2015: How much will you spend on tea this year?
Because someone had to!
I am going to be keeping myself on track with my tea spending this year. It would be great if some of my steepster peeps would come along for the ride!
Either add to your comment throughout the year, or add a new one for each month. Anyway you do it is fine! If anyone has a good budget spreadsheet they are using, share it if you can!
FYI – To make bold type face, do this but don’t leave spaces between the word and the *
*BOLD*…………………………………………….* BOLD *
I haven’t been good at all!
45 minutes into the new year and I placed an order at the tea guys for the last minutes of their sale.
Budget: $800
Actual: 513.67
Difference: $286.33
January
Tea Guys: $24.76
Tippy’s Tea: $33.37
Taiwan Tea Crafts: $40.80
Camellia Sinensis: $79.71
Butiki Teas: $164.40
Whispering Pines: $38.25
Teavana: $32.93
Min River Tea: $55.50
Ost’s Stash: $16.79
Misty Peak Teas: $27.16
UPDATE: Oops.
Update 2.0: Hopefully January will be my worst month, besides November. I mean, Butiki can only close once, right?
code didn’t work for me with tea guys and they never bothered responding to my email/message so i dodged that bullet lol
Is Tea Guys the company that has been having clearance/going out of business sales for the past year or so? With a Steepster person named Donovan?
Yeah I believe Donovan sold under the name Two Guys Tea, and they went out of business. He was just reselling Tea Guys teas though.
Hey, just a suggestion, maybe you should be 2015 in the title so people know it’s the right thread :)
I am glad to see this thread – I need to keep track this year. With a move happening in July or August, I need to pare down what I have and be discerning with what I purchase.
Budget: 600 (aim for 50 per month)
January – Total: 156.37
Butiki: 26.49
52Teas Subscription: 14.99
Shipping for tea from Cameron B.: 5.95
Butiki: 32.99
Shipping and tea from TheLastDodo: 5.95
Butiki (because I can’t control myself): 70.00
Holy cannoli. At least Butiki can’t close more than once?
I’m keeping a spending spreadsheet this year, because it’s just too dangerous to keep buying tea and not keeping track of how much I’m spending.
My plan is to cut way back from last year, though I will probably wait till Feb to set a budget so I can be realistic about what I will spend.
My spreadsheet has columns for date, company, CDN$, US$, and type. I always keep the CDN$ column filled in – if I order in US$ I’ll put in an estimate until I get my CC statement, but I need to not forget that the exchange rate sucks. Type is to note whether it was tea, tea ware or other stuff like funding a tea related Kickstarter.
Total: $260.71
January
Tippy’s Tea $26.40
Dachi Tea $16.49
LuxBerryTea $12.11
Cornelia Bean $25.60
DAVIDsTEA $5.06
Red Leaf Tea $87.51
Pretty Tea $16.99
eBay $13.03
Jan total: $203.19
March
Butiki puer $16.29
Dragon Tea House $41.23
Mar total: $57.52
Ohhhhh right – Kickstarter funding – that means I HAVE bought teaware this year – project funded, payment went through 03Jan15. I pledged in 2014 so wasn’t counting it. Ok – I need to get my spreadsheet started. I like your idea of having both US and CDA dollars to see the exchange.
Frigging exchange rate. I have (in the past) ordered on a particular date for a stronger exchange rate – and got charged a few days later when it was worse. I love living in Canada, but I am extremely opposed to spending in USD at the present. It’s too easy to under-guess what I’m spending if I forget to add 10-15% PLUS shipping. Grr!
It’s a juggling act – order from China usually free shipping but pay is US dollars (if teaware there is the possibility of duty – I haven’t payed any yet but feel like some of my order should have been charged). Order from US – pay in US dollars and usually lots of shipping. Order from Canada – pay in Canadain Dollars but usually lots of shipping and tax if it’s teaware. Hard to know what really is the cheapest way to go. Therefore I NEED to start tracking it and logging all the extra charges…
I always track USD and CAD spending, but with this y being as crappy as it’s supposed to be with teh USD, i am contemplating either converting funds NOW before it gets worse, or just calling a complete hiatus on USD purchases and try to get those teas through swaps or exchanges with us folks.
I intend to mostly stick to Teavivre for the next while. Their prices go up every year but I can order in CAD and see exactly what it’s going to cost me straight up. It also helps limit me – not that I am a big spender but still. I’ve been jonesing for these sweet new companies and Tea of the Month clubs but they aren’t practical for me right now. Buck up, dollar! :)
Oh good to know you can order in Canadian dollars from Teavivre. I keep forgetting that the exchange rate sucks so much, because it was pretty good for a long while there. But I really need to take it into consideration now.
If you get something with a gift card or reward points or something that doesn’t involve you spending your own real money, do you count it as a purchase or not, in your calculations & budget?
You can change the currency converter in the upper right corner. I remember that sometimes it would reset on me so just check once in a while so make sure you’re looking at our kind of money.
I just started considering a Teavivre restock order but they’re still out of black dragon pearls. Ahh! Maybe there will be a good Chinese New Year sale I can take advantage of. And maybe there will be some sort of black dragon pearl by then.
Not to derail this, but as far as other canadian companies go if you’re jonesing for a new company: Camelia Sinesis; Tao Leaf tea; Say Tea; Silk Road Tea (victoria); tea cupany, shanti tea; capital tea….. off the top of my head.
Haha. Enabler! I hate paying shipping, so shopping in Canada is usually pretty out. I also tend to only like unflavoured blacks of Chinese origin and ripe puerh. It’s a pretty specific set of tastes that Canadian companies rarely cater to. But thank you!!!
Tealux is one that Sil missed decent straight teas (my Favorite Jin Jun Mei)
http://www.tealux.ca/buy_loose_leaf_black_tea_store_online
Tao Tea Leaf has excellent black teas including my all time favorite.
http://www.taotealeaf.com/zhenghe-gongfu-black-tea-jin-ping-village/
Capital Tea Ltd had a large selection of straight teas – decent quality decent price – more everyday drinking teas…
https://www.capitaltea.com/shop/home.php?cat=6
So yes this is available in Canada…. :))
Anlina – You should set your budget however it works for you, but in my mind – if the money didn’t come out of my pocket it’s free so doesn’t count – re coupons, rewards points etc.
OMG the exchange rate suuuuuuuuuucks! I knew it sucked but I don’t think I fully realized how bad until I went and did a currency conversion on my latest purchase.
I couldn’t resist the clearance matcha and I had a gift card, so I still came out ahead on that purchase, but I think that’ll be my last tea purchase in US$ for quite a while now. It’d take a really exceptional sale to compensate for the crappy dollar.
yeah…that’s why a bunch of us are trying to focus on canadian compnies this year :(
I’ve been really good this month. The only money I’ve spent on tea was to send a gift to a friend. And soon I’ll be headed out of town to a place where there will be no tea shopping or internets.
YAY!!! Good Job!!!!
I BLEW any thoughts I might have had about a budget with my Mandala tea table splurge….. I need to be really good for awhile now….
I’m rather new to this site, but have been lurking for awhile and reading. Thought I would start with this topic.
Budget:$650.00
January
Amazon $48.85
Ebay: $54.84
Total$103.69
Not off to a good start. Oops!
Update: 1st 52 teas order $67.91
New Total: $171.60
Double Oops!!
Hahahaha xD “you just need a bigger budget” isnt that the point of a budget lol
Let’s try this again for 2015! I flopped after I went well over my budget last year.
Budget: $720 ($60 a month)
Jan 2015 – $99.50
White2Tea club, Aliexpress, Butiki
Feb 2015 – $209
White2tea club, white2tea group order, butiki tea and Crimson Lotus tea
Jan edit: Lol, I made a monthly budget and quickly added $30 to hit it.
Jan edit 2: and over budget lol.
Feb edit: well I’m almost halfway to my yearly budget. whoops.
Huh… This is a good idea. I just buy new teas at random, but I do have a subscription here. That’s $300 a year? Doesn’t seem too bad, but I haven’t actually tried many of the teas. I spent about $70 this month at Whispering Pines, and I was considering buying something from Butiki, but I don’t generally buy that much every month… Though, I think I spent way more on tea last year than I remember… What I need to worry about more than anything is having enough space for the tea that I buy. Anyway, I think if I keep the subscription, then I can spend $300 more on tea comfortably. If I drop it, then I can double my tea expenditure, and if I adequately decrease the number of teas in my closet, then I can upgrade my budget accordingly. Maybe $100 for every pound of tea that I consume? So this would give me $50 per month/ $25 after Steepster Select.
If you take part in tea swaps and/or traveling tea boxes, do you guys factor the cost into your tea budgets?
I really need a plan to keep me on track this year… spent WAAAY too much last year and really should be on tea buying hiatus but being realistic I’d be more likely to stick to a budget…
Jan Update
Oh boy…. Looks like a budget adjustment is in my near future… I might just be working to support my tea addiction at this point!!
Feb Update
Budget: $1000 (USD)
*Total as of Feb 1: $514.14
January
Lupicia: $65.50
Kickstarter: $14
Butiki: $318.40
London Tea Club: $18.74
Whispering Pines: $97.50
January Total: $514.14
I keep forgetting that it’s only the 5th of January. I was about to tell you that you’re right on track if that’s all you spend in January. Haha!
You can console yourself with the knowledge that tea buying (and sales) go in spurts. November – February has a lot of sales and therefore a lot of purchases but it dries up a bit after that.
LOL! I’m just super lucky my two Yunnan Sourcing orders and a Whispering Pines order fell into December… I have a problem… but its a such a super delicious problem!! :)
I normally buy teas at random but since I’ve been drinking a lot more tea lately (all I drink now) I think I need a budget this year or I’ll go overboard ;)
My budget is $600 ($50 a month)- haven’t spent any yet but that’s just because I used all my Christmas money on tea and teaware.
I use YNAB as my budgeting app… Love it
I’m not giving myself a budget, but I am going to track my online tea purchases. I’m already cringing at what the total will be. :/
i did that in 2014…i mean i had a fake budget that i knew i’d never meet…but it was mostly just to track and see what i was spending…so that in future years i’d be able to actually budget with a hope of actually sticking to it. :)
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