Question about keeping a farm journal in Stardew, my sister laughed at me and now I get it
I started writing down the crops I planted and the days I watered them on a little notepad next to my keyboard, just a cheap spiral thing from the drugstore. My older sister saw it two weeks ago and said I was doing homework for a video game, which stung a bit, and I stopped for a few days. Then spring came around in my second save file and I could not remember which plots had which seeds, so I went back to the notepad out of pure frustration. What convinced me was listening to a streamer named Wren on Twitch, she said her whole farm layout got easier once she started a simple grid on paper because she stopped wasting gold on seeds she already had. I tried a basic grid for one season and my gold went from around 4,000 to a little over 9,000, mostly because I quit guessing what was ready to harvest. Now I keep the journal on purpose and I even draw tiny squares for the sprinklers. Does anyone else keep notes on paper, or do you just use the in-game menus and hope for the best?
Pretty sure the gold jump came from something else, the notepad helps with planning but it doesn't magically double your money. More likely you just hit a better season or sold a bigger haul around the same time. Still, keeping notes definitely cuts down on dumb mistakes, I do the same with a whiteboard for my greenhouse.