the anti-haul, vol. 1

winter/spring items i recently took off my wishlist

Source: Pinterest

I wrote a post entitled the 2024 anti-haul in January of this year, and realized that there are still so many things that I’ve mentally anti-hauled since publishing that newsletter. Whether it be things I newly came across on social media, or a change in my lifestyle that made me feel like I was lacking in something, there will always be an item out there that seems like it’s a necessity, when it actually isn’t. I will publish these lists sporadically, whenever I reach 10 items.

These lists will also contain either 1) generic anti-haul items that I’ve personally never purchased, don’t desire to, and strongly believe are a waste of money, or 2) items that were once on my wishlist and have been removed after realizing I don’t actually need it (reasons will be explained in these newsletters), or both.

This specific newsletter only contains the latter from above.

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#1: the clyde set in sand

I was so ready to make this purchase a month ago. I remember feeling like this could be the “It Girl” set for me—I’d look polished, well-kept, and ready for business. Another thing that stood out to me was the branding of The Summer House as a whole. They are transparent all the way down to their manufacturing site, and they explicitly state detailed information about their sustainable fabrics, wages, and zero waste production practices. I glamorized the hell out of this set, to the point where I could envision myself wearing it to work, to the farmer’s market, to social hangouts. Oh, and the most obvious reason of all—it’s an Indian woman owned brand! Of course I want to support my fellow AANHPI founders!

But alas…I was gratefully de-influenced by none other than Mr. Beans. Here are his reasonings and also some of mine:

• Expensive for what it is—a simply designed top and a pair of bottoms. All for $140.80.

• Cost is most likely inflated due to shipping it overseas.

• Made of linen. I can get that anywhere locally to replicate the style.

• When Mr. Beans visits India, he can get this made for me at a much cheaper price.

• There is a chance that the pants won’t fit me, and the return process would be a hassle. If I resold it, I’d for sure incur a net loss since reselling pieces from niche brands is pretty difficult!

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#2: cuyana easy zipper tote

If you’ve followed me since this post and the saga afterwards, you know I’ve come the conclusion that I’m just not a tote girl. This is a good example of my fantasy self. Despite wanting to be the smart, chic woman who walks into work with a leather tote bag filled with mysteries of beyond, I simply cannot be. Or at least my body won’t allow me to be. I tried the Freja NYC Paloma tote on and for the first three days of use, I had shoulder pains. This is a good example of how I refuse to equate beauty to pain. It’s not worth it, because I’m going to end up walking lopsided once I get used to this weight.

I remember walking into the Cuyana store at Venice with Bumble Beans and marvelling at how beautiful and light the totes were, especially the easy tote. I wasn’t tempted in the moment because I had my eyes set on the Freja. However, as I’ve reflected, I realized that my mistake with the Freja was 1) it had too many dividers inside, making it difficult to store my lunch, 2) the structured nature of it causes it to be heavier, and 3) taupe isn’t my color.

Here’s how I de-influenced myself out of purchasing this bag:

• It’s not BIFL (buy it for life). From what I’ve seen on Reddit, Cuyana’s quality has gone severely downhill, and people have recently complained about the leather peeling off or the handles fraying.

• Totes aren’t as versatile as backpacks. I also don’t know how it’s going to feel on my shoulder once I add all my items into it (and no, I’m not going to experiment doing this in-store because I have some shame, okay?).

• It is expensive. Maybe another time.

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#3: goodtotes small croissant bag

I’ve had my eyes on GoodTotes for years now, ever since coming across their brand on social media. Specifically their bakery collection, because how can you not tell me that it’s the perfect everyday bag? With its crinkles and wrinkles?

The first time I felt ready to purchase from them, their bakery collection sold out. I forgot about them for some time, and a few months ago, I came across their account again. Potentially as a result of an Instagram ad?

I really wanted their croissant bag, the one I was eyeing years ago because it was finally in stock. However, here’s why I didn’t:

• I already have an everyday bag that fits everything I need inside of it.

• This is a Singapore based brands so if I hated it, I’d have to resell it. How can I trust that? Plus, shipping costs!!!

• There’s not much information about the sustainability of the brand. While it’s a small business, I can’t seem to figure out where they source their materials and how production is handled.

• I don’t like owning more than one everyday bag, so I’d have to sell my BAGGU bag if I purchased this, which is a waste of money because I don’t like the idea of buying for the sake of reselling just because something shiny and new enters my periphery.

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#4: vintage kitchenware on marketplace

Source: Delish

I’ve somehow trained my algorithm to stop showing me these vintage pieces, so even after a quick Marketplace search, I wasn’t able to show some examples of beautiful ceramic or glassware near me.

I’m drawn to porcelain, blue and white colored kitchenwares, and fun shapes. I think that owning something that looks like your great-grandma owned it during her childhood is really cool, and there are some items out there that emulate that feeling.

Ultimately, I never purchased any of these for the following reasons:

• We have enough. Perfectly enough, that we can host friends over and they’ll comfortably have a plate of their own without the need to share half of one with their significant other.

• What am I going to do with the plates I already own? They’re not special enough to be resold, so this feels like an unnecessary instance of lifestyle inflation.

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#5: another sezane léontine jumper

I’ve had a love/hate/love relationshp with my Léontine. I currently own the jumper in the Ecru/Camel colorway, and had it listed on my Ebay for a month or so. In the meantime, I also decided to wear the items listed on my Ebay because might as well get use out of it, right? And who knows, I might end up really liking these clothing items again.

It happened with this jumper. Slowly, I began to really love how balloon-y the arms were, how it puffed out in the right places, and how beautiful the striping looks with the beige colorway. I found myself loving the Léontine as much as everyone else in the Sézane community (seems like a cult staple). It also led me to think… maybe I need another one? In a different colorway? I admit, I was tempted, but here are reasons why I stopped myself from doing so:

• Every time I purchase the same style of clothing but in different colors, I always gravitate towards one over the other. This happened with my Lululemon Scuba Half Zip (which I don’t wear anymore). I only wore the grey one over the black one, and I felt like it was unnecessary owning two of the same styled items in my closet. With the Léontine, I worry that I’ll just end up wearing one of the colorways and the other one will be left collecting dust.

• It’s expensive! Even the jumpers secondhand are around $100, and buying new (which I don’t plan on ever doing) is $125.

• I don’t need any more sweaters. I currently own 8 sweaters, which is far too many. I would like to balance this out with categories with much less items, such as bottoms (currently own 2) or dresses (currently own 3).

My current sweater inventory, using Notion

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#6: yse pj top & shorts

I had a bit of an expensive pajama phase late last year/early this year, where I randomly wanted to upgrade my existing crusty dusty pajamas for something chic and delicate, such as the one above. I was following this lifestyle/fashion Instagrammer who posted about this (I later unfollowed her because I was tempted to get the items she kept posting about—no hate to her though, her feed is beautiful). Here’s what I told myself to avoid purchasing this set:

• The website is in French and I do not understand a single thing. I can’t even find a way to convert it to the English languages/United States website version?

• While beautiful, I don’t think a new pajama set is worth $100.

• As this company is based overseas, shipping costs will be exorbitant, and I can find equally as beautiful pieces in the US that don’t contribute to overseas shipment demand.

• The set seems so delicate, I’m worried it would fall apart after a few washes.

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#7: oxo cold brew coffee maker

I’ve talked about making coffee a number of times on Instagram, but they’re not frequent. They’ll pop up every 6-months or so. That’s when you know that I’m probably not serious about making my own coffee and I’m just drinking it for the sake of caffeine. I did so much research, trying to figure out the best coffee maker that was 1) easy to use, 2) strong enough to keep me awake, and 3) allowed me to have cold coffee (because hot coffee is disgusting to me). I found this coffee maker on Marketplace, selling for around $15 cheaper than original price. However, I didn’t move forward with the purchase because:

• The person’s location was an hour away from where I lived.

• I gave Instant Coffee a try and realized that while not the best in quality, it was a good caffeine alternative.

• I’m a weird stickler for refusing to buy pre-ground beans? But if I wanted to grind them fresh at home, I’d have to buy a new grinder, which I don’t want to spend money on.

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#8: etsy punch needle cushion

When Mr. Beans and I purchased our new couch, he wanted some throw pillows to “complete” the look. For me, I couldn’t care less. I remember wanting to buy from a small business, which was why I ended up proposing these specific pillows from Etsy. We ended up not purchasing this pillow for the following reasons:

• We forgot. Truth was, we just kept using the pillows (the ones typically used for sleeping) on the couch as throw pillows.

• It’s expensive. Anything on Etsy is usually expensive, and I didn’t think that a throw pillow investment was in either of our budgets.

• We wanted to prioritize other furniture pieces over a throw pillow. For example, finding a bookshelf and a coffee table was much more important than getting a throw pillow.

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#9: insta 360 gimbal

I was in my “I can be an Instagrammer who makes reels” phase for maybe 2-weeks. This was when I posted my poorly edited reel:

moneywithbeans

A post shared by @moneywithbeans

During this period of time, I wanted this gimbal so badly! I tried filming clips so I could patch them up together in Capcut, but they were all so ugly. I couldn’t even force myself to do it, because 1) the background was ugly, 2) the lighting was unfixable, and 3) the shots seemed okay when I was filming but actually looked terrible when in editing mode. This was an easy de-influencing job for me, and I forgot about this item so quickly.

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#10: san and wolves bakeshop vegan bibingka

I was actually very tempted to pre-order this cake for Father’s Day. The key to my father’s heart is through yummy and innovative gluten-free food. I also recently followed San and Wolves, a Filipino founded baking shop that I’ve wanted to support for a while. Here are the reasons why I ended up not pre-ordering the cake:

• I’ve never had a bibingka before. I think it is a huge risk to purchase a big cake, one that I have no idea what it tastes like and to expect my dad to enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong—this cake sounds phenomenal, and my dad will most likely enjoy it. However, I’d rather get him something like donuts or an Asian dessert he's more familiar with, like 紅豆沙粽子 (red bean sticky rice wrap).

• I’ve never had baked goods from San and Wolves. Like I mentioned in the first bullet point, I’m sure they’re amazing! And I’ve always wanted to try Filipino inspired baked goods (considering I have never tried Filipino food in general). However, I’ve tried vegan/gluten-free baked goods before at small bakeries, and some of them use a flour I’m not a huge fan of, making the texture unpleasant to eat. It’s a common problem, especially with gluten free goods. Considering that this cake is gluten free, it is a risk with whether this company uses GF flour that I and my dad like.

With that being said, I still plan on giving this bakeshop a try, but perhaps with smaller baked goods that don’t require me to pay $30 upfront for one huge cake.

Update on 7/23/24: I was able to try San and Wolves at Mayumi Market, and their desserts were phenomenal. However, I’m not sure if my dad would’ve liked the bibingka, so I am glad I didn’t get this for him.

As a result of not purchasing the 10 items above, I ended up saving a lot of money. It actually feels more satisfying to see the amount of money I saved versus the money I spent from my wishlist. Intentional spending isn’t about deprivation, but instead, about knowing what items to add that will actually be useful to your day to day life and learning how to say no to the ones that will clutter up your emotional and financial space. This is a skill that needs to be learned, and one that you can master by going on a spending challenge! I’ve learned more about my spending habits this year than I have in the past 25 years of my life, as a result of going on my Intentional Buy.

Until next time,

—Beans