The previous year's “shopping” was only $8,800, even with lots of big ticket items and hobbies not even separated out. So what in the world was 2024’s shopping all about? And what lessons can I learn to cut down on the number of trips to consumerism—and late night Amazon?
Setting aside $1,800 on a tattoo in October, $1,250 for Taiwan shopping that had to be done—we will never need socks again, until our next trip…—and then $1,000 on MacBook Air and a replacement Pencil, there was $2,500 left over in the mysterious “shopping” tag.
But before I get to that, let’s clear out the other tags first with books, games, and house things. In 2024, I spent $750 on forty-five books, with twenty three digital ones at $11 each, and physical at $23. Digital games was $650 for twenty-seven instances, at an average of $24 each. Physical games cost $400 for eleven, at $36 each. That’s about a thousand dollars spent on games—minus LOL and Snap which was $1,600 combined,if you’ll recall.House stuff cost $1,500 between needed things, new decorative stuff and furniture, and some small supplies like batteries and Swiffer replacements. House is house stuff, that can’t really be changed or cut down.
And fate also delivered a Celtics title this year—finally!—so I had to splurge on some championship stuff after they won the title: Celtics wearable gear ($120), Funko Pop series for the starting lineup ($110), Panini cards ($45), SLAM and SI magazine covers ($45 combined). That’s a total of $300 spent on a Finals win.
The wise man would just invest $200 now in a Celtics title bet and see if they can pull it off again for a back-to-back. A now even wiser man says that betting on the Celtics is never a good idea so I’ll just budget out some more money for the inevitable nineteenth title in 2025. Screw the luxury tax, we’re going all in!
Shopping
So what went into the broad shopping tag anyway? A wetsuit was the only thing over a hundred dollars—it was one-fifty--and then it was death by sixty-four cuts as $2,000 was spent under “shopping.”
Note: Once again, we’ll disregard everything we bought in Taiwan as that was just pure value and joy from my partner's first time to Taiwan—for the record it was $500 of shopping stuff from Taiwan.
I went through and labeled each purchase as one, two, or three, with one being “had to get,” two as “maybe not needed”, and three “nope, bad decision.”
Also, there was a stuffie or two in there. Did you know that forty percent of US adults sleep with a stuffie? "The Case for Sleeping With Stuffed Animals as an Adult"
Looking at the list, there was more surf and pool stuff too. Actually, all the essential items I looked at fall into three or four broad categories: water use related things, electronics, stuff for phones, and art or pen stationary.
Shopping section two was twenty-eight items of questionable buying, which totaled about $900. All of these items could probably have been not bought and not missed, so we’ll keep that in mind. And at the end of the list, eight things totaling $250 could have definitely gone. They were literally all bags or cute things, as will be examined below.
So of the 2024 non-Taiwan, non-Big Ticket Item stuff, it was a tad under two thousand and I think I can cut that exactly in half to one thousand dollars. We can do it!
Clothing
There was $350 spent on clothing in Taiwan, on twelve occurrences. A lot of those were sock related. The standout expensive item was a Zara jacket ($90) that I’ve actually yet to wear, as this other green one ($30) has been far more versatile. Clothes shopping in Taiwan is a must, and for those prices, no issues at all!
The rest of my seventeen clothing purchases aren’t that exciting at all, as I’ve largely found my wardrobe—I wear the same thing ninety percent of the time—and most of it was just basic items like thermals, baggier sweatpants, very long basketball shorts, and replacement items. Somehow all that added up to $1,000 spent on clothes. Shrug?
I did go look around for Nineties styled denim shorts and jeans this summer and I found them at Zumiez, for about $40 each. As you can sense in the stuff I bought this year: loose is back and we gotta look the part.
Speaking of looking the part, I got an extra-thick Coke logo-ed white shirt from PacSun around the same time, on the heels of New Jeans’ “So Sweet” video, which was basically a giant ad for Coca-Cola. I subsequently wore my new baggy outfit to a k-pop party—the best of the many in 2024 I went to—and think it was probably my best sartorial decision of the year. “New Jeans never die!”
I could easily half clothes shopping to $500, so that’ll be the goal.
A category broken into three sets: friends, family, and partner. For friends, there was very minimal spent since I only gifted absolute essentials, which cost $200 and I have no regrets. I would’ve gifted someone a white Simple Human trash can but they refused refused refused.
As for family, a total of $1,100 was gifted, which was mostly to the nieces--and one or two things for the nephew now that he is of age to remember me—and some to George. Of those thirty five items, nine were from Taiwan ($250), thirteen given with no regrets ($300), six given that probably wasn’t necessary ($150), and seven that were perhaps outright not needed at all ($450) and likely gave me as much joy as the receivers.
So, I could likely save $600 on not impulse buying stuff for the kids and instead funnel say, $300 into valuable things for them. Maybe I should just tell them their annual budget for things from me and they can start a pre-budget club budget club?
Lastly I spent $500 on gifts for my now partner. Of that, it was mostly replacement iPods, Xmas stuff, some clothing such as two Forever 21 jackets that looked absolutely amazing, and our tour de resistance: "Taipei Tennis Club" clothes that we designed, which is really a gift for us both. If anything, I need to shower her with more gifts in 2025.
So the new budget for gifts in 2025 is as follows:
- Friends: $100
- Family: $400 ($100 per child, and Georgemeer)
- Partner: Unlimited!!!
So the two things I was supposed to cut back on this year was cute stuff and bags—owing to my declaration to “give up X” if the Celtics win a championship in 2024.
The Celtics won their eighteenth title on June 18 and yet after that date, I still bought twelve bags. Four of them were Ape and Bird fanny backs, which can be excused, but that left eight still to be accounted. Mark another one off since it was just a plain old black duffel for travel, and we’re still left with seven bags bought that were done in violation of my vow. Note: Does this mean the Celtics won’t win title nineteen back-to-back?!
Hello Kitty duffle, a backup white Miffy bag for one I bought a few weeks proper, a gift bag that wasn’t used, two Elecbae Candy Bags that were so cool but likely unnecessary, a bag shaped like a pizza the was truly me and also truly on sale. And then somehow I got a Carhartt waist bag that I’ve yet to use. And lastly, I bought a Cotopaxi Allpa 20L ($140) to replace my Allpa 28L but as it turned out, the 20L was too small and will likely be used as more of a daily travel backpack.
In sum, I spent $225 on seven bags pre-vow and $425 on twelve bags post-vow. Of those nineteen purchased bags, I could’ve likely cut thirteen of them. So new rule: I can only get three bags in 2025, totaling two hundred dollars. T-H-R-E-E. And that’s only to leave room in case we see something great in Asia when we go there in the spring.
Cute
Okay, and looking at things labeled “cute,” I spent $850 on cute things—minus some for family gifts, which don’t count here—encompassing forty-three items. Of those forty-plus items, I likely only needed ten of them as must-haves, most of them digital stuff like LINE stickers or these wonderful iOS apps by Euihyung Jung that are just illustrated bears. (I bought all four of them—at about a dollar each—just to have the icons on my phone. Zero regrets!)
Of all those cute things, I could’ve spent under a hundred dollars on just the essentials--plus a hundred spent in Taiwan—which would mean that I could’ve trimmed $150 of “definitely didn’t need” and then $500 of “probably didn’t need.”
Things that fall into the “probably didn’t need” was a CIVIVI Baby Banter knife, a JBL Go Speaker, Logitech Pebble Keyboard, Care Bears x Hello Kitty collaboration, and little pink and yellow chubby stars that I got two packs of to give to guests. Like I said, prooooobably don’t need but wasn’t terrible to have.
Things I definitely didn’t need was a Hello Kitty necklace ($40) that says “Jace” on it, a Peach Fuzz Sardine lighter, Sanrio watches for the kids, some Hello Kitty stickers, and the aforementioned pizza bag.
So new rule for 2025: I can spend $100 on cute things, and then $50ish on one single item like a knife or little speaker type thing. Oh yeah, and no more stuffies, Care Bears, or Sanrio items—for me.
- Shopping: $5,000
- Clothing: $500
- Gifts: $500 + partner stuff
- Bags: $200, three max bags allowed
- Cute: $100 and one single $50+ item, with no Care Bears and etc allowed!
- Books: $500, but no real max, as needed
- Games, Digital: $400
- Games, Physical: $200
- No computers, phones, or large electronics needed this year
- A few little tattoos, with exceptions for Asia based artists if available
Last year, all the things I mentioned above totaled $12,000 give or take. Assuming the same amount for house and beauty stuff ($2,000), we can trim that remaining $10,000 from 2024 down to $4,000 for 2025.
There is an Asia and Europe trip for later this year, so that’ll have to be accounted for, but perhaps at max that non-house and beauty number will be pushed to $5,000 for “shopping” overall—budgeting a thousand dollars for big trip shopping. Okay, we can do this right? Where there’s a goal, there’s a way!
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