2015: How much will you spend on tea this year?
Last year I estimated I’d spend $700 and ended up spending about $868. I tend to buy in spurts when I get extra money or am traveling somewhere with lots of tea options I don’t have at home. I also did some pretty major spending on Black Friday sales last year. I’m going to guess $800 on tea this year.
I haven’t bought anything so far this year (snuck under the wire with that Tea Guys sale on December 31st though) and as of right now my cupboard is still bursting from the end of the year, so I’m just parking myself a space in this thread to keep track. I’m going to Paris in May and I plan to go nuts there, so with that on the calendar and my cupboard full right now I probably won’t be buying much for the next five months. We’ll see how it goes!
I was good this month – just a few boxes of grocery store tea (Sleepytime Vanilla and Bigelow Lemon Ginger with Probiotics) and a smallish Butiki order since they’re going out of business, almost a third of the cost of which was shipping. Ouch.
Feels good to start my totals off low though! We’ll see how February goes. I’ve filled up the same David’s Tea cart half a dozen times lately…
January final total:
$32.19
I’ve been meaning to post here again, but have been hardcore avoiding Steepster because I shouldn’t be buying tea and if I spend a lot of time here then I want to buy all the tea. x___x But I just tallied up February and most of it was teabags from various places. It’s good to see how much I spent in total since I thought I was being “good!” Ugh. Should have just hit up the online shops I like instead of pretending grocery store tea doesn’t count and chucking boxes absently into the cart since the total’s about the same. Sigh. At least I haven’t bought anything yet this month.
February final total:
$38
I’ve been good! So good. Granted, this goodness has been enforced by a lack of money, but I’ve still reigned it in considerably.
March total:
just $4 shipping for a swap
April total:
$17.25 (a small David’s Tea order and two things of grocery store tea, minus the $7 I got from a stash sale)
So, in two weeks I go to Paris, and trust me when I say the total from that trip will be much, much higher than what I’ve spent so far. I’m excited!
If you want suggestions or whatever, let me know. I’m back today..er tomorrow from a week in Paris
Sil, that would be great! I definitely plan to hit up Mariages Freres, Damman Freres, Laduree, etc. but any places I might not have heard about would be amazing. I’ve never been and am really looking forward to it. Following you now!
I haven’t updated this in forever! My Paris trip was a birthday gift, and my traveling partner paid for all the tea I bought. So my cupboard is stocked until…forever probably. Since I returned at the end of May, I’ve only spent about $7 on a couple of Tiesta Teas that were discounted at Target. Since I have so much in my cupboard, I doubt I’ll be buying anymore for quite awhile. But for the sake of completeness, I’ve added up everything I’ve spent so far this year as of today, August 15th. Let’s see if I have to update this total later on!
Total for the year so far:
$94.44
I bought some Decaf Caramel Creme Brulee black tea last weekend, $10 for 4oz and it’s deeeeelicious. Still have a pretty full cupboard, though.
Current total: $104.44
Despite the fact that I’m still drinking down most of my Paris teas, I’ve started buying again here and there.
Two 4oz bags of loose tea from a cafe shop in Old Town Clovis: $20
Art of Tea Black Friday sale: $30.31 (bought 8 days ago and I still haven’t even received a shipping notification…)
Golden Moon Tea Black Friday sale: $12.56 (shipped super fast and I’m drinking a delicious cup of the vanilla black right now)
Box of Bigelow herbal tea: $3
Current total:
$170.31
I’m not going to give myself a budget, but I do want to track how much I’m buying.
January
PuerhShop…………..$15.08
ESGreen………………$6.50
JKTeashop……………$13.27
Yunnan Sourcing……$56.02
Zen Tea Life………….$17.10
Red Leaf………………$9.08
Aliexpress ………… $10 (teaware)
January total………$117.05
so we’re ignoring any and all purchases that i might have made this month where i just gave Stacy all my money…
I’m with cookies, not giving myself a budget necessarily, though I have decided to avoid ordering flavored teas from now on. I tend to be very picky about them these days and I already have several in my cupboard that I love, so I should be set.
January
What-Cha…………$35.28
Upton………………$40.10
Asian Market……..$7.99
Total: $83.37
i like an 80/20 split with unflavoured and flavoured – though when i say flavoured, i also consider blends with no flavouring to be “flavoured” teas (like herbals, fruit blends etc..). Sometimes i just want “juice tea!” haha
Yeah, not buying any more flavored tea really is my only strategy. I made some arbitrary number that I am hope to be somewhat near. I am much more interested in straight teas anyhow. Although Butiki does not count, since this may be her last month with us :C
So far I’ve bought very little actual tea this year; it’s shaping up to be a year of teaware purchases…
I suppose I will participate in this thread again, although I forsee a lot fewer purchases this year. No tea clubs, and I am pretty happy with my cupboard and not looking for new things. So I’m setting a very low budget of $300 for the whole year, which is $25/month. Mostly I think I will spend on new teaware (although not much, I do have a lot now), and perhaps one or two DF orders during the year. I’m not going to Europe this year, so there won’t be a lot of purchasing in that regard!
so i won’t be totally jealous and drooling over your new tea notes this year… ;)
Well, here we go…
YTD: $96.48
January
Red Leaf -—-$17.48
Whispering Pines -—- $54.00
February
0
March
The Tea Can Company -— $25
Well, like others, I don’t think I’ll actually set a budget but it would be nice to have somewhere online to keep track of purchases. I was extremely bad last year and December was worse than I ever planned – damn sales. :) I have to do better this year. I don’t have as much travel planned as last year, which might make it easier to avoid those huge impulse purchases like when I went to NY last year and made a complete tea pig of myself… That and with the Midwest Tea festival expenses coming out of my own pocket until tickets start being sold or we get sponsors on board, I really need to make that my main tea purchasing for the year. And I won’t keep track of that on here since it’s a business thing.
So… I’m not doing so well. But I’m not sure it should count if I’m buying for tasting purposes for the festival, right?
1/24-So, so seriously failing here.
With that in mind my aim for personal spending (USD) in:
January
Goal: $0
Total: $133 ($24 gifts)
And I fail already! :)
Tippy’s Tea: $22.35
BBC America: $23.94 (+$23.94 gifts)
Shang Tea: $25.00
Shang Tea: $22.00
Harney: $15.50
February
$0.00 whoohoo!!!
March
European Pottery: Polish pottery teapot $27
Thanks for starting this thread, Dodo!
My goal is to at least not spend more than I did last year: $965.89.
January total: $238.90
Lupicia: $42.00
Butiki: $139.90
DavidsTea: $36.00
TeBella: $15.00
Hooker Tea Co.: $6.00
February total: $34.00
World Market: $34.00
March total: $192.94
Butiki garage sale: $21.94
dollar store impulse buy: $10.00
Coffee & Tea Festival: $161.00
April total: $17.00
52teas Kickstarter: $17.00
May & June total: $120.00
Trip to NZ and Taiwan (rough estimate): $100.00
Spice Professors: $20.00
July total: $10.00
Ippodo matcha to go: $5.00
Franchia dandelion tea: $5.00
August total: $37.77
Liquid Proust Tea: $21.77
Verdant: $16.00
No purchases in September!
October total: $114.30
DavidsTea: $43.16
Target: $26.41
52teas: $32.00
eBay (tea pet): $12.73
November total: $102.06
Harney & Sons: $38.11
Amazon (Teas’ Tea): $8.00
TeaVivre: $35.70
A Quarter to Tea: $20.25
December total: $94.53
Teaism: $21.75
Ten Ren: $20.00
YS: $35.36
Harney: $17.42
Annual total: $961.50
Summary: I met my goal of spending less than last year, but only by $4.39. The biggest culprits were Butiki closing and the Tea Festival. Since Butiki can’t double close, that expenditure will not repeat. I’m also skipping the festival next year – I spent a lot of money but distinctly recall being rather underwhelmed compared to previous years. My spending also seems to peak in the late fall and winter months, so that’s something to keep an eye on.
Maybe I’ll actually hold myself accountable for tea purchases this year. Hahahaha. I’ll fill things in as they happen. Not setting a specific budget though.
January
1. McQuarrie’s Tea & Coffee Emporium – $20.35 CAD
2. Butiki – $45.09 USD (53.04 CAD or so, will update with actual later)
Total: $73.39
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