My Best Buys in 2020 (No Regrets)

With the year coming to a close at long last, I can finally create a list of some of the best things I purchased in 2020. Mind you, this didn’t happen overnight (my purse would have shrivelled in horror if I did that) and I took the extra measure to make sure what I wanted was also what I needed.

I had to take some time to think hard of what I actually bought for myself these last couple of months. I didn’t make any special list of items I bought to track my spendings because over the course of 7-9 months that we stayed dutifully indoors, time seemed to move ever so slowly and I might have forgotten some things that happened this year.

Of course, just because I wasn't outside most of the time in 2020, it didn't mean I had no plans of my own from indoors. I took myself online shopping for things I needed but had put on hold for a while. And they turned out to be some of the BEST decisions I’ve made in my two decades-ish of living on earth.

Let’s start!

1. New phone + Cute casing

Where do I begin with this one? Just before MCO started on March 17 (I will always remember this date), my old phone - a sturdy pretty Lenovo, had a "little" accident. For the first time in my life, I broke my phone when it crashed smack on the rough concrete ground as I was stepping out of the car. And out of all the two sides that it has, it fell on its glass screen. You can guess, it did break although the phone remained working but it made reading texts and typing almost impossible.

I decided to save up enough money to buy a new phone to replace the old one. I got myself a Realme 6 for roughly around RM1,300 about a month after the unfortunate incident and I haven't looked back since. I really love my current phone, I have bigger storage space, it doesn't lag, battery charging is a whizz and I can play a couple of games in here when I have the free time. The phone itself launched some time around March-May so when I had it, it was pretty new. Luckily for me, I managed to find a cute phone casing on Shopee for RM15.78 to keep my phone safe (lesson learned from my not-so-lucky Lenovo). It's the prettiest phone casing I've had and it's still intact on my phone!

Shop: weishiblue.my

2. Brand new laptop

Excuse the mess. I was so excited to open the box when it arrived!

This was perhaps my biggest purchase... like ever. It's not every day I fork out thousands of ringgit for a single purchased item. In my case, I was stepping into a new unknown territory and not going to lie about this, my fingers were shaking before slamming the BUY button. It was truly a thrilling and nerve-wracking experience but it had to happened (at least for me). I've longed to have a laptop that could balance between my work and my newly founded interest in gaming. 

The HP Pavillion Gaming 15-ec1036AX was one of the options I had surveyed before making the purchase on Shopee. It cost me RM3,599 which came with the laptop, backpack, free gift mouse and several documentations. I've been using this laptop alternatingly for almost over a month between my old laptop (still working fine but needs frequent charging) and I loveeee it. I got no issues using it for work and gaming was a total breeze. The only issue I have with it is how loud the internal cooling fan can be but since I mostly wear headphones, it doesn't bother me that much.

Shope: williamlee90

3. Makeup/Skincare Trolley

Supposedly, this trolley/rack (call it whatever you like) is used in the kitchen to hold bottles of spices etc. or small ornaments and books in the living room. But for me, it looked like the perfect item for me to organise my entire makeup, skincare and other self-care collections into. Initially, I didn't have a beauty table or special wardrobes to systematically store all of them. Instead, I had a small makeshift table to squeeze all my belongings and hoped they didn't fall off when I was going through my skincare routine. 

This trolley was RM49.80 (excluding postage) but I had a small discount from a sale in December (that was such a crazy month for shopping). I'm currently loving my choice for the white version because a large part of my room is already white to begin with and for someone like me with very poor creativity in decorating my room, it was no brainer to just stick to white. The trolley comes with other adorable colour options as well; black, pink and blue.

Shop: fnsstore 

4. Super large mousepad (I wish I'm overexaggerating this but I'm not)

Also featuring my current read: So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson, a truly great book. Might write about my thoughts of the book soon!

Since I've been working from home for the last couple of months, I tried to make it my mission to have my workspace as comfortable and pleasing to me as possible. My table used to be completely bare of any decorative or functional items save for my laptop, a wireless mouse, notebook and a water bottle. I couldn't stand any sort of clutter while I was working so I didn't think I needed anything else to help put myself in the mood to work. However, as time went on, I realised my wrists and elbows would hurt whenever I worked on my laptop for too long and I needed something to cushion them so I didn't get dark bruises on my hands and arms. 

I bought the "smallest" mousepad with cute cat prints that the store had (I think the biggest one would cover my entire desk!) and a cool night starry one for my mum as she also works from home. I absolutely do not regret getting them because it does add a little colour to my dull white table while I'm working and seeing cute illustrated cats... well, it's super therapeutic.

Shop: tamshow017

5. (Red) Headphones

At this point of writing out this list, I realised that I really lacked some things which I thought were essentials. If we're talking about headphones, I didn't exactly have one of my own unless you're counting the one I borrowed from my friend over MCO. I had some savings to spare for a good and decent headphones and after much surveying (this is super crucial for me, I can take a whole week just making sure I'm getting the right item. It's torture), I made an order for the Kingston HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset 7.1 through Shopee (again). I wanted a red headphones since it's my favourite colour, but alas, they were out of stock. I resorted to a black version with a simple splash of red. I like that I can choose to detach the microphone stick when I don't need it and nobody had anything to complain about the quality of my voice over calls and meetings.

Shop: sky2uonlinestore

6. Books!

When the most recent Big Bad Wolf book fair commenced earlier in December, you know I couldn't possibly miss it. I've been struggling to restart my reading habit again after months or maybe a year of not finishing a single book. I missed the feeling of reading, flicking through each page, letting my imagination run and then the best part, closing the book after finishing it. It almost feels like an accomplishment. 

I bought a total of 8 books (plus one, which I accidentally bought two copies of) and I'm currently reading two: So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson and The Lost Landscape by Joyce Carol Oates. Both are non-fiction which pretty much surprised me because when I checked the other books that I bought they mostly belong in that category. 

Shop: Big Bad Wolf Books

I think that pretty much sums up some of the best purchases I've made this year. There are others, like skincare and cosmetics but the items that I've listed here feels like they deserve their own post.

What about you, what purchases in 2020 do you not regret buying? Let me know in the comment section! 

And hey readers, thank you soooo much for following me this year and reading my posts, engaging with me. I had a blast in this platform, probably the best in all my years of blogging. Happy New Years!