My old roommate swore I needed fancy pens for my journal, and she was dead wrong
Back in 2022 my roommate Dana kept pushing me to buy a $28 set of fineliners and a $45 notebook because she said cheap supplies would make my spreads look bad. I gave in and bought them, but within two months the expensive notebook's binding cracked and half the pages fell out. Meanwhile my $6 grid notebook from the grocery store in Tacoma has held up for over a year with zero issues. The pens were nice, but a plain ballpoint I stole from work writes just as well for my daily logs. Does anyone else think the bullet journal supply hype is mostly just marketing?
I went down the same path with fancy supplies and it was a total waste of money. Bought a pricey dotted notebook that fell apart in three months while a cheap one from Target lasted way longer. Now I just use whatever pens are lying around, mostly free ones from hotels, and my pages look fine. The whole thing is a hobby where people show off their stuff online, so of course the expensive gear gets pushed. A notebook is just paper and glue at the end of the day, and the cheap ones do that job just as well. Save your cash and spend it on something that actually matters.