The China Challenge - Monthly Update

I am a month into my personal challenge of not buying anything Made in China.  So far, it has been very easy.

I'm keeping a closer eye on what I spend my money on and I bought very little lately. No doubt this is true because, I am pretty tight with my money and I was feeling a bit of burnout after all the holiday shopping.  In January, we did our monthly food shopping, which came in under $500 and I did check labels.  All the food we purchased came from the North America including Canada and Mexico.

I also needed to purchase some zippered hoodies to wear during exercising.  My current ones are disgraceful or too warm.  I did value shopping and checked a few websites.  My go to site is Old Navy because they offer cheap clothes and free shipping to Alaska but what I usually buy appears to be  made in Indonesia.  Pretty close to China and probably a sweat shop.  I decided to buy a few used sweaters off of eBay.  Not sure where they were made in but because they are used, and I will be happy to recycle them until they too, are a shredded mess.  I picked out quality labels (Columbia) that I hope will last longer.  For the three used hoodies, with shipping, I spent $31.00.  In fairness, three new sweaters from Old Navy I would have paid $35.91 but I had a 25% off code, so it would have been $26.95.

So much for the saying, "Buy used and save the difference".  I'm not complaining though, I like knowing that I'm willing and happy to use what someone else doesn't want and hopefully the person selling the products were happy to make a sell and the income can help them out.  I'd rather support my fellow citizen than a huge corporation.  To keep the energy equal, I did send a few boxes of donation goods to our local charity.

That's it for January and barring any surprises, February should be equally as boring.  This may be the longest lasting New Year's resolution that I have ever made.

Lovin' life and feeling a bit smug.

The China Challenge

Total Days China Free - 31
Total Saved/Lost -$4.05