Confessions of a stationery addict: Best Buys

I am Rupa and I am a stationery addict. I guess I am an addict with a twist. I am a thrifty stationery addict. Over the years I have learned to balance out needs, wants, space and dust settling on unused items!

Buying new stationery is the quickest way for me to restart or reboot. Using different colours helps me sort my thoughts and cross reference things. E.g. I always write my to-do list in purple; my accomplished list in dark blue; new ideas in green; extremely important things in red and so on. Using coloured pens to write subject notes in my school and college days made studying an enjoyable activity for me. I remember one of my friends telling my “ Rupa can you please write only in black, it’s easier to photocopy.” Ha!

For years I searched for a good complete set of coloured ball point pens. Somehow I can’t have my set of pens spread across brands. All colours need to be from the same set. I know it sounds weird to many and I also know I have spoken exactly what some had in their mind.  I have observed that with most brands the dark colours work well and the light colours are just too light and do not come on smoothly.

I had to buy a glue stick few months ago and I absolutely love it when I run out of such important things…it’s time for stationery shopping. I went to my local stationery store – nothing fancy about this guy but I love his shop. It has multiple sized note-books stacked, a variety of pens & pencils arranged for viewing, courier envelopes stacked, files and paper sheets stacked – there is something about a stationery shop, I don’t know what it is. I simply love visiting one.

There in the corner, my eyes met with a set of 10 colour ball point pens. I had to try them. I told the shopkeeper I want to try these and I want to try the lime, the orange and the turquoise blue colour. Only then I would buy the entire set. He told me upfront, these are the best quality. They really were. Smooth and not breaking colour as I wrote the word “calligraphy”. Now I was hesitant to ask the price but I did. I knew I would buy them anyway but I just feel happy when things are in a certain price range. To my surprise these lovely set of coloured pens was for just INR 50. I was super elated – talk about value for money huh! I am using these pens with no complaints to date.

A complete set of ball point pens and gel pens
Now that’s what I call a complete set! It makes my heart sing 🙂

I have another problem. I need matching ink/gel pens. I can’t have ball point pens with no matching ink or gel pens. It’s just too harsh for my system. I requested the shopkeeper to show me a reasonably priced set in ink or gel pens too. He showed me a Luxor set for INR 100. My joy knew no boundaries.

Matching ink pens and ball point pens in same 10 colours! I walked back from the shop with the biggest smile. I already had new notebooks waiting for me (I will talk about these some other day!) I was ready to start afresh with new notebooks and new pens.

My current stationery pen stash
My current stationery pen stash

And yes.. I did not forget the glue stick I was supposed to buy!

I am happy to share that these pens are available on Amazon too.

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