2015: How much will you spend on tea this year?

So far…
Jan: 178.80
Feb: 3.80
Mar: 34.44
Apr: 0
May: 240
Jun: 20

Ttl: 477.04

Pretty good so far; however, i’m looking at a pot from Mandala and Yunnan sourcing as well as some cakes from white2tea…have managed to resist so far, so I think i’m doing ok.

April marks the first time that I haven’t made any tea purchases since starting my tea journey back in 2012!

Last year at this time I had spent 651.46.

In 2014, I spent roughly: 1320.42 USD 320.18 CAD which is about 135 a month. So i’m going to half that and aim for 75$ a month (900 over the year) at the most since I have a wedding to save for this year, and our travelling on top of that.

January – 465.51 USD 124.37CAD (includes stacy teas)
February – 29.94 USD
March – 102.42 USD 4.70CAD
April – 0
May – 7.60 Cad (plus a paris trip!)
June – 4.48 CAD 20.00 USD
July – 16.30 CAD 30.00 USD
August – 14.75 CAD
September – 21.00 CAD 30.00 USD
October – 3.90 CAD 201.85 USD
Nov – 9.11 CAD

December Update
Bellocq – 98.29 USD
August Uncommon – 23.00 USD

Running Total 2015 – 1039.61 USD 206.21 CAD

Since I’m relatively new to ordering online and my cupboard is still small, I’m sorely tempted to BUY ALL THE TEAS! I’m paid pennies, though, so I have a teeny tiny budget of $20 a month.
BUDGET- 240
January- 0 (big order happened in December)
February- 22.50
>Harney & Sons- 17.50
>Verdant Tea 5-for-5 samples- 5.00
March- 67.06
>Mandala Tea- 10.00
>Tea Licious samples- 13.95
>Green Terrace Tea Samples- 22.90
>Dammann Freres joint order- 20.21
April- 49.33
>Verdant preorder- 21.83
>52 teas kickstarter- 15.00
>Den’s tea sampler- 3.00
>The Persimmon Tree sale teas- 9.50
>Travel Gaiwan- 18.00
May- 47.36
>Stash Sales: 25.00
>Verdant Samples: 9.75
>Verdant Preorder: 12.61
June- 15.00
>Stash Sales: 25.00
>Teaware from Aliexpress shop Service First: 10.00
>Fatfat Horse Tea Pet: 23.50
>Tea strainer from Dragon Tea House: 7.00
July- 58.00
>52 Teas: 11.00
>Whispering Pines (gah! Rivendell! It was inevitable!): 27.00
>Tea Ave (Free shipping and the exchange rate=perfect storm!): 20.00
August- 10.50
>Share of TeaNTees’ horde: 10.50
September- 0.00!!
October- 0.00!
November (oh, it’s going to be so bad!)- $73.46, $60.61 Teaware
>matcha bowl, ebay: $30
>matcha share, Oolong Owl:- $13
>aliexpress 11.11 sale (chasen, gaiwan, pot brush): $24.11
>Tea from Vietnam Thanksgiving sale (four oolongs): $25.67
>The Finest Brew Cyber Monday Sale: $11.50
>Verdant tea Black Friday weekend sale: $19.50 (6.50 teaware)
>Liquid Proust Teas: $10.29
Runnning Total – 353.21 + 129.11 (teaware)
Pretty good so far, but I am patiently awaiting the spring pickings from several companies, so we will see…
EDIT: My gosh… I may just have to give up on my budget… or cut myself off! Also, I could not resist getting a variable temp for my home since The Persimmon Tree had 50% off the utiliTea kettle (so add another 30 bucks, if that counts!)
EDIT 2: Yup. I’m one order away from my budget for the year… Can you blame a girl for trying to get started in the tea world?
EDIT 3: That’s it. I’m cut off until Fall!
EDIT 4: I did real good until my birthday (chawan), which happens to be in the same month as the 11.11 sale, AND black friday/cyber monday…. Lordy, lordy, I spent half of what I spent the rest of the year, JUST on November! SO it looks like my budget stabilized at about $30 a month for tea, and $10 a month for teaware! I will probably make it to $500 total by the end of the year (and I’ve already spent double my budget!). Oy.

Ok, I’ll play. I don’t have a budget set and don’t intend to set one, but it will be fun for me to see the total.

January:
$30 YS club
$28.99 Butiki
$17.23 Butiki

February:
$30 YS club
$70 Davids Tea (two travel mugs)

March:
$100 Nina’s of Paris
$28 T2
$35 Kusmi
$35 Lupicia
$25 Ruelala/Tattletea
$117 Dammann Freres
$27 Ettetea

April
$23.55 Tippy’s
$30 YS club
$20 Liquid Proust box
$57 Christine Dattner
$45 Dammann Freres
$7 52 Teas
$36 Tea Gschwendner
$25 Kusmi
? Bluebird
? Mountain Witch

January: $76.22
February: $100
March: $367
April: $243.55+

Running total: $786.77

I officially give up tracking.

Here’s mine so far:

January – total 201.25 (138.75 tea – 62.50 teaware)
Yunomi – 104.44
Whispering Pines – 55.42
Tealux – 15.00
Aliexpress – Han Ecological Tea – 26.39

February – total – 194.88 (Tea – 76.59 , Teaware – 118.29)
Ebay Royal Tea Bay – 32.96
Ebay Street Shop 88 – 43.63
Aliexpress – Shenzhen – 38.85
Aliexpress – Tea8 – 17.49
Aliexpress – Weiliang Zheng – 61.95

March – so far… Total – 89.59 (all tea)
TeaAve – 78.36
Ebay Street Shop 88 – 11.23

Total so far – 485.71 of which 180.79 is teaware. My excuse is I really needed some teaware after seeing all the nice things everyone on Steepster has. ha ha My budges WAS 600 but we are only halfway into March . I plan on getting some of Yunomi’s spring teas but so far not planning any major purchases other than that.

Before getting into tea business I was used to spend about $1000 a year without being able to drink half of it: bad practice!
Not it’s even worst :)

I’m usually on $50 or so a month but I just hit the NYC Coffee&Tea Festival. A few hundred in one day. hangs head in shame

Hmmm here goes!

January @ Wing Hop Fung in Chinatown LA: $308
(All Oolongs- 2 Type Phoenix, 1 Lychee, 1 Dahongpao variant, 1 Tieguanyin, 1 Monkey Picked) Total about 3.5lbs of tea.

February @ Zhejiang China (For Chinese New Year)-$0! Tea was free as Chinese New Years gifts from friends, family, business relationships:
13 Individual Pu’er Cakes (8 Sheng, 5 Shu) – Various provenance and age
6 Tongs (42 cakes of tea) -Various provenance and age
Tons of Dragonwell Green…as I am from the origin city
Left most of it back in China, gave some away as re-gifts.

February @ Jiangsu China -$680
2 x 天目(dont know translation…porcelain stain glass glaze sort of thing) Tea cups

Don’t plan on buying any more tea probably until late summer or possibly fall. Though you never know. I’ll close out the year close to $1500, most likely. Of which almost 50% was two tea cups. Yikes!

Mar Update
The trip home to Oz killed me this month… But I have so many amazing teas that I’m enjoying so it was all completely worth it… And since most of my T2 was my Melbourne Breakfast staple it barely counts!!

Budget: $1000 (USD)
Total as of April 1: Tea $1066.78 Teaware $283

March
T-Bar Adelaide $27.30 AUD
T-2 (multiple purchases) $210.50 AUD
Tea Leaves Australia $45.85 AUD
Storm in a Tea Cup $56 AUD
Whispering Pines $77.50
Taiwan Tea Crafts $20.50 ($70)
London Tea Club $18.18

March total: $387.90 ($70)

Budget: 600 (aim for 50 per month)

January – Total: 156.37
February-Total: 185.79
March – Total: 14.99
April – Total: 39.99
May – Total: 50.29
June – Total: 101.00
July – Total : 157
August – Total: 23
September – Total:23
October – Total:47
52teas – 17
PA Dutch Spice and Tea: 30
Yearly total rounded to the nearest dollar:797

I didn’t track November and December, but I know I bought 40 bucks worth of Basilur at Marshalls, about 20 from Adagio, and roughly another 40 from 52teas. To account for unreported spending error, total yearly spend will be officially $1000. Insane given I only got a full time job in August, but could be worse. I am going to see how an $800 goal will go for next year, since I’ve been trying to drink down a lot of what I have. I have also been focused on furnishing my new place nicely, and anticipate a makeup heavy year with all of my cleaning out of old stuff.