the february 2024 list

a monthly list of non-consumer things that i loved; how the month went emotionally, financially, and personally; and an update on my intentional buy

Mar 04, 2024

This month was rough, to say the least. A break-up turned break, dealing with the (financial) consequences of my clothing purchases last month, and a surprise gift gone awry. But you know what? There’s no use in complaining, because there’s a lot for me to be grateful for. I’ll chat about my gratitudes in this newsletter.

If you missed last month’s edition, read the January 2024 List here.

A list of items, feelings, or experiences that bring me joy without having to contribute to the worsening of the environment or my wallet.

Nature Valley Blueberry and Strawberry Fig Bars

Mr. Bean’s company is great. Much greater than any academic university I work for. Why is that? Because there’s a whole snack/breakfast fridge, variety of drink options (cold brew on tap, espresso machine, kombucha on tap, Celsius, Yerba Mate), and free lunch (generous serving by the way). He once brought home two fig bars, and I loved eating them for breakfast (hassle free and saves me time since I can eat in office). One day, he came home with ~10 fig bars—he took them out of his backpack like a magician pulling out that multi-colored scarf. Good stuff.

May December

This movie has been on my watchlist for a while, and holy hell was it good. I watched this alone (big disclaimer since I tend to get freaked out easily and prefer to watch certain genres of movies with friends/a significant other).

I typically stray away from movies or books with sexual assault themes, especially ones with a huge age gap because it is extremely triggering for me. This movie was terribly disturbing but wildly fascinating—if you pay close attention, you will notice signs that something isn’t right with the depicted relationship. Charlie Melton deserves an Oscar for his performance.

Journaling when shit hits the fan.

This relates to my recent break with Mr. Beans — one thing I wish I did more regularly to manage my emotions was journal. Now that we have our own bedroom, I have the space to peacefully emotion dump everything I’m feeling and all the intrusive thoughts swirling in my head onto paper. And once that’s done, I don’t have the need to direct these thoughts at anyone (specifically Mr. Beans).

Seeing my cubicle-buddy at least once a week.

I’ve been trying to go into office more, which is great for my productivity and mental health. My cubicle is adjacent to my coworker’s who I’m very close with (she is my designated statistician for all my projects), and it’s always such a treat talking to her! Sometimes, I forget that there are people who are interested to talk to me outside of Mr. Beans (cons of indulging in my introvertedness).

Australia’s The Eras Tour surprise songs

Australia is Taylor’s favorite continent and you can’t tell me otherwise. Mashup after mashup after mashup? Sabrina Carpenter dueting White Horse and coney island? Be for real with me right now—I’m actually livid.

Spotify Daylists

My favorite daylists are the morning and afternoon ones. For some reason, it keeps giving me classical renditions of my favorite songs (which I’m not complaining about, but at the same time, I’m not trying to listen to this on my drive back home).

Revamped my Notion dashboard with a Sumikko Gurashi theme.

I’ve been loving sleepy.tofu’s content on Instagram. She posted a Youtube walkthrough of her Notion dashboard, and I fell in love with the Sumikko Gurashi theme. She is incredible, because she sells a pack of these icons and cover photos (for free) on her kopi page, so of course I had to download it immediately and change all my icons/headers. Obsessed is an understatement.

A detailed overview of my income sources, mandatory expenses, non-essential expenses, and savings/investments.

income

Income ($3159.36) — This month, I made $2,867.40 from my full-time job, $84.66 from re-selling items on Ebay, $104.21 from monthly savings interest on Wealthfront, $98.19 from Rakuten (cashback), and $4.90 from a lovely paid subscriber on Substack.

essential expenses

Mandatory Expenses ($2439.00, 77.2%) —

Rent ($1425.50). This annoyingly fluctuates per month because we are hit with a bunch of random fees, including trash valet, pest maintenance, cleaning, water, and occasionally one or two more utility charges. It usually adds around $80 on top of what we’re expected to pay (outside of our electricity and internet bill).
Therapy ($365). Each 45 minute session costs $165, and I go twice a month. However, I needed a bit more for one of the sessions due to the break, so I asked for a 1-hour session, which cost $200.
Spotify ($16.99). I am on a family plan with 5 other friends.
Sunsama ($20). A new add to the budget. Been loving this app as a calendar blocking/to-do list. Not sure if I recommend it to everyone yet, since it’s so expensive. I’ll provide an update in a couple months!
Groceries ($254.76). Went a bit crazy with a Sprouts and TJs haul. Restocked on snacks, frozen fruit, and frozen breakfast items. Luckily, every time I see my parents, they give me a week’s worth of (cooked) food to survive on. Big win for my lazy ass.
Socializing ($119.32). Had 4 social “dates” this month!
Home/Life Maintenance ($237.43). My haircut took up $78 of this category. Spent $65 on haircare from Yesstyle and $65 for a candle warmer from Amazon.

non-essential expenses

Ratio between Essential and Non-Essential. Percentages differ from percentages in the text, because the denominator for those is my total income.

Non-Essential Expenses ($85.75, 2.7%) —

Cushion ($35.65). Got coffee 5x this month (each drink ranging from $6.50-$7.50, yikes). Received a minor shipping fee charge from Ebay because I under-reported the weight of an item I shipped (oops).
Intentional Non-Essentials ($796.18 but technically $50.10). I’m expecting a refund for my Uniqlo purchase, but I have to pay $7 for shipping. I’m also planning on return a bulk of my Everlane purchases except for a $40 shirt. These return charges will hit my account in March, but thought it was misleading to only represent the pre-returned total).

savings/investments

Savings (Income - Expenses) ($634.61, 20.1%) — Truthfully, I don’t track how much I put into each savings bucket. On YNAB, I have two categories: beanie babies (small sinking funds) and bean bags (large sinking funds). I finally added a Roth IRA bucket.

Beanie Babies include my Canva 2024 subscription ($24/mo), Roth IRA ($500/mo), and gifts for others ($5/mo)
Bean Bags include Travel (Goal: $3500), Music (Funded for $400), and a new car (Goal: $60,000).

Pre-Tax Investments ($2432.60) — This is not part of the Income total; therefore, I haven’t assigned a percentage next to the total amount.

401K Match ($453.64). My employer gives me a 8% match.
401K Contributions ($396.92). This is the amount I contribute.
403B Contributions ($1582.04). I’ve assigned 30% of my pre-tax paychecks to be allocated to this.

Some of my highlights from this month include: 1) visited the Everlane store in LA for the first time; 2) girls beach day with Bumble Beans; 3) cried on Bumble Beans’ shoulder for 2 hours after Mr. Beans told me he wanted to break-up with me; 4) my parents giving me home-cooked meals every time I see them (incentive game is strong); 5) sold 2 items on Ebay (net total: $87.98); 6) slowly decluttering my closet (goal to a 33 item wardrobe is feasible!); 7) my therapist helping me create actionable items and process my emotions during this relationship transition; 8) was successfully able to return items that were flops and dump all my wants in my wishlist tracker, yielding a total of 2 non-essential intentional purchases this month; 9) painted pottery pieces that Mr. Beans and I made for his birthday; and 10) visited the cutest Asian-owned stationary store

Some of my lowlights from this month include: 1) getting into a fight with Mr. Beans which led to a break-up turned break, 2) seeing all the credit card charges from last month’s shopping “spree” hit my statement, 3) received my Not Perfect Linen custom dress in the mail but it doesn’t fit me right and I can’t return it, and 4) succumbing to Amazon for my candle warmer purchase, breaking an intentional buy rule.

All the books, movies, shows, and songs I read/watched/listened to this month.

literature

I struggled to read this month—when I’m not doing so well mentally, I tend to lack the motivation to read anything. I prefer watching movies/shows more (as you can see below). I’m still trying to work through Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.

film/shows

My Letterboxd review is hyperlinked to each movie title – it contains my rating and a short snippet of my thoughts!

She’s the Man, 2006 (dir. Andy Fickman)
May December, 2023 (dir. Todd Haynes)
Midsommar, 2019 (dir. Ari Aster)
Lady Bird, 2017 (dir. Greta Gerwig)
The Adam Project, 2022 (dir. Shawn Levy)
Players, 2024 (dir. Trish Sie)
Saltburn, 2023 (dir. Emerald Fennell)
The Brother’s Sun S1

music/podcasts

I know it won’t work by Gracie Abrams
History of Man by Maisie Peters
21 by Gracie Abrams
429 | Filling Empty Rooms by The Minimalists Podcast

I posted my rules two months ago, so I won’t be copying and pasting them onto this newsletter to avoid redundancy. However, this is a summary of my guidelines:

No more than 36 purchases.
No Amazon.
Gift experiences or something homemade/edible instead of a physical gift.
Explore secondhand instead of buying new.
Pre-fund all non-essentials.
Repair first.
Stop swapping a product out with an eco-friendly version if it’s lower quality.
No more experimental items.
Limit subscriptions (no more than one subscription per category)

my purchases

Here is everything I’ve purchased (and kept) so far: 2 items for $104.96.

Everlane The Supima Micro-Rib Crew in Black ($40). I made a big Everlane purchase, and ordered many Micro-Ribs (Crew/Long-Sleeve). I ended up only keeping this item from the entire haul of around 7 items.
Hestia Magic Candle Warmer ($64.96). I hesitated purchasing this item because I could only find it on Amazon, and that already violates one of my rules. I know. I know. I feel a lot of regret for purchasing this, but at the same time, I’ve been using it every day, two to three times a day. I was reading about top down vs. bottom up candle warmers (I have the latter), and apparently, the latter releases all the fragrance more quickly. I recently purchased a Voluspa candle (this isn’t categorized as a non-essential because I like to have one candle in my home at all times, and I had to throw my previous one out because it started smelling plasticky), and didn’t want to waste all the fragrance away.

my returns

Here’s what I’ve returned (to be transparent about the massive volume of clothes I’ve purchased this month and how grateful I am for flexible return policies): 8 items for $608.50.

Not Perfect Linen Doolin Pants ($110.70). Not sure if something is wrong with my body but every single pair of trousers I’ve tried on (Madewell, Everlane, NPL) have given me a… trouser crotch? The crotch part sticks out? It's terrible. I purchased this item in January, but it took around a month to ship (made-to-order clothing companies, for the win!).
Everlane The Day Mary Jane ($155). Uncomfortable. The skin around my ankles is quite sensitive, and I was worried I’d get a blister after wearing it to work one last week.
Everlane The Supima Micro-Rib Long-Sleeve in Washed Heathered Fatigue ($50). Fit me weirdly, and didn’t like the color.
Everlane The Supima Micro-Rib Crew in Heathered Tan ($40). Didn’t like the color.
Everlane The Supima Micro-Rib Crew in White ($40). A bit thin, and looked quite weird on me. I probably need a more structured white tee.
Uniqlo Double Breasted Jacket in Beige ($79.90). Too big on me.
Uniqlo Pleated Wide Trousers in Beige ($49.90). Gave me a man crotch like #1.
Everlane The Dream Short-Sleeve Dress ($83). Love the fabric (their dream fabric is heavenly and weighted in the best way), but this made me look a bit frumpy. Plus, I don’t think I look good in brown.

Instagram, where I’m the most active and post stories every day about my life, every non-essential purchase I make, my Goodreads/Letterboxd reviews, my progress with my academic papers goal, and more!
I use Wealthfront for my high yield savings account, and if you use my link, we both get 0.50% added to their current APY for the first three months! The base APY at this moment is a whopping 5.00%.
All my Notion templates can be found and purchased here. Follower favorites are the Capsule Wardrobe Tracker and Digital Goal Setting Toolkit.
Here’s my Bento for all my links consolidated into one webpage!

See you next week!