of them with this simple checklist. Write the name of the company and the day of the month that the bill is typically due. Each month with the bill arrives write down the exact amount owed then place a check mark next to it once it is paid. This will also show you at a glance if your typical fees are going up. If you want, you can even add a pocket file to hold all of your unpaid bills so that everything is in one spot.

My Planner:


After using my planner for a couple of weeks, I found the layout that works best for me. I used divider tabs for each main category with post-it index tabs for each sub-category. 

My binder arrangement:
  • Zippered Pencil Pouch - this holds a pencil, eraser, various colored pens, a highlighter, and small post-its. 
  • Yearly Calendar
  • Monthly Calendar - first the Monthly Vertical Calendar and after each month instead of using the weekly planner, I decided to add a Categorized To-Do List and just jot down all of the unscheduled tasks that I need to complete that month. 
  • Bill Paying Checklist - at first I added a binder pocket with velcro flap to hold all of the bills that need to be paid but I like to take my binder with me when I go out and I didn't want to carry all of those details around with me. I also have a log to track all of our spending so I can see where all of our un-billed expenses. I might make up a printable for this later if people are interested in it.
  • Meal Planning - this section starts with the FDA's food storage safety chart so I can remember which foods are still safe to eat. After that, I have my food inventories for the: freezerfridge, and pantry. Then my monthly meal planner (you could also put this with your monthly calendar if you want to sort it that way). I also included a list of all of my recipes categories by main ingredient so if something is on sale I can find different ideas for how to prepare it. Lastly, this section includes my garden plans.
  • Blogging - since I ended up including the blog posts to write in my monthly to-do list, this section just includes notes about future blog posts and additional ideas. I also printed out a document that lists all of the fonts that I have on my computer so when I am wanting to design a printable or something I can look and see which fonts would work best for the look that I am going for.
  • School Papers - I use this section to keep information flyers sent home from school, soccer game schedules, etc. If something has a due date (like fundraisers that are do, class parties,etc.) I can also move it to that particular month so that I remember that it needs to be dealt with right away.
  • Notes - the last section in my binder is for notes. I can print out the note page or just add some loose leaf paper to jot down miscellaneous information.

That's all I have in mine for now. What do you have in your planner? If you have any more ideas to help the rest of us get organized, we would love to hear about them!

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8 comments:

Tracy said...

So glad you're back and I so needed this!

Bobbye said...

Thanks for this planner. It will be so useful. Would you please make the cover downloadable? It won't download or let me copy and paste.
Bobbye

Robbiegirl said...

Nice! Do you have a version where the week starts on Monday? My week definitely doesn't start on Sunday!

Megan @ PolishTheStars.com said...

Bobbye - They should be fixed now.

Robbiegirl - The weekly calendar with the one page layout starts on Monday.

Bobbye said...

I just checked and permission to download the cover is still denied. My binder will look good for about 2 months them notes that I won't be able to read the next week will be appearing all over. LOL

Anonymous said...

Bobbye - Sorry, I think I finally found the issue. If it still doesn't work, just send me your email address and I can send you the file. :)

Bobbye said...

It worked. Thank you so much. I just realized that even though I could not copy and paste the whole page, I could have clipped a part of it and centered it on a cover page. Thanks again for doing this for us and I hope things on your end stay on an even keel from now on. Maybe the rough days are behind.

That Girl said...

So glad to see this! I'm glad you are back to posting. :)