Tea Buying Hiatus Support Group

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I spent some money I was going to use for tea on winter socks, so I am on hiatus again.

Ooh, are they lovely and woolly? :D I love wool socks.

I did end up using Winter/ Black Friday as an excuse to make one last Butiki order.

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Ag select said

Checking myself back into this thread because my tea spending these past few months was more than a little excessive.

I’m only allowing myself two very specific tea orders from two vendors come Black Friday.

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Anlina said

Oof. I just organized my tea… well it was a cupboard, but it no longer fits in the cupboard and that’s a bit of a problem. The collection has expanded to six bins, a box and a grocery bag. The grocery bag and one of the bins are overflowing with teas that I haven’t tried.

I’ve slowed down the frequency of tea shopping, but I was just on vacation and didn’t have the will power to pass up a bunch of shops that I don’t normally have access to.

I may allow myself a small purchase on Black Friday, if there’s a company I really want to try with a really good sale on, but I’m back to at least attempting to get through my untrieds before I buy a bunch more.

I need to keep reminding myself that tea doesn’t keep forever, and that it’s a bad idea to buy more than I can reasonably drink.

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Lindsay said

Haha, yes. I too have a tea cupboard that is full, and a variety of bags and boxes of tea cluttering up my kitchen as a result. I think I’m going to take all the boxes of tea bags out of the tea cupboard, and see if that makes enough space to cram in all the loose leaf. :)

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Reki275 said

… I’m back. I thought I did so good on BF weekend, having only ordered from Della Terra and Finest Brew. Since then, both Tippy’s Tea and Zen’s holiday sale have gotten me, Yunomi was close. The sales thread needs some sort of lock on it. Must learn to shop stash. Bad Reki! Bad!

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M said

For the past month, my husband has banned me from all tea stores until at LEAST Christmas. It’s safe to say part of my gift will be tea-related. I’ve been keeping up with the David’s Tea advent calendar, though, which has only increased the list of teas I want to buy. sigh My collection is getting totally out of hand.

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So what’s our plan for 2015? Spreadsheets? Sipdowns? Cutting the credit cards? Attending Teaholics Anonymous meetings??

Ubacat said

Lordy, I don’t know. Even though my cupboard exploded over the holidays, I still have plans for future orders. Maybe more swaps?

Sil select said

my plan for 2015 started with tracking spending last year. Goal this year is to spend less than 2014. I’m putting money aside each month and doing the utmost to stick to that. I’m also going to be doing more orders with people to be able to get small amounts of more teas.

Dr Jim said

I’m bad. I am still waiting for a delivery from a slow boat from China (literally) but am already thinking about another puerh order. I can’t buy any more non-puerh tea, because I have way too much (and more than half my drinking is now puerh). I’ll use travelling tea boxes for variety, but plan to hunker down and enjoy what I have.

looseTman said

Sil, That sounds like an excellent plan! Buying 500g, a pound, or 250g and splitting it among several interested members has to cost less per oz. or per gram than what’s charged for sample sizes.

beelicious said

I’m onboard with all of those strategies… My husband found my secret tea stash, the one I keep separate from my insanely overflowing tea cupboard… And I’m now officially on tea buying hiatus… Well, apart from one last order from Butiki when she posts the new blends :)

Dexter said

Starting my spreadsheet in August was a HUGE eye opener for me. I knew how many teas I had but seeing a weight attached to it really put things in perspective. I immediately stopped buying tea – I bought NOTHING from Aug-Nov then bought a some in Dec.
Plan for the New Year is to start a budget spreadsheet to track how much I’m spending and what I’m spending it on (tea, teaware, etc). I’m with Sil on trying to set up group/split orders so that I can continue to explore without having to buy quantities. I don’t think I will ever stop buying totally, but I need to find a balance between tea coming in, tea going out, and tea being consumed. Really I just need to spend less money and keep my cupboard trending in the right direction.
Aug14 315 tea 14087g
Oct14 274 tea 12403g
Jan15 235 tea 10523g

Ag select said

My plan is to get through a lot of teas before ordering more. I’ll be moving out of my apartment at the end of the semester. It should theoretically all fit into the SUV, but I’d like to make things as painless as possible and that means no new tea for a while.

Ubacat said

The group/split orders sounds like a really good idea. I shouldn’t be buying anymore at this point as I need to sip down what I have. On the plus side any pu’erh or aged tea will last for quite awhile. I have to watch the lighter teas and not over order on those.

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Tealizzy said

I’ve been REALLY bad over the last week. It’s so hard sometimes. First, I ordered from Butiki because she put out some amazing teas and will be closing. Second, I ordered from WP, because he put out limited quantities of unique mushroom teas! Third, I ordered from Tippy’s because hey, they’re good, especially the Not So Vanilla tea, which is now my favorite vanilla tea! Aaahhhh! I better stop…do more swapping. Once I get those orders in I’ll have the cupboard to support lots of swaps! I should probably set a goal, like, no more buying tea until April? Like, I’m done for the quarter. Does that seem realistic? :P

Oh my god, this week alone has killed my budget by oh, $200+. I could validate these purchases until the cows come home, but in reality…
Systematically selling/swapping/giving away/tossing any of my stash that doesn’t make my mouth water is a good start.
But teaware… that is a different horse altogether. Majority of the teaware that I never ever ever use were gifts. ahhh!

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Lindsay said

Since this was linked in the forums, I think I need to bring it back properly. Steepster, I am so inundated with samples and teas that I haven’t tried yet, it is ridiculous. New plan: stick to just drinking from my stash until the Black Friday sales. Yikes… I may need to unsubscribe from the Miscellaneous Sales thread. :)

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yssah said

how about like Nicole suggested, we conduct a survey of how long each “hiatus” lasts? pls reply to this comment your longest hiatus and what broke it XD

TheKesser said

That is a good question… Honestly, mine has probably only been around 30 days? 45 days? It makes me so sad hear that. haha Maybe 60 days?

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