2017: How much will you spend on tea this year?
Hope no one minds that I’m starting this year’s thread…
Previous Years:
2016 – http://steepster.com/discuss/12376-2016-how-much-will-you-spend-on-tea-this-year
2015 – http://steepster.com/discuss/10160-2015-how-much-will-you-spend-on-tea-this-year
2014 – http://steepster.com/discuss/6837-how-much-did-you-spend-on-tea-in-2014
To quite Sil from last year’s thread…
“Either add to your comment throughout the year, or add a new one for each month. Anyway you do it is fine!”
Guess I’m kicking things off…
I managed to go a whole five days into the new year before I bought something! It was bound to happen, working at a tea store though. The sad thing is, I think I actually managed to make it longer than last year.
Like last year, I’m counting tea and teaware but not swaps! Goal is the same as the one I failed to meet in 2016: spend less than last year! Ideally, I’m looking at no more than $1500 in total OR no more than $250/month.
2016 – $2034.13
2015 – $1998.46
2014 – $1466.61
January: $205.50
DAVIDsTEA (Teaware/Chocolate/Tins) $34.00
Camellia Sinensis $89.00
Tea Ave. $54.00
For Tea’s Sake $8.50
February: $256.45
DAVIDsTEA (Teaware) $38.00
Bitterleaf Tea (Teaware I didn’t need) $122.45
Kusmi Tea $60.00
DAVIDsTEA $36.00
March: $134.00
Oolong Inc. $31.00
Camellia Sinensis $55.00
A Quarter To Tea $48.00
April: 352.50
White2Tea $7.50
Bitterleaf Tea $156.50
DAVIDsTEA (Summer Teaware) $32.00
DAVIDsTEA (Summer Chocolates) $13.50
MissB’s Stash Sale $20.00
Whispering Pines $52.00
Octavia Tea $71.00
May: $147.50
Cuppa’T Specialty Teas $8.50
Matcha Bowl (from a local artist) $19.00
Tea Desire $60.00
DAVIDsTEA (Thermal Carafe) $24.00
Pluck $8.00
TheForestWitch $28.00
June: $166.00
August Uncommon (Summer Teas) $36.00
What-Cha $23.00
Camellia Sinensis $53.00
Ette Tea $38.00
Cuppa’T Specialty Teas $16.00
July: $445.97
Over The Hill Orchards $10.00
Tickled Tea $33.00
DAVIDsTEA (Tins to organize my cupboard) $27.00
BlendBee (Custom made teas) $97.00
Dammann Freres $71.00
Adagio $54.46
The Forest Witch $24.00
DAVIDsTEA $14.00
52Teas $60.51
DAVIDsTEA $30.00
A Quarter To Tea $48.00
August: $321.10
Amoda (Samples!) $58.00
Republic of Tea $17.00
Pluck $8.00
Story of My Tea $9.10
DAVIDsTEA (Semi Annual Sale/Harvest Collection) $98.00
BlendBee $60.00
Matcha Outlet $71.00
September: $168.16
Cuppa’T Specialty Teas $17.00
White2Tea $15.00
DAVIDsTEA (Chai Collection) $21.00
Sipsby Tea (Subscription Box) $30.16
52Teas $33.00
Camellia Sinensis (Teaware) $52.00
October: $340.76
DAVIDsTEA (Soup Teas) $24.60
teabento $29.00
August Uncommon $44.00
Sipsby Tea (Subscription Box) $30.16
DAVIDsTEA (Halloween Merch) $90.00
Silk Road $62.00
Tiesta Tea $20.00
M Mack’s Stash Sale $15.00
DAVIDsTEA (Winter Teas) $26.00
November: $877.90
Cornelia Bean $59.00
For Tea’s Sake $35.00
Pluck $8.00
The Canister $14.00
Adagio (Vendor at C4) $10.00
Assort. Kombucha $15.00
Steep Me A Cup of Tea $65.00
Camellia Sinensis $86.10
Bluebird Tea Co. $62.00
Vadham Teas $26.30
Bitterleaf Tea $72.00
teawarehouse $44.00
52Teas $35.00
DAVIDsTEA (Winter Locktops) $44.00
Healthy Leaf $17.50
Teavivre $9.00
A Quarter to Tea $51.00
White2Tea $68.00
Kitten & The Bear/Sloane Tea $40.00
Crimson Lotus Tea $48.00
Wize Monkey $30.00
Mandala Tea $59.00
December: $407.16
Citizen Tea $16.50
Camellia Sinensis $58.50
Bitterleaf Teas $134.00
White2Tea $51.00
White2Tea (Yes, a second order…) $37.00
Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea $48.00
Sipsby Tea (Subscription Box) $30.16
A Quarter To Tea $32.00
I also ‘ordered’ from these places as well, but they were grad gifts from parents so I didn’t personally spend money there – I still think it’s worth tracking though since I personally use this big master list to track what companies I’m trying/ordering from and where I have repeat business as well…
Cloud Mountain Tea
Silk Road
Terroir Tea
Janet’s Special Teas
Murchie’s Tea & Coffee
Teavana
Algonquin Tea Co.
GRAND TOTAL: $3805.50
$1206.8 has been taken in the website named best-tea where I can get high-quality Chinese tea,and thanks for their dicount since I spent more than 1000.
Alright, well if all goes well the only other thing I SHOULD be spending any money on for the rest of the year that’s tea related is POSSIBLY my Sipsby subscription box – and I still haven’t decided if I’ll be making the December payment for the January box or not; so we’ll see. I also have one stash sale pending, so depending on if that gets finalized or not I think I’m done for the year! So, a potential total of… $3658.34
That’s kind of a horrifying number; definitely the worst year I’ve had so far. Hopefully that means that going into 2018 I don’t need to buy anything for a nice, long while though!
I shockingly was way under budget, but that was because of school. As a teacher I drink less due to time constraints, and no loose leaf at school due to time/mess constraints. This year, given how much of a stash I have and the rate I am drinking it, I am hoping to cap at $500 max, preferably $300.
Shockingly, tea spending has been very low. I spent maybe $20 in bagged tea for school, and $12 on some loose leaf I found while wandering downtown earlier in the month. $32 for the first 4 months of the year!
Amazingly, I have continued to not purchase much, and use up my (getting too old and stale) stash. I have a lot I want to repurchase, most are teas I like having each fall and winter, so I have told myself I can do a big restock in September/October. I will probably stagger them, because I hopefully won’t have quite so much tea around at any one given time again. I drink a lot in the summer, but so much less during the school year, and some of my tea is definitely on the stale side, which is sad. I did buy a teeny bit of an apple pie rooibos from Wegmans, which brings my tally to $34 for the first ~7 months of the year.
It also helps that I have now begun brewing kombucha. I definitely do not include those costs, because while it is still tea…it is a totally different beast!
I’m afraid to even look at what I’ve spent the last four months alone. I decided last week that I have enough tea already, and yet I’m still putting together an order of aged sheng from Yunnan Sourcing, because I just don’t have enough of that kind, and I’m sure it will be sizable. Once I get that though, I’ll stop. HA!
Wow!! You guys must have tons of tea. I’m just starting to drink tea again, and I found that there is a whole other of tea then just bagged tea. Gong fu Cha all the way! For 2016, I spent $16.00 on 2 grams of silver needle. This year I recently ordered two different Oolongs from Mei-leaf and spent $27.16!
I’m expecting my no-buy realistically to continue through the whole year (over 300 more teas to sip down) but am allowing myself a little leeway of £5 a month. I was going to go for £10 but I’m going to try to be strict! So I guess my budget for the year is £60. Because of my sipdown challenge I’m counting everything tea-related, so that goes for tea, teaware, and swaps. I am planning on buying myself a temperature variable kettle this year though and I won’t be counting that.
January:
£8.99 – Butiki’s C&C from greenteafairy
£3.58 – Herbals from supermarket
February:
£8.15 – Love Potion from Bluebird Tea Co. They brought it back LE, I had to!
TOTAL SPEND: £20.72
2014: 1320.42 USD 320.18 CAD
2015: 1075.10 USD 206.21 CAD (including paris trip)
2016: 170.21 CAD; 170.69 USD
I figure 2017 will be another year of limited spending so that i can continue to sipdown my cupboard. I’m trying to get down to 30 teas by year end and as close to 1000g as i can. So let’s go with 360 in each currency at most (roughly 30/month).
January – 36.00 CAD
February – 37.66 USD
March – 0
April – 44.04 USD
May – 8.23 CAD; 37.80 USD
June – 0
July – 54.50 CAD; 87.37 USD
August – 0
September – 56.49 USD
October – 4.50 USD
November – 53.41 uSD 170.29 CAD
December – 0
Total: 268.58 CAD 317.27 USD
2016 Total = 776.08 – including San Fransisco trip
I did much better in 2016 than I have in previous years – the fact that I even have a number proves that I was at least paying attention to how much I was spending.
I think I would be happy to keep spending around that amount. I’m going to set the goal the same as last year with one disclaimer.
50.00 CAD/month 600.00CAD for the year for normal tea purchases – this amount is flexible for tea related purchases on vacation.
2017 Total = $265.26
Jan – 35.00 – My Tea Guy
Feb – 0.00
Mar – 0.00
Apr: 62.50
46.00 – Tao Tea Leaf
16.50 – House of Tea
May – 0.00
June – 0.00
July – 0.00
Aug – 0.00
Sep – 0.00
Oct – 0.00
Nov: 125.38
Teabento – 71.73
August Uncommon – 53.65
Dec: 42.38
Citizen Tea – 42.38
Me too, Dexter! I have thought of you often.
Tea reviews, lady, tea reviews!
I know, I know, ooooh the pressure.
Come tell us how you are.
Ok I updated my numbers – that should be everything for the year – unless something HUGE happens on Boxing Day. Even though I spent more recently than I wanted to, overall for the year I think I’ve done really well.
(In the spirit of full disclosure – I placed another AU order but I had it sent directly to a friend. I’m calling that gift not tea spending….)
So impressive, Dexter. Way to go!
While I have reigned myself in considerably this year, if compared to last year, I have still lost my mind way more than once. I aspire to your kind of self-control. Soon, soon.
I’m aiming to stay under $500 this year. I’m also trying to be disciplined about drinking down my stash and not hoarding tea which I hope will keep my tea expenditures low. We shall see..
I made a pumidor right after Christmas, Dec 26th 2016, and I suspect that I’ll spend as much on tea for the year as I do for a semester of grad school.
I feel you on that – Just upgraded my pumidor setup, deciding what sheng I want to get a tong of haha.
A semester of grad school is roughly $4,000 and I actually spent less than that on tea this year. I set myself up with a $300 monthly limit and thought of it as $10/day which is what it cost for Red Bull, Starbucks, and the weekly glasses of wine/whiskey. I thought I overspent… but I split out the cakes for the website and I’m barely hitting $2,800. Rather glad I looked at all of this too :)
Login or sign up to leave a comment.