Around the start of the summer, I reviewed the School Year Calendar at KTwo Products, and now, on the cusp of the new term, it’s back, and for PlayPennies readers, there’s 50% off, making it just £5, all inclusive.

Have an organised start to the school year

• Discount: 50%
• Expires: 6 September 2012
• Discount Code: PLAYSCHOOL50

So, this calendar is normally £12.99, but it’s currently on offer anyway for £9.99. Take 50% off and it lowers the cost by an additional £4.99 to £5, and includes free delivery too.

What makes this a worthy purchase?

The calendar runs from August 2012 to August 2013 and has five columns on each page for up to five family members. There’s also a sixth column for birthdays . The school year calendar has no pictures, but instead has funky shapes and background colours. Each month’s ‘page’ has a pouch for keeping bits of paper, receipts, vouchers, notes, or invitations. Below the calendar there’s a sticky note pad, which is useful for shopping lists and reminders.

It also comes with a selection of ready-made stickers with things like ‘term starts’ and ‘term ends’ written on them. Other stickers include ‘School Photos’, ‘School Trip’, ‘School Event’ and ‘No School’ as well as dots in five colours for repeat events – like weekly rugby games in the example picture. Finally, there are stars and ‘black out’ strips for weeks of holidays or special events, or whatever you need it for.

KTwo has a special offer on their Union Jack Recipe File, which, as you can imagine with the Jubilee and the Olympics has been a best seller this year. Normally costing £14.99 they've taken £2 off making it £12.99, and it qualifies for free shipping.

• Set your recipes apart

I must admit that I barely cook from paper recipes anymore and most everything is stored neatly (or not so neatly) and backed up (or not!) on my computer, but I know there are many who still do. My gran says it just makes the recipe taste better!

The Recipe File is perfect for storing favourite magazine clippings and loose hand-written recipes. Up to 90 recipes can be stored in 45 separate pockets and the flip top binding and six movable index cards are designed to make recipes easy to find. You can also buy 20 page refill packs if you run out of space.

There are also great practical features for using the file in the kitchen: the built-in stand allows easy reference when cooking and the wipe-clean laminated cover and pockets keeps everything clean - which is a definite pro on using the laptop in the kitchen. I can't tell you how many times I've had to clean flour and other baking remnants off my poor keypad!

The Recipe File won Gift of the Year (stationery products) in 2004 and remains as a popular item which is available at this price until the end of July.

I’m a bit nerdy, sometimes, and I  love planning and organising – it’s just following through I’m not always so great at.  That’s one of the reasons I love the KTwo products and specifically the School Year calendar.

The calendar runs from August 2012 to August 2013 and has five columns on each page for up to five family members. This is great for keeping track of where everyone is or what special occasions are coming up for each child. There’s also a sixth column for birthdays , which is fab, because I always forget to look at the birthday calendar, despite it hanging right by the front door!

The school year calendar has no pictures, but instead has funky shapes and background colours –but I suppose if you wanted to, you could paste postcard sized photos on each page… it could be a fun summer activity.

Each month’s ‘page’ has a pouch for keeping bits of paper, receipts, vouchers, notes,  or invitations. This pretty much replaces the messy magnet stash on my fridge!

Below the calendar there’s a sticky note pad, which is useful for shopping lists and reminders.

There’s another really useful addition to this calendar: stickers. It comes with a selection of ready made stickers with things like ‘term starts’ and ‘term ends’ written on them.  Other stickers include ‘School Photos’, ‘School Trip’, ‘School Event’  and ‘No School’ as well as dots in five colours for repeat events – like weekly rugby games in the example picture. Finally, there are stars and ‘black out’ strips for weeks of holidays or special events, or whatever you need it for, really!

Having not used it for a year yet, I can’t say what specific problems there may be with it, but the only thing I can think of is that there may not be enough stickers for three school aged children, but I’m not sure about that.

Honestly, I love the School Year Calendar from KTwo Products. I think it’s  a great idea!

I am so excited about the Childhood Memories book (£19.99) from KTwo Products, I can’t tell you! I had something very similar to this, growing up, although it wasn’t remotely as snazzy. It was called an I Am Me book and from pre-school to high school my dad would complete the details for me. A few weeks ago my mum and I were having a disagreement about something from my 2^nd year at school, and out came the I Am Me book. The argument was soon forgotten as it turned into a stroll down memory lane.

The Childhood Memories book is beautiful. It looks like a photo album, and covers eight years of your child’s life. The first page has space for a photograph and personal information, and the last page has space for special photographs.

Each page between has space for a photograph, school information, such as friend’s name, teacher’s name, favourite foods and so on. There’s space for noting down how your child has grown in terms of height and shoe size, and lines for clubs, achievements and awards, and what the child wants to grow up to be.

If there are any negatives here, it’s that there’s too much information and not enough space to fully write everything down. For example there are only two lines for ‘funny things I’ve said or done’. It doesn’t give much room for background, and you know me… I’m all about setting the scene!

The awesomeness of this book, however is in the pocket space provided with each page. It has room for quite a few pages of art, school report cards, love letters or whatever else you want to store for those conversations, years from now, when you’re visiting your grandchildren and want a gorgeous afternoon reliving the past with your own babies.

I’m a bit gutted really – I’ve been telling my husband for years that I want to produce something like this, but KTwo have beaten me to it, and I’ll be buying a second one for my second little girl soon.

It’s coming up for the long weeks of summer holidays again, and while we certainly don’t want to wish those away, getting ready for back to school well before the time will mean you can put it all out your mind till the day before, basically!

With that in minda, KTWO have offered PlayPennies readers a fabulous discount on their School Year Calendar, with a quarter off the original price.

Prepare for an organised year ahead with the school year calendar

• Discount: 25%
• Expires: 31 July 2012
• Discount Code: PPSYC25

With this code the calendar, which normally costs £12.99, is reduced to £9.74.

The problem with that is that it is then less than the free postage limit, meaning that if you buy the School Year Calendar on its own, adding £2.15 for postage brings you to £11.90 – which is still over £1 off.

You could, however, look at getting something else off the site, like the Baby Notes book for £1.99. If you do that, you’ll pay £11.73 – not much difference, but at least you’re getting something for it, rather than spending it on postage.

Of course there are plenty other brilliant things from KTwo you could buy and still get 25% off the calendar.

We've all seen and probably owned a baby record book, but once baby stops being a baby, there's not much on the market to help you record their growing up years. But KTwo products have brought out just such a book, and it is beautiful.  KTwo have offered PlayPennies readers an exclusive discount on this book: The normal cost is £19.99 but with the code below, you’ll receive 30% off the price, making it £13.99 – and since postage is free for orders over £10, that’s an added bonus.

Save your child’s school memories in one neat space

• Discount: 30%
• Expires: 31 May 2012
• Discount Code: PPCM30

The Childhood Memories book is the perfect gift for someone starting school. It spans eight years, so you can record all the details of these early years and have somewhere to save favourite pictures, little notes, birthday cards, report cards and everything else you might want to keep for posterity.

Available in pink and blue, the spines can be personalised with a sticker for your child’s name and pretty bow and insert make it look like a book or a box. It is really ingeniously done and so beautiful. I have something similar, though nowhere near as pretty, from my own childhood and every now and then I pull it out to check the details of something or just to wander down memory lane.

I have one of these for my daughter and will be buying another for my baby, in time. Working on PlayPennies, I can sometimes become blasé about special offers and great products, but this one still excites me and has done every time I’ve looked at it.

Is there a better time of year to get organised than January? The nights are long, it’s cold and sitting on the sofa sorting through paper work is almost appealing. KTwo Products can help you with their solutions for getting organised.

See where you can set your records straight

• Discount: 10% and FREE POSTAGE (UK Mainland)
• Valid on: Everything
• Expires: 31 January 2012
• Discount code: PLAY1

I really love the stuff at KTwo Products. I think they just have brilliant ideas and even a disorganised person like me can find some order in the chaos.

KTwo bestsellers include the Birthday Card Book, which is great if you want to return to the art of sending cards rather than relying on Facebook or text. This is £9.99 normally, but £8.99 for you – and where you’re really saving is the postage of £5.95.

There’s also a very useful School Year Calendar with which you can keep track of what the whole family are up to, with deep pockets in each month’s slot for keeping extra information, flyers and so on. It also comes with a tear off note pad and stickers to help you plan. The calendar has a column for birthday reminders and runs from August to August to keep in line with the academic year.

There are plenty options to suit your and your family’s needs at KTwo Products.

KTwo are quickly becoming favourites here at PlayPennies, and with a 20% off offer, that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Organise your life and your Christmas with 20% off

• Discount: 20%
• Applies to: Everything
• Promotional Code: PLAY20
• Expires: 16 December 2011

Looking at Christmas gifts, there are plenty of great options to choose from at KTwo :

For someone going off travelling?  How about the Travel Gift Set, a leather travel wallet for carrying passports, travel documents, driving licences etc and a handy book inside which has space for itineraries, note taking, space for photos and pull out world map etc.  Reduced from £33.98 to £27, it’s now just £21.60 for PlayPennies readers.

Hoping to your home more organised? The Home Organiser Set could help, with the  Insurance Document File to keep all your essential household documents together, the Personal Document File which will keep all your important certificates safe and our Receipt Storage Book to keep all your 'must keep' receipts in one place. This was £35.97, but is reduced to £24.98 and for you is just £19.98.

If you’re only after a little stocking filler, or something small for a colleague, you’ll find items like the Magnetic Notepads from £3.99 (or £3.19 with the promotional code) to To Do Notes with Pen Holder for £7.99 (£6.39).

How organised are you? My 'daily planner' is the side of a bookshelf on which I tack (with bits of  sellotape) scraps of paper with scribbled notes on appointments and events. Not particularly organised!

Which is odd really as I have a huge stationery fetish. I think that is why I am lacking any proper organisers or calendars because I don't trust myself to step into Paperchase, Rymans or even WH Smiths. Not because I'll spend more than I should but because of the huge amount of time it'll take to browse lovingly through all those shelves of lovely lovely stationery.

Beautiful Stationery

The KTWO Products website is more comforting than eating a whole bar of chocolate. I could just curl up on the sofa on a rainy night, with a snuggly blanket and my laptop, and happily browse this site for hours. Which is actually what I did this evening thanks to the wonderful British summer weather we've had this week.

KTWO Products let us know that most of their customers are busy mums. So we got a couple of their items to review and find out just how useful they might be. The company is based in Edinburgh and describes itself as a "specialist in files, calendars and journals, which aim to bring stylish organisation and calm to busy lives."

Canny Calendars

We recieved a School Calendar (£12.99) and a Family Calendar (£9.99). I gave them to Playpennies mum of one, Tamsin, to try out. They are also giving Playpennies readers a 20% discount. I wrote about that yesterday - to find out more click here.

"I got the 2011 family calendar that comes with pockets for each month to put bills and cards and stuff in (SO useful) and the school calendar that runs from August 2010 to July 2011 and has loads of brilliant stuff in it." says Tamsin.

"It has a notepad, stickers (both in cute little carry boxes on the front, space for five people to write notes/birthdays/reminders, colour coded stickers."

The School Calendar has space for up to five family members to record appoinments and events.  The calendar runs from August to July to keep in line with the academic year. The Family Calendar also has space for up to five family members, along with a deep pocket for each month for keeping little bits of extra stuff close to hand. In addition, there's space to help you remember recycling dates, add in useful phone numbers, and a calendar and notes section for 2012.

Did Tamsin find them useful? As she told us "these are brilliant, I think, because of my space constraints at home. The only downy I have with them is that they can’t stick on my fridge. "

The Full Range

I was intrigued to see, in the Best Selling section, a Takeaway Menu Organiser. I know that when my two step children were still at home, I would always have a pile of pamphlets from pizza deliveries, chinese takeaways and indian restaurants. However, I'd never thought of getting a special organiser just for those. It might be nice to have a file specially designed for takeaway menus, but I would have to ask myself if I would really use it. And I probably wouldn't. I could imagine best intentions followed by never taking it out again and just jamming the menus in the corner of the cubboard as I do at the moment.

But that doesn't matter, because I'm sure that there's plenty of people out there for whom it is the perfect product. It would be heaven for anyone who loves being organised. There's an organiser, planner or calendar that covers everything I can think of and a few I didn't!

And Finally

Having liked the look of it on the website, and after Tamsin's glowing endorsement, I've actually bought one of the Family Calendars myself. That doesn't happen to often actually. Since joining the Playpennies family, and getting into the ethos of this site, I limit myself now to buying only the things that I really, actually need. After all, even if something is on sale at half price, it isn't a bargain if you weren't going to buy it in the first place!

KTWO Products is an online retailer that specialises in organisers. They've given PlayPennies an exclusive code to use, which will give you a 20% discount.

Click here to get your Back to School organiser from KTWO

• Discount: 20%
• Promotional Code: PP20
• Minimum Spend: £0.00

If you're looking for a new calendar or organiser, then I would hope you'll be checking in here first. That way you'll be able to benefit from any discounts, sales or voucher codes that might be available. That is, after all, what our canny PlayPennies parents are about - making sure every penny counts.

The Family calenders and organisers, and the School books, are specially designed to meet the need of, well, families and those with kid in the education system. These are definitely beautifully designed products, and highly desirable. An organiser or calender is something you are likely to be using everyday so it helps, I think, to have something that is beautiful to look at as well as functional to use.

That said, the prices on this site aren't that cheap. However, I would imagine the quality would justify the price tag - you can find out if you tune in on Wednesday as we'll be reviewing the Family Calendar and the School Calendar. Plus, with a 20% discount on the price, they could make nice little presents.