Why I Stopped Buying Cheap Notebooks for My Team (And Why You Should Too)

I used to think buying in bulk from the cheapest supplier was smart procurement.

I was wrong. Dead wrong. And it cost my team over $800 before I figured it out.

In my first year handling office supply orders (2019), I bought 200 budget notebooks from a discount vendor. They looked fine online. The price per unit was unbeatable. My boss praised the cost savings. Then the notebooks arrived, and the real cost appeared.

Let me explain why I now only order Leuchtturm1917 notebooks for my team, and why the sticker shock is worth it.

The Reality: Sticker Price vs. TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

From the outside, ordering notebooks is simple. You find the cheapest, you click buy, you move on. The reality is that the lowest quote often hides the highest total cost. Here's my experience.

The $800 Mistake

That first order of 200 notebooks: $250 for the units, $45 shipping. Seemed great.

Then:

• 30% had misaligned pages. Back they went.
• 5% had covers peeling on delivery. More returns.
• 3% were the wrong color entirely. (How? I still don't know.)
• I spent six hours managing the return process, filing claims, and reordering.

The replacement order (same cheap vendor) arrived with different problems. The total time wasted? About 12 hours. The total money down the drain? $380, including return shipping and restocking fees my company ate. Plus the original $250 spent on waste.

That's $630 out-of-pocket, plus frustration, plus a meeting where I had to explain to the team why their 'new' notebooks were a disaster.

Never expected a budget notebook to cause so much pain. Turns out the cheapest option is often the most expensive.

Leuchtturm1917: The 'Expensive' Option That Saved Our Budget

After that fiasco, I tested a single Leuchtturm1917 notebook. The A5 Hardcover in the classic dotted grid. Price: $24.95, plus shipping for one unit. Around $30 all-in.

I handed it to a designer. She used it for a month. No issues. Ordered five more. No issues. Six months later, not a single return, complaint, or missing page. The team started requesting them.

Let's do the TCO math:

• Budget notebook (per unit): $1.25 (purchase) + $0.40 (shipping) + $0.65 (estimated returns cost per unit) = $2.30
• Leuchtturm1917 (per unit): $24.95 (purchase) + $2.00 (shipping in bulk) + $0 (returns cost) = $26.95

On the surface, still 12x more expensive. But consider this: the Leuchtturm notebook lasts my team for 6 months, whereas the cheap one was often ditched in 3 months because the pages fell out or the binding cracked. So the cost per month? $4.49 for budget vs. $4.49 for Leuchtturm. Same. And the Leuchtturm has a table of contents, page numbers, a pocket, and it looks like we're serious.

Hidden Savings Nobody Talks About

• Zero management time: I don't chase returns. No time wasted.
• Improved workflow: My notes stay organized. I find information fast. The 251 numbered pages and table of contents? I use them daily.
• Professional impression: Handing a client a Leuchtturm notebook during a meeting? Looks good. Feels good. Builds trust.

The surprise wasn't the price difference. It was how much hidden value came with the 'expensive' option—consistent quality, no wasted time, and actual pride in my tools.

But What About the 'Cost Per Page' Argument?

I know what you're thinking: "I need 200 notebooks. Leuchtturm would cost me $5,000 vs. $250."

Fair point. Let me push back.

If you are buying 200 notebooks for a one-time event, maybe budget works. But if you're equipping a team of 10, these notebooks replace themselves over 12-18 months. The durable ones last longer. The cheap ones don't. So you reorder the cheap ones again and again. Each time, the TCO climbs.

Also consider: what is the cost of losing a critical idea because your notebook fell apart? Or the cost of a team member missing a deadline because their notes were scattered across 5 broken notebooks? That's real money.

I'd argue that for any professional team that relies on handwritten notes for more than 6 months, the Leuchtturm1917 is the cheaper option.

My Final Take

Stop looking at the price tag. Start calculating the total cost.

I made a $630 mistake to learn this. Don't be me. Order a Leuchtturm1917 for yourself, test it for three months, and then decide. I'd bet you'll never go back. (Though I might be misremembering the exact numbers on the cheap order—it's been a few years—but the lessons are burned in.)

If you ask me, the best procurement decision you can make for your team's creativity and sanity is to invest in a tool that works. Leuchtturm1917 works. Period.