Our Best Pandemic Purchases (so far)
We’re nearing the end of the year 2020 and the first year (in our lifetimes) dealing with a major global pandemic. We’ve been living that at-home life for nine months now—and I just realized the first quarantine babies are due right about now. Whoa. Anyway. Korri and I are extremely fortunate and privileged that we both still have our jobs and didn’t experience a loss of income (just didn’t get raises, which was to be expected). Because we haven’t been traveling like we would in a typical year, we have made a mix of smaller and a few larger purchases to improve life at home.
Here’s a list of our eight best pandemic purchases—so far—because it doesn’t seem like it’ll be over anytime soon…
Our Best Pandemic Purchases (So Far)
Korri upgraded our vacuum situation at the start of the pandemic. Our other vacuums (we each had one when we moved in together) are at least 8 and 15 years old and not working quite as great as they once did, so he splurged on a new vacuum. We opted for the Dyson V11 Animal cordless and LOVE it! It’s so incredibly nice to not have to deal with a cord.
I can do a quick vacuum over the whole house (two floors; about half hardwood and half carpet/rugs) on one charge, but we rarely vacuum the whole house at once and instead do it as needed in specific areas. It’s also excellent at picking up cat hair but my hair does still get tangled around the brush (to be expected I suppose, especially since it’s so dang long). Really hoping this vacuum holds up for a while!
The Dyson V11 animal cordless vacuum is available at: Dyson, Amazon, Best Buy, QVC, Target, Saks 5th Avenue, Wayfair
Loungewear and leggings
Loungewear is most definitely the clothing that defined 2020 for me. I’ve been working from home since March and have barely touched my “regular” clothes! I’m going to share my best and worst clothing purchases of 2020 next month, but overall, upgrading my loungewear and legging situation was one of the best purchasing decisions I made this year.
Some of my favorites are the Aliya Wanek Ami sweatshirts (reviewed here), Zella high waist studio lite pocket 7/8 leggings, and Zella restore soft lounge longline bra and matching leggings.
This was one of my biggest impulse purchases of the year, and I have absolutely no regrets! I first learned about Brightland from Grace and immediately ordered the Artist Capsule to try (I am an influencer’s dream). It features three flavors: basil, chili oil, and lemon and I love them all. They’re perfect drizzled over a salad for lunch. I’m sure I’ll be trying their other products soon enough!
Blogging tools and education
Honestly, throwing myself completely into blogging this year has been the greatest distraction from everything happening in the world. It gives me something to focus on so I don’t spend all of my time doom scrolling and spiraling (though there’s still a lot of that happening, too…).
I still put the vast majority (if not all) of the money I earn from this site right back into it. And instead of spending money on travel this year, I invested more into tools and services related to blogging as well as furthering my knowledge. After years of no growth (I hit my peak in 2016 and it’s been downward since), I’m determined to start growing again and making a real income. It definitely wasn’t a goal of mine when I first started blogging in 2013, but now that I’ve been doing it a few years (and because I put so much effort into this blog), I’d like to see where I can take this! (On a related note, I appreciate you for reading more than you know!)
Two of the services I’ve purchased this year are Tailwind scheduling for Pinterest (get a free month of Tailwind with my referral link) and Flodesk for email marketing (get 50% off your Flodesk subscription for life with my referral link). I also participated in every virtual conference/retreat I could (I love Thrive!) and signed up for various coaching and courses. One of my goals for 2021 is to invest in an SEO service since Google is a huge traffic driver for me and I’m not capitalizing on it as much as I should be because SEO is so overwhelming to me.
My new work from home situation means that Korri and I share a work space when he’s also working from home, and it was time for me to upgrade to headphones from ear buds. Korri owns these same headphones, so when I saw them on sale a couple of months ago I went ahead and bought a pair for myself! I purchased a custom color and love ‘em. The wireless feature is especially nice when I’m listening to a meeting or conference call and need to run into the “break room” (kitchen) for snacks or a water refill, lol. Also, Rosie doesn’t get caught up in any wires when she sits on my lap!
The Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones II are available at: Bose, Nordstrom
I’ve done well on my goal to use up my existing skincare products and purchased a lot of new goodies to try from Farmacy the past few months. I absolutely love their products, and the Daily Greens oil-free moisturizer is one of my favorites for sure! It’s been nice to pamper my skin a little bit with their products every day. Next up for me to try: Honey Halo ceramide moisturizer, Deep Sweep toner, and their new Whipped Greens oil-free foaming cleanser.
This is one of Korri’s most recent purchases. We’ve been complaining about our sore backs since the spring (I used to get massages regularly until COVID so my back is a painful mess), and he splurged on the Theragun Elite since we likely won’t be getting massages anytime soon. He also works out regularly and wanted it for recovery. He originally wanted the Pro but I convinced him otherwise (thanks to Grace’s review), which saved him some money, and honestly, I don’t think we could handle the Pro! The Elite is SO strong, it’s crazy. I’m convinced I’m going to bruise every time I use it, haha.
I have not had the chance to use it that often, but Korri is a big fan of it so far. Highly recommend it if you’re also missing massages and in need of something to loosen your muscles. I will say that it doesn’t seem that quiet to me? It’s touted as being quiet for a massage device but it still seems really loud to me. I’m not totally up to speed on the massage device market, though.
The Therabody Theragun Elite is available at: Therabody, Amazon, Backcountry, Best Buy, Bloomingdale’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods
This one is a bit of a cheat because we’ve been getting Green Chef regularly for over three years now, but we were especially grateful for it this year! It’s seriously been a lifesaver. We don’t have to go to the grocery store as often, and we’re eating way better than we would if we didn’t have it (the meals didn’t look great for three of the four weeks in September and it was so difficult for us to find the motivation to come up with meals besides our go-to favorites). They recently changed it so that you can get three or four meals per week so on weeks when there are a bunch of meals we love, we pick four!
Use my referral link for $55 off your first box, or contact me directly with your preferred email address to get your first box free!
I hope this list was helpful in case you have your eye on anything! Feel free to ask any questions in the comments. What were some of your best/favorite pandemic purchases?